"Microsoft is #1" From Bill Gates, 1987
From: billg [mailto:billg]
Sent: Friday, April 17, 1987 b12:28 AM
To: Bill Neukom (LCA); 'frankga'; 'jeffh': Jeff Raikes; Jon Shirley; Scott Olson; Steve Ballmer
Subject: Microsoft is #1
As conservative as we are about self-congratulations and celebrating our achievements, I have to say, as today went on, I got pretty excited about the fact that we are now the number 1 software company in every respect (sales, profit, units, leadership, people...) In fact when I think of Lotus's statement at the introduction of their annual report where they say "there is increasing evidence that LOTUS is the preferred vendor, the preferred investor and the preferred employer," I think they are kidding themselves. We didn't just have somewhat higher sales that they did - we had $14M more in sales which puts us ahead for 3, 6, 9 and 12 months (I think). Of course their sales may go past ours again and it's not really our goal to be #1, but I do get a real kick out of the fight that their big distraction of being the largest is being taken away BEFORE WE HAVE EVEN BEGUN TO REALLY COMPETE WITH THEM. Actually, I found out these numbers about 5pm, so I've been enjoying it for only 6 hours and it will be a fact of no importance in a few days but I think it's really great.
More on Microsoft 30 Years - Going Beyond ->
When I was in high school, I started to know about who Bill Gates is from a Chinese biography book, but had no idea of the Windows 95 he was selling; When I was in college, I started to know about some outdated programming languages and how to operate on Windows 95 by some self-practice, but still have no idea of what it could really do to affect our daily lives; When I was in graduate school, I finally got some sense of those advanced programming tools and what pervasive e-business and digital lifestyle really mean to us in the foreseeable future.
The world is changing so radically over decades and the real values ultimately exist only in the critical thinking and insightful envisioning of our future. However, one great quandary so hard to break through I found in myself is that I'm inevitably always in the situation of accepting others' great ideas and fabulous works, and routinely repeating/remaking them to earn respects from others who might specialize in other fields or have never acquired such knowledge, but never, or rarely, having my own creative/innovative in-depth expert thoughts, that is, being hardly able to excavate essential adding-values in myself to the whole society, no matter how much or how deep it seems that I've already learned or heard...
Sent: Friday, April 17, 1987 b12:28 AM
To: Bill Neukom (LCA); 'frankga'; 'jeffh': Jeff Raikes; Jon Shirley; Scott Olson; Steve Ballmer
Subject: Microsoft is #1
As conservative as we are about self-congratulations and celebrating our achievements, I have to say, as today went on, I got pretty excited about the fact that we are now the number 1 software company in every respect (sales, profit, units, leadership, people...) In fact when I think of Lotus's statement at the introduction of their annual report where they say "there is increasing evidence that LOTUS is the preferred vendor, the preferred investor and the preferred employer," I think they are kidding themselves. We didn't just have somewhat higher sales that they did - we had $14M more in sales which puts us ahead for 3, 6, 9 and 12 months (I think). Of course their sales may go past ours again and it's not really our goal to be #1, but I do get a real kick out of the fight that their big distraction of being the largest is being taken away BEFORE WE HAVE EVEN BEGUN TO REALLY COMPETE WITH THEM. Actually, I found out these numbers about 5pm, so I've been enjoying it for only 6 hours and it will be a fact of no importance in a few days but I think it's really great.
More on Microsoft 30 Years - Going Beyond ->
When I was in high school, I started to know about who Bill Gates is from a Chinese biography book, but had no idea of the Windows 95 he was selling; When I was in college, I started to know about some outdated programming languages and how to operate on Windows 95 by some self-practice, but still have no idea of what it could really do to affect our daily lives; When I was in graduate school, I finally got some sense of those advanced programming tools and what pervasive e-business and digital lifestyle really mean to us in the foreseeable future.
The world is changing so radically over decades and the real values ultimately exist only in the critical thinking and insightful envisioning of our future. However, one great quandary so hard to break through I found in myself is that I'm inevitably always in the situation of accepting others' great ideas and fabulous works, and routinely repeating/remaking them to earn respects from others who might specialize in other fields or have never acquired such knowledge, but never, or rarely, having my own creative/innovative in-depth expert thoughts, that is, being hardly able to excavate essential adding-values in myself to the whole society, no matter how much or how deep it seems that I've already learned or heard...
posted by ZZ at
8:12 p.m.
2 Comments:
那本未来之路我也看过,后来被我爸当做礼物送给别人了,气死我也.....
By
Anonymous, at 5/19/2006 10:06 a.m.
呵，我说的我最初看到的这本书不是bill gates写的，好像是在那之前美国某一journalist写的传记的翻译本，开章好像叫西雅图的数学神童，记不清了，从那开始才知道微软。后来的未来之路这本书我爸也有翻译本带回来，扫了两眼，没看，呵呵，因为当时还看不懂。
BTW, take care of your neck，好像累得很最近。
By
ZZ, at 5/19/2006 4:04 p.m.
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