In late June, I had the opportunity to join with several of my fellow Berrett-Koehler authors to share our stories of open door opportunities. Our webinar host for the evening was Bill Treasurer, who recently released a book titled, Leaders Open Doors.
In preparation for the webinar, Bill encouraged us to talk about an individual who opened an opportunity door somewhere along our journey. It didn’t take me long to decide on the one person who not only opened a door for me back in the 80’s, but continues to inspire me today: Bill Gates.
If there is a standout quality to Bill Gates, it’s that he is a visionary. When I first began working with him at Microsoft, he was continually looking towards the future, spotting opportunities and avoiding the problems before they occurred.
To be able to spot opportunities is an art, and one that Bill excels at. Early on, Bill modeled that ability for me on a regular basis, whether it was grasping the future potential of the compact disc, or recognizing the need to adapt an organizational model.
It was the forward-looking ability that Bill taught me that opened the door, allowing me to see the potential for the new innovation that initiated my co-founding of Net Perceptions, and creation of a recommendation engine that is being used throughout the industry. In fact, our first customer of real-time customized recommendations at Net Perceptions was Amazon. The irony of that is not lost on me when I think about the fact that their recommendation engine is now recommending my book!
I saw Bill struggled as he transformed the organization of Microsoft from a functional organization into a general management organization. I followed the way he gave up an old model of leadership in order to make way for a new model that was more adaptive to Microsoft moving forward.
I recognized that it was difficult for him, but despite his struggle over the decision and subsequent changes, he ultimately accepted it, which paved the way for Microsoft’s growth in the 80’s. Observing his struggle caused me to understand that it was, and is, a natural part of leadership.
What Bill taught me was that when you embrace the struggle and begin to see the pathway that opens up for you, you get rid of the old model and start to make way for something new. That concept and experience became what is, essentially, the platform for Leadership and the Art of Struggle.
Thank you, Bill.
*This post is part of Leadership Opportunity Fest Blog Tour, hosted by Bill Treasurer. Watch the Leadership Opportunity Fest webinar here, find his book on Amazon, and then join us for the blog tour on as we celebrate leaders who open doors!
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