“I Won My Mother in the Lottery”: Musk, Gates and Bezos - About Their Childhood Experiences
How childhood memories influence business decisions, why encourage kids to do what they can’t do, and how books can be the best educator - in a selection of quotes from Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and other entrepreneurs.
Bill Gates
Microsoft founder Bill Gates was born into a wealthy family. His great-grandfather was the mayor of Seattle and a senator, his grandfather was a vice president of the National Bank. Parents, William and Mary Gates, held high positions in large companies. “My parents always encouraged me to do something I wasn’t good at, like different sports like swimming, football or hockey. As a child, it seemed rather pointless to me, but in the end it helped to develop leadership qualities in me, ”he said.
Gates is sure that family traditions are of great importance when everyone gets together and shares thoughts or travels. “I was always able to calmly talk with other adults on various topics, because my parents shared their opinions about many things,” he said.
The billionaire believes that raising him was not easy. “I had a lot of energy and stubbornness in what I wanted to do. When I was in my last year of high school, I was offered a job, and for this I had to leave school. I was amazed that my father, after meeting with the director and analyzing all the information, said: “Yes, you can do it,” Gates recalled.
The entrepreneur has been fond of mathematics since childhood: at the age of 13 he created his first computer game. At the same time, at school, Gates was not an excellent student in all subjects: grammar was difficult for him, and he skipped physical education in a computer class.
In one of his speeches to high school students, Gates outlined 11 of his important life rules. One of them reads: “Do not rush to blame your parents for your every failure. Don’t whine and rush about your failures, learn from them.”
Richard Branson
Virgin Group co-founder Richard Branson was born in 1950 in southeast London to a lawyer and flight attendant. He was a very curious child and loved experiments. A strong influence on the character of the future billionaire was his mother Eva Branson, who had good intentions, but ambiguous methods of education. “For example, once, when I was four or five, she dropped me out of the car halfway to the house and told me to get further on my own,” the billionaire recalled. This approach taught the future entrepreneur to find a way out of the most unexpected situations.
Studying at school was given to Branson with difficulty due to dyslexia. “I would fail every exam. That’s one of the reasons I left school at 15," Branson said. At the same time, at school, the future billionaire quickly realized that there are areas in which he can surpass his classmates. During his studies, he managed to visit the captain of the football and cricket teams. He said that thanks to dyslexia, he learned to delegate authority.
He believes that he was able to start a business thanks to his mother. Branson said that in the late 1960s, near the house, the mother found the necklace and took it to the police. Several months passed, but no one filed a statement about the loss. In this case, according to the law, the one who found it became the owner. Branson’s mother sold the necklace for £100 (about £1,500 today) and gave it to her son. It was the entrepreneur’s first money for business development.
Branson himself added in his book: “I am grateful to my parents for not limiting my curiosity, but encouraging it. And they were allowed to do as I saw fit.”
Elon Musk
Tesla founder Elon Musk had an unhappy and lonely childhood. According to his recollections, he spent a lot of time reading instead of playing with other children. “Honestly, I didn’t have a happy childhood,” Musk said. But I have read a lot of books. Gradually, I began to understand more of what I read. I also watched a lot of films. It took me a while to understand things that most people understand intuitively."
The billionaire explained that he had difficulty communicating because he had Asperger’s syndrome. This is an autism spectrum disorder in which people often have very high cognitive and verbal abilities, but at the same time communication, socialization and building relationships are not easy for them. The withdrawn Musk had a difficult relationship with his classmates, the computer became his outlet. He learned to program on a simple Commodore VIC-20 home computer and at the age of 12 developed the Blastar space arcade game, selling which he earned his first $500.
Musk’s childhood passed in the Republic of South Africa. He was 10 years old when his parents, a Canadian model and a South African electrical engineer, divorced. The billionaire added that he “inherited his engineering skills from his father.” At the same time, he had a difficult relationship with him, and he hardly saw his mother because of work. “I didn’t have a nanny in the usual sense,” Musk recalled. There was a housekeeper who made sure I didn’t break anything. She didn’t seem to be looking at me. I made firecrackers, read books, built rockets and did things that could kill me. I’m shocked that all my fingers are intact. Books raised me. Books, and then my parents,” Musk is sure.
Jeff Bezos
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos believes that he owes everything to his mother. “I definitely won my mom the lottery. Thank you for absolutely everything mom,” he once tweeted. Bezos’ mother Jacqueline Giza was only 17 years old when he was born. The surname Bezos appeared in the boy at the age of four, when his mother, after a divorce from her father Jeffrey, married a second time - to Exxon oil company engineer Miguel Bezos. It was he who helped Jeffrey pay for his studies at Princeton University and gave his son $245,000 to open Amazon.
A big influence on Bezos was the time he spent every summer on a Texas ranch with his grandparents. Grandfather, Lawrence Preston Gies, was an early employee of the Defense Advanced Research and Development Administration (DARPA), created by the US Department of Defense. He told his grandson a lot of interesting things about the DARPA projects, and these conversations fueled the imagination of young Jeff and his passion for space. “Grandfather had an amazing approach to life - do everything yourself. Even when his cattle fell ill, he did not call the veterinarian, but treated himself. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate livestock, and do other housework. We also watched serials every day. I literally idolized my grandparents and looked forward to these trips,” Bezos admitted. Thus, the support of parents, grandfather with his fascinating conversations, work on the ranch,
Once every few years, Bezos took them on a road trip in a car trailer. One case is connected with these trips, which greatly impressed the future billionaire. Grandma smoked constantly in the trailer, and Bezos didn’t like the smell. Then he decided to calculate how much cigarettes shorten life. When the analysis was over, he announced to his grandmother: “Two minutes of smoking deprive you of nine years of life!” Grandmother, instead of praising the boy for his intelligence and mathematical abilities, burst into tears. “Then my grandfather stopped the car, took me aside and calmly said: “Jeff, one day you will understand that being kind is harder than being smart,” the billionaire recalled. For Bezos, these words have become a kind of motto for life.
Howard Schultz
Starbucks founder Howard Schultz was born in Brooklyn to a poor family. They lived in a low-income neighborhood, and their father, a retired military man, kept changing jobs to support his family. Schultz’s childhood was spent in instability, poverty, lack of prospects and fear of the future.
He recalled one episode from his childhood that had a strong influence on him. One day, Schultz came home from school to find his father “lying on the couch with a hip-to-ankle cast” from an injury at work. My father worked as a truck driver and had no health insurance. “I was seven years old, and it was a defining moment in my life,” he said. “I saw the American Dream shattered, and I saw my parents endure hopelessness and despair.”
At the age of 12, Schultz began delivering newspapers, then selling food in cafes, and at 16 he worked with fur, stretching the skins. According to him, it was a good hardening and strengthened his desire to achieve something in life. In addition, his mother was a good influence on him, talking about outstanding personalities who managed to change their lives. His mother taught him that “a good education and hard work will open the door to a better life.” This belief, combined with Schultz’s fortitude and perseverance, led him to create one of the most recognizable brands in the world.
Schultz said his father’s experience inspired his decision to provide all Starbucks employees - even those who worked part-time - with comprehensive health insurance. “An important lesson I want to share with all of you today is that social status does not determine the person and America’s prospects. It’s for everyone," he told Arizona State University graduates.
Sources: Elon Musk Ted Talk, CNBC, Rolling Stone, Forbes, Fortune, The Life and Style of Sir Richard Branson, The Virgin Way: Everything I Know about Leadership, Jeff Bezos Twitter, Bezos’ speech to Princeton alumni, Entrepreneur, Business Insider.