10 business secrets that Bill Gates applied to lead Microsoft to success

1. “To a large extent it was because we were living and breathing software, only stopping to eat and get some sleep.” Work tirelessly, set your goal and fight with determination to achieve it. Do not settle for giving 100%, go further and be the one who sets the limits.
2. “From the beginning we didn’t think about anything other than being successful.” Having a vision is much more than writing it, it is dreaming it, it is longing for it, it is fervently believing that it can be achieved. Do not allow anyone to steal your dreams for the world.
3. “We also made what turned out to be good business decisions, like focusing our early efforts on the Intel 8080 chip, even though in those early days they didn’t seem so good.” Make sure you make the right decisions. Do not be guided by what they will say or what others do. Analyze your possibilities, get advice and learn from experience to always make the best decisions.
4. “Sometimes we promised our clients more than anyone else could really deliver, but we could do it, because we stayed up even later, we worked even harder and it became a challenge to beat any impossible deadline.” Customer satisfaction and your commitment to deliver must be as strong as your desire for success. If you offer something, deliver it at any price, as this will multiply your chances of reaching the top in business.
5. “We were committed to doing things that people thought were impossible.” Never allow others to tell you that something is not possible just because they cannot do it. Break your own barriers and be you who establishes what can and cannot be done in your business.
6. “In the course of our history we have pulverized myth after myth about personal computers. At first few people believed that the PC would become an unprecedented success, but we did everything possible to make it happen.” There are hundreds of stories of people who turned the “impossible” into “possible” just for the power of belief. Believing in yourself, believing in your team, believing in your company is fundamental and will lead you to be the greatest.
7. “We remain informal in our personal relationships and avoid hierarchy where it didn’t make sense. Everyone could come into my office if they had a question or concern, an idea for a new product, or ideas about what our competitors were doing.” Avoid bureaucracy in your organization. Eliminate cumbersome or unnecessary processes and above all promote communication. Your collaborators should always feel the freedom to talk to you openly.
8. “We didn’t care how the programmers dressed or what expertise they had to run a board. All that mattered to us was creating amazing software. We felt that our excellence resided in our products, everything else was secondary.” Establish your own identity as a company. Decide what is important and focus clearly on it. Create a culture focused on product and service quality.
9. “We do our best to stay lean and efficient, using our resources wisely and avoiding waste, unnecessary expenses like first-class seats and expensive hotels.” Take care of your costs jealously. Maximize the intelligent use of resources and you will see how your profitability grows and grows.
10. “The most important aspect that we have not changed is this: We continue to hire smart people. There is no substitute for that and it is not as easy as it sounds.” Something similar said Henry Ford about always surrounding yourself with intelligent people and even “smarter” than you. That way you will be forming a winning team of collaborators.

And as a conclusion I leave you a phrase from Mr. Gates that elegantly sums up his lessons about success:

“Companies fail for many reasons. Sometimes they are poorly managed, sometimes they just don’t create the products that customers want. Yet I believe that the biggest killer of a company, especially in fast-changing industries like ours, it is the refusal to adapt to change. “

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