One is beloved, and the world was saddened by his death. But the other is merely admired, even though he is the world’s greatest philanthropist
The reason why Bill Gates will only be admired, not beloved, is that even when he is being the world’s greatest philanthropist, he is doing it for himself, not others. Pic/AFP
The most telling moment in a person’s life comes after they’ve died and people have to say things about them. Some believe one shouldn’t speak ill of the dead but if you’re watching, you can hear what people say or don’t say, who was beloved and who was tolerated, who was a giant and who was a pigmy, who had everything but was flawed and who was broken but somehow made everyone feel good.
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I’ve been thinking about two men, Steve and Bill, both legends, both visionaries who have changed our lives profoundly in our time. You know who I’m talking about: Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft.
Steve died a decade ago, a painful death from pancreatic cancer. The thing I remember most clearly about October 5, 2011, the day he died, was a friend’s Facebook post with a single big word that brought tears to my eyes — iSad.
I don’t know how or why everyone felt the way they did when Steve Jobs died but a sadness lay all over the world, as though something irreplaceable and valuable had gone.
Bill, only 65, is still alive and kicking, the world’s fourth richest man and its greatest philanthropist, having donated the bulk of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or BMG.
One day, though, like his buddy Steve, he too will go. How will he be mourned? Will a great sadness settle over the world?
I already know the answer: Bill Gates won’t be mourned as Steve Jobs was. Bill is admired but Steve was beloved.
And here’s today’s question — what makes a person beloved?
Steve and Bill were alike in many ways, both self-starters with world-changing ideas. Bill was a nerd and Steve was a geek. Bill came from wealth and privilege. Steve was an orphan, irreverent and confused. College dropout, student of drugs and mysticism. He footled around India in pajamas and kurta for a year but couldn’t figure out what he was searching for.
At Apple, he was charismatic, a perfectionist, a bully, abrasive — but always an inspiration.
His private life was chaotic: three children from his marriage to Laurene Powell but also an illegitimate daughter who he refused to recognize or support, Lisa, from a childhood sweetheart Chrisann Brennan. Despite his wealth from Apple, he paid them a paltry $385 a month after a DNA test established his paternity.
Yet he saw Lisa every week, and on his death left millions to her.
Bill became the world’s richest man by building Windows, an operating system that tried to give users a Macintosh-like interface. Steve hated that. “You’re ripping us off!” he shouted at him. “I trusted you!”
Steve thought Bill would have been a better human being if he’d dropped acid and visited an ashram when he was younger. Bill thought Steve was “weirdly flawed as a human being”.
When Gates donated the bulk of his wealth to philanthropy, I thought it was fitting atonement for a lifetime of making money on someone else’s idea. At BMG, they spoke of how driven and passionate he was. I revised my opinion of Gates. Maybe he had turned a corner.
Recently, he’s been much in the news. Ten days ago, it was because he and his wife Melinda believed they could no longer “grow together as a couple”. It sounded civil but make no mistake, Melinda was divorcing Bill. She no longer liked what she saw. Stories emerged of his infidelities and his connections with predatory pedophiles like Jeff Epstein.
More recently, he has been arguing that the COVID vaccine patent should not be shared to empower other countries to make their own supplies. At a time when the world needs kindness and philanthropy more than ever, Bill would restrict the technology so that American pharma may squeeze greater profits from it.
The reason why Bill Gates will only be admired, not beloved, is that even when he is being the world’s greatest philanthropist, he is doing it for himself, not others. He is a true capitalist; nothing is free, especially philanthropy.
Their vision statements are windows into their souls.
During Microsoft’s early days, Gates’ vision to the world was about sales — A computer on every desk in every home. Since Microsoft didn’t make computers, what he meant was lots of computers, all running Windows. Lots of money.
Steve Jobs truly believed that Apple would liberate the creative energy of human beings and take them to unscaled heights. The ad that launched the Apple ended with the line: “The power to be your best.”
When someone truly, deeply wants a better world, everyone understands. Your human flaws don’t matter when you have a vision for others. That, I think, is what makes a person beloved.
Here, viewed from there. C Y Gopinath, in Bangkok, throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai, the city that raised him. You can reach him at cygopi@gmail.com
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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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