Bill Gates’ most inspiring quotes as Microsoft billionaire celebrates his 66th birthday

Business magnate and software developer Bill Gates changed the world when he co-founded Microsoft in 1975.

In 2000, he, along with now ex-wife Melina, founded the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation which has aimed to prevent the spread of global disease, create scholarships, and provide grants for developing countries.

As a result, he’s got a lot to say on everything from the recipe to success, to how to change the world.

Here are 15 of the mogul’s best motivational quotes.

On success:

• “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
• “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”
• “Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.”

On philanthropy:

• “I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.”
• “Until we’re educating every kid in a fantastic way, until ever inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.”
• “We make the future sustainable when we invest in the poor, not when we insist on their suffering.”

On life:

• “Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you. Find yourself.”
• “If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.”
• “Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world. If you do so, you are insulting yourself.”

On business:

• “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
• “The ability of a successful company to add functionality to its product has long been upheld.”

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

• “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”

On technology:

• “I’m a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they’re interested in.”
• “The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life.”
• “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.”