Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa September/ October 2019

BILL GATES Business and Real Estate Lessons from Bill Gates “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." M any people don’t associate billionaire investor, au- thor, philanthropist, humanitarian and American business magnate Bill Gates with real estate invest- ment. He is best known as the principal founder of Microsoft Corporation where he has held the positions of Chairman, CEO and chief software architect. He was the largest indi- vidual shareholder of Microsoft until May 2014 before he stepped down as chairman in February 2014. Today he still holds around 20% shares in Microsoft. Born and raised in Seattle in Washington state, Gates launched Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. Microsoft went on to become the world’s largest personal computer software company. Since 1987, he has been included in the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest people, an index of the wealthiest documented individuals, excluding and ranking against those with wealth that is not able to be completely ascertained. With a net worth that’s estimated to be in the region of $103,5 billion, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the second richest man in the world after CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, who is currently standing at top of the wealth pile at $110,7 billion. In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning to a part-time role at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the private charitable foundation that he and his wife Melinda established in 2000. Later in his career and since leaving Microsoft, Gates pursued a number of philanthropic endeavours. He donated large amounts of money to various charitable organisations and scientific research programmes through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported to be the world’s largest private charity. In 2009 Gates and Warren Buffett founded ’The Giving Pledge’, whereby they and other billionaires pledged to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy. The foundation works to save lives and improve global health and is also working with Rotary International to eliminate polio. The wealthiest people in the world hold a large part of their wealth in real estate and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, is no different. He has exactly the kind of real-estate portfolio you would expect from a billionaire. From a Washington mansion worth $123 million to multiple horse ranches across the US. Gates has also made several secretive purchases through his ultra-private investment firm, Cascade. “I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.” Gates is also rumoured to own Grand Bogue Caye, a 314- acre island off the coast of Belize in Central America, the largest island in that country. Grand Bogue Caye is home to pristine beaches, abundant marine life and excellent diving. It is reported that Gates purchased the island for upwards of $25 million. As one of the world’s richest billionaires, real estate investors could do far worse than to aspire to the type of wealth Bill Gates has. 8 Lessons for Entrepreneurs from Bill Gates 1. Move fast and keep innovating 2. Think ahead of the times 3. Your time is valuable 4. Learn from your mistakes 5. Persistence and perseverance 6. Take risks 7. Never give up 8. Focus on unhappy customers Real estate assets Aside from his business empire, Bill Gates has an insanely extravagant real estate portfolio. Here are some of the standout Bill Gates’ properties: Xanadu 2.0, located in Medina, Washington, is the official residence of Bill Gates. The colossal 66,000 square foot home is valued at $127million (as of 2018). This behemoth of a home took the world’s wealthiest man 7 years and a staggering $63 million to build. Not to mention the $2 million he spent acquiring the land. But it proved to be money and time well- SA Real Estate Investor Magazine SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 9

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