Bill Gates (photo from Bill Gates’ Facebook page)
Even artificial intelligence wants to learn from Bill Gates: When the Microsoft founder sat down for an interview with British Prime Minister Rishi Sonk last month, the two answered questions generated by ChatGPT’s AI-like chatbot.
The bot asked Gates about the best advice he ever received, and how it affected his life. In response, the 67-year-old billionaire pulled out a few words from his old friend and fellow legendary investor Warren Buffett on the subject of friendship.
“Warren Buffett talked about [איך]in the end, the story is what your friends think of you and how strong those friendships are,” Gates said.
Gates and Buffett have been friends for more than three decades. Their shared interests extend beyond their wealth: the two founded The Giving Pledge, which encourages the world’s richest people to donate at least half of their wealth to charity, and are occasional bridge and golf partners.
Gates has previously discussed the lessons he learned from the 92-year-old Buffett, from investing to time management, but he topped the list with Buffett’s advice on friendship. “I have learned many things from Warren over the past 25 years, but perhaps the most important thing is what friendship is,” Gates wrote in a 2016 blog post.
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“Despite his hectic schedule, Warren still finds time to cultivate friendships like few other people I know,” Gates added. “He picks up the phone and calls to say hello. He regularly sends articles he’s read that he thinks I’ll be interested in.”
Buffett often talks about the importance of choosing good friends, and being a good friend yourself. It means surrounding yourself “with people who are better than you,” so you can learn from them and be inspired by them, he said in a conversation with Gates at Columbia University in 2017. “You will move toward the people you associate with.”
Gates agreed: “There are friends who bring out the best in you, so it’s good to invest in those friendships.”
Gates and Buffett have a combined net worth of about $220 billion, but they seem to agree that true happiness comes from true friendships. “When you get to be my age, you’re really going to measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to like you, actually like you,” Buffett said in a 2001 speech at the University of Georgia.
“I know people who have a lot of money, and they get hospitals named after them,” he continued. “But the truth is that nobody in the world likes them. If you reach my age in life and nobody thinks anything good of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is – your life is a disaster. It’s the ultimate test of how you lived your life.”
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