It is easy to assume that the names leading Fortune500 their days will be filled with continuous meetings, endless calls and dinners. But Bill Gates wishes he could learn how to make room in his diary early in his career, a trick Warren Buffett is well known for.
The Microsoft co-founder has been vocal about his work-life balance (or lack thereof) while leading the big tech giant.
But in a post on Meta Threads, Gates said he no longer believes a schedule is a guarantee of performance. Reposting an article about how being less busy can make you happier, he wrote: “It took me too long to realize that you don’t have to fill every second of your schedule to be successful.
“(Looking back, I realize that I could have learned this lesson much earlier if I had taken a closer look at Warren Buffett’s deliberately lightweight calendar.)”
The 68-year-old entrepreneur and philanthropist spoke candidly about his work life at Microsoft and what he would do differently if he had free time. Last year, while appearing on his own podcast. Untangle me with Bill GatesJoined by guest comedian Seth Rogen and Rogen’s wife Lauren Miller, Rogen Gates revealed that he once compared himself to others in terms of how much time he apparently wasted sleeping.
“When I was thirty or forty, whenever someone talked about sleep, it was like, ‘Oh, I only sleep six hours,'” Gates told the couple. “And the other guy says, ‘Oh, I only sleep five,’ and then, ‘Well, sometimes I don’t sleep at all.’
“I would say, ‘Wow, these guys are so good, I need to try harder because sleeping is lazy and unnecessary.’
Years later, Gates, now worth $154 billion, Bloomberg Billionaires Indexsays he has realized that good sleep is “very important” for brain health. This topic became even more important to him after the death of his father, Bill Gates Sr., who died at home in September 2020 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
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But Gates didn’t just push himself to the extreme—he expected his employees to do the same. Last year, Gates told Northern Arizona University graduates that at his age he simply “didn’t believe” in vacations and weekends.
He told the students in May: “I forced everyone around me to work very long hours. In the early days of Microsoft, my office overlooked a parking lot, and I kept track of who left early and who stayed late. But as I got older—and especially as I became a father—I realized there was more to life than work.”
Buffett Method
The turning point when Gates, a father of three, may have decided to change his schedule was when he learned how Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett managed his time.
IN Bloomberg interview In 2017, along with Buffett and Gates, who dropped out of Harvard University after three semesters, Gates said one of the lessons he learned from the Oracle of Omaha was the beauty of a flexible schedule.
“I remember Warren showing me his calendar. I was busy every minute, and I thought this was the only way to get anything done,” Gates said. “The fact that he’s so careful with his time…he has days when nothing happens.”
Business is not “evidence that you are serious,” Gates added. Before Buffett chimed in: “Basically, I can buy whatever I want, but I can’t buy time.”
In addition to traveling the world for charity, Gates now also devotes more time to hobbies such as reading and listening to music, as evidenced by the highlights he often shares on his GatesNotes blog.
Meanwhile, Buffett didn’t seem to have much trouble finding the balance. 2005’s feature Wall Street Journal reported that Buffett spent a significant portion of his day “reading and thinking” with the tycoon worth 135 billion dollars added in 2017 he “likes to sleep” and “has no desire to go to work at four in the morning.”