What I learned from reading Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace by James Wallace.
A few years earlier, there might have been great concern among Microsoft senior managers about the condition of Bill Gates when he showed up the next morning after a restless night before the launch of Microsoft Excel in New York City in May 1985, Gates had shown up for the big event without sleep, without a shave, and without a shower, he looked as bad as he smelled.
There was no need to worry this time.
Gates had been 29 years old that day in New York City.
Now he was a couple months shy of his 40th birthday.
The computer geek once ridiculed for his personal appearance had cleaned up, literally.
The personal changes in Gates had been as dramatic as the increase in his wealth, which was now approaching a staggering $20 billion.
Forbes had recently named him the world's richest individual.
He was also one of the world's most powerful.
He was so well known internationally that he conducted his own foreign policy calling on China's president and other world leaders.
During business trips, he socialized with Warren Buffett.
He played golf with the president.
He wanted to be taken seriously as a visionary, as a statesman, and as an adult.
But for all the changes, he was still very much that intense young college dropout who had founded Microsoft at age 19.
Neither marriage nor fame nor fortune had diminished the white hot competitive fire that consumed him.
That was an excerpt from the book I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Bill Gates and the race to control cyberspace by James Wallace.
As you can probably tell from that subtitle, this was a very old book.
This book was published all the way back in 1997.
And the way I found this book is because James Wallace was also one of the authors that wrote the book that I talked to you back, that I talked to you about all the way back on founders number 140.
And that book is called Hard Bill Gates and the making of the Microsoft empire.
It is one of my favorite books that I've read for the podcast so far.