Amazing, Fascinating, Hopeful and Wonderful
My friend Tom shot me an email about seeing Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda
Gates' press conference on monday.
It reminded me of my desire to blog
about this.
Gates and Buffet are certainly great men and their commitment
to philanthropy is a wonderful thing to see.
What is even more fascinating
to me is their friendship which has been building for many years and has
culminated in the marriage of the two great fortunes built in the last quarter
of the 20th century.
Warren decided that he wanted to give the vast
majority of his wealth away and picked his friend, who he clearly admires, and
his friend's wife to do it for him. That is such an amazing thing to
witness.
Much of the talk has been about the vast amount of capital this
represents. And it is vast, so vast as to be beyond comprehension.
But I
would like to focus on the goals: To eradicate disease and suffering and to
improve education.
Simple, powerful, basic.
It makes me more
hopeful about the world we live in.
I think what Gates and Buffet are doing is both incredible and inspirational.
That said, the great irony of Bill Gates deciding to focus the rest of his time and money on eradicating viruses should not go unnoticed. ;)
Posted by: George Nimeh | June 28, 2006 at 12:55 PM
They are the Carnegies of their generation. Carnegie built the libraries and Gates and Buffet are taking it to the next step.
God Bless Them...
Posted by: Tom | June 28, 2006 at 02:34 PM
Simply amazing. I am sure Buffet's children are maybe just a little angry, but he is right when he says that his future generation will be better off starting from the bottom and making it to the top if they can.
In my opinion, I am sure they're still going to be OK in terms of finances. Extra 10+ billion dollars can go a long way.
Tom, you're absolutely right. The Carnegie of our time.
Posted by: Igor M (BizMord Marketing Blog) | June 28, 2006 at 02:56 PM
Bill Gates TRIPS, nobody notices. Shrewd.
Posted by: pp greg palast | June 28, 2006 at 03:01 PM
Makes me ponder purpose and personal goals...
Posted by: Luke | June 28, 2006 at 05:04 PM
Here’s some unintended consequences:
1. With the Gates follow up and documentation … lot’s of management gets involved. Did what’s promised for the gift happen? Assume 5% overhead (that’s low)… $12.5 million/month … 12,000 managers @$10k/month each? That’s an Army.
2. Organizations add overhead to meet the Gates-Buffett foundation management demands …. Another 12,000 managers to talk to the foundation managers.
[full post: http://www.stevepoland.com/ideas/2006/06/gates-buffett-foundation.html ]
Posted by: Steve Poland | June 28, 2006 at 08:44 PM
easy to tear it apart like stece is, bu remember the post
simple, powerful hopeful
That doesn't happen overnight and I believe. What a needed great first step. Good post. I agree
Posted by: howard Lindzon | June 28, 2006 at 11:09 PM
It's as if Bill Gates is a hero because he's a bazillionaire and he's managed not to directly kill someone. Is that all it takes to be worshipped these days?
To me, he's the guy that slowed innovation down drastically over the past 25 or so years, killed companies, killed dreams, broke countless laws, paid off countless politicians, etc. Am I missing something? I mean, Hitler was ruthless, too - does that make him a hero? Well, I guess it does - to a lot of people. I guess the same holds true for good 'ol Bill.
Bill has also got countless shady dealings in the 'africa/aids/drugs/etc' gambit. Maybe I'm just not into hero worship, or maybe I'm just into the truth, even if it's not what the powers that be want us to talk about.
Posted by: Peter | June 29, 2006 at 04:17 AM