Bill Gates Chats with Ellen for the First Time

I am very happy to have you here. This is the

first

time

I've had you, so thank you. I know you were nervous about the entrance. You thought I think people feel like they're supposed to dance, and that really surprised me. because I was here today for your rehearsal and then you abandoned it, but we should at least show them the rehearsal because it was a really good day, your daughter looks at you like she's never seen you dance like that, hello, so the last

time

we saw each other was At the White House we both received the medal of freedom and that was a great day, right?

It was an amazing group, yeah, a lot of fun, so you're here with your daughter who's 21, right? you were 21 when you became a

bill

ionaire, that's true, almost yeah, okay, so I rounded that age up, you weren't, you were like the youngest person to become a

bill

ionaire, that's true, yeah, yeah, in terms of earning it On my own, yes. Okay, so what's most important? Yes, you too when you were a child. Did you care about money or did you just care about technology? And that's what happened. Mainly I love the software. I remember the private school I attended.

There were other kids whose families were better off, like they had a Porsche or something, but it wasn't that big of a deal. My thing was that I loved making software. I loved hiring people and was amazed when they ended up being so valuable. Really, yes, it surprised you, yes, because I always had to be careful not to hire too many people. I was always worried because the people who worked for me were older than me and had kids, and I always thought well, what if? They don't pay us, will I be able to cover the payroll?

So I was always very conservative with finances and then when we went public, I was thirty by then? So I was a little surprised at how much it multiplied. when you became a billionaire at what point did you start to relax were you still nervous when you became a billionaire like I have to get this straight I always wanted to have enough money in the bank so that even if our clients didn't pay for a year we could still keep paying everyone and doing R&D, so I'm still considered conservative. You know, I don't have that many things that are extravagant tastes, so I didn't change too much, so nothing really changed, so you didn't say oh.

I'm going to buy a Porsche. I did, yeah, that was a treat and finally, to travel, I got a plane, which is a big treat, so those are my two. Well, not really, because you travel all the time. It's important that you have a plane, so you have a part a plane and that's it, in terms of crazy things, yeah, yeah, there's nothing wild like you don't build an aquarium with sharks or something, we have a trampoline room in our house oh wow the kids like that indoor trampoline I recommend just a giant trampoline yes yes it's a room with a very high ceiling yes that would be great if they didn't put a high ceiling there just keep going kids so let's go. talk about this, so you've already invested forty billion dollars of your own money into your foundation, yeah, forty billion, and I think you've encouraged other billionaires to do this too because it's really up to the people to fix the problems in the world. world, it seems right, so what is your main focus right now?

My wife Allen and I chose global health as our big goal, the fact that we still have five million children dying before the age of five and now there are more than ten. million when we started, so there's been a lot of progress in the last 18 years, so things like malaria, diarrhea, coming up with new drugs and vaccines and getting them to all the children in the world, that's our number one thing, our second thing. The biggest thing is everything in the United States, which is trying to help improve the educational system here, yes, what it needs and how it is done.

I always think you get what you pay for, so if you don't pay the teachers, because most teachers pay out of their own pocket to take There are some really phenomenal teachers and the dream is that you can take that top 10% and have them help others to obtain the best practices and the best teaching ideas to spread them throughout the country. and how would you know that we are listening to you? Obviously $40 billion goes a long way and there are other people helping, but how would we know what we can do? What's the best thing you could say? person can do to help well, particularly with the schools, the ability to go to the local public school or a charter school and interact with kids, mentor kids, talk about the type of work that you do, there are great opportunities there with the challenges, he says, in Africa, some of his people. voice, there is now a real question about whether the US In some ways, it takes less than 1% of our budget, saving tens of millions of lives.

Some of us don't prioritize continuing that, so it's a hot debate in terms of whether it's good for the United States to be generous and help. the rest of the world lives a healthy life well I mean the fact that you're helping so many people around the world that you have this because to me that's the money that we have when you have that amount of money it's for you. That's the best thing you can do, you're actually making a big difference, so I'm glad you're a billionaire. You can learn more about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on the website and at Gates Letter com.