It’s sort of amazing how Bill Gates is now accepted as just a dorky dad-like figure who travels the world doing good work. He is that guy, obviously: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation literally spends billions of dollars around the world to improve living conditions, access to education and healthcare across the board. They eradicate disease and pull people out of poverty. It’s amazing. But I grew up in a time when Bill Gates was also seen as one of the most cutthroat businessmen in the world. There’s a reason why he’s a billionaire and that’s because he steamrolled anyone and everyone in his way. Anyway, Bill Gates was in London last week to do meetings with British politicians, including Theresa May. He ended up chatting a bit to the Daily Mirror about his life, how he’s raised his kids and how much he enjoys fast food.
How he & Melinda raised their kids, Jennifer, 20, Rory, 17, and Phoebe, 14: “We often set a time after which there is no screen time and in their case that helps them get to sleep at a reasonable hour. You’re always looking at how it can be used in a great way – homework and staying in touch with friends – and also where it has gotten to excess. We don’t have cellphones at the table when we are having a meal, we didn’t give our kids cellphones until they were 14 and they complained other kids got them earlier.”
He’s not showy: Wearing an £8 Casio watch and assuring me that he had a “very nice curry last night”, the 61-year-old adds: “I’m big on pretty mainstream American hamburgers, McDonald’s, Burger King.”
Vaccination programs: “We are hoping this will be the last year any child gets polio. Because of the UK’s investment in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, 1.6 million people who would have been paralysed by polio are living normal lives.”
He’s optimistic about the future: “In 1930, only three out of 10 people could read. Today, more than eight in 10 are literate. As recently as 1950, three-quarters of the world was still living in extreme poverty. Today, that number is less than 10%. In 1990, one in 10 children died before five, almost entirely of preventable causes. Today, that number is lower than one in 20. The truth is, investing in the health and wellbeing of people in a poor country pays dividends far beyond that country’s borders. The UK’s foreign aid investments are long-term investments in the health and security of British citizens here at home. It concerns me some world leaders are misinterpreting recent events as reasons to turn inward.”
He says his wife & kids are the key to his happiness: “Having money doesn’t give you all the answers.”
Having money doesn’t give you all the answers… but money will still give you a lot of answers, right? I mean… money would solve a lot of problems in my life, in your life, in most people’s lives. But I understand what he’s saying and it’s a nice sentiment. Mostly, I find it amusing that except for the billions of dollars and the general consensus that he and Melinda are the most significant humanitarians in modern history, he lives such a low-key life. A $10 watch and a love of Burger King? Come on, Bill Gates is just like us.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
