What Microsoft founder Bill Gates said when asked: Why he couldn’t control his life

Bill Gates reportedly struggled with a highly structured lifestyle, seeking breaks in visits to Warren Buffett. His schedule, meticulously planned in five-minute increments, often led him to Omaha for respite. Gates later acknowledged the drawbacks of his strict routine. Gates’s office has contested claims made in a new book about his life.

Read More

Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, reportedly struggled to break free from his rigidly structured lifestyle, often seeking refuge in visits to longtime friend Warren Buffett. This revelation comes from “Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King: Bill Gates and his Quest to Shape the World,” a new book by New York Times correspondent Anupreeta Das.

According to the book, Bill Gates’s life was meticulously planned, with his schedule, “even down to his free time, broken down into five-minute increments.” This tightly controlled routine extended beyond work, encompassing “personal time, largely organised and arranged by” his then-wife Melinda French Gates.
When questioned by Buffett about his inability to control his own life, Gates reportedly offered little explanation. “When Buffett asked Gates why he couldn’t control his life and live it in a way he wanted to, Gates would simply shrug,” Das wrote. Buffett, known for his more relaxed approach, noted in an email, “Bill likes to have a schedule; I don’t.”
To escape his demanding schedule, Gates would occasionally fly his private jet to Omaha, seeking respite in Buffett’s company. These visits allowed for “freewheeling conversations” and a break from Gates’s “tightly scheduled life.” When in-person meetings weren’t possible, the two would play bridge online.

Gates has since acknowledged the drawbacks of his intensely structured lifestyle. In a May 2023 social media post, he reflected, “It took far too long for me to realise that you don’t have to fill every second of your schedule to be successful.” He added, “In hindsight, it’s a lesson I could have learned a lot sooner had I taken more peeks at Warren Buffett’s intentionally light calendar.”
The book also touches on the changing dynamics of Gates and Buffett’s relationship. Following Gates’s divorce in 2021, Buffett resigned from the Gates Foundation, and their friendship has reportedly cooled over the years.

However, a spokesperson for Bill Gates has strongly contested the book’s claims. In a statement to Business Insider, the spokesperson said, “Relying almost exclusively on second- and third-hand hearsay and anonymous sources, the book includes highly sensationalised allegations and outright falsehoods that ignore the actual documented facts our office provided to the author on numerous occasions.”