Heading to the BBC

Heading to the BBC.

I'll be on the BBC in a little more than an hour as part of its “NewsNight” show. What are we talking about? Bill Gates.

What am I going to say? He's the smartest guy I've ever met. Read Joel Spolsky's “BillG review” meeting notes to get a little insight.

I've had two meetings with him in addition to the Channel 9 interview we did and that lunch that Arrington attended (I interviewed him once before I was an employee too).

In the meetings I observed how he dealt with things. First, he took lots of notes. Second, he figured out where we hadn't done our homework quicker than anyone else I'd ever known. Third, he asked more questions in a shorter amount of time (one meeting was scheduled to last 30 minutes, but went an hour-and-a-half, the other was scheduled for six minutes and I think it went to seven) than I've ever been asked in my life.

Some things I told him were repeated by him on stage word-for-word months later.

He is an extraordinary person. I doubt I'll ever meet someone like him again.

His attention to detail prepared me for the rest of my life. Last night we were presenting to a group of VC's and CTOs and CEOs and we were getting the same kind of treatment, but I noticed that there were 60 people in the room last night. I then understood why Microsoft often went up against the best in the industry and won.

Anyway, enough BS. If Bill were here he'd have called “bull” on me by the fourth sentence. My few minutes spent with him will always be among my most treasured memories.

There are tons of other stories about Bill Gates over on TechMeme today.  
[Scobleizer – Microsoft Geek Blogger]

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