Bill Gates ‘jealous’ of this quality that Steve Jobs had: ‘I’ll never…’

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft talked about Steve Jobs, the co-founder and former CEO of Apple and said that he envied his ability to be effortless and natural on stage. In an interview with Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast, Bill Gates said, “Steve Jobs was a natural. It was always fun to watch him rehearse because part of his genius was, when he would finally do it, he would make it look like he’s just thinking it up right there.
“I’ll never achieve that level,” he added.
Bill Gates said that he and Steve Jobs used to travelled the world in their respective capacities as representatives of Microsoft and Apple. At the time, their task was to convince individuals and organisations of the potential benefits that tools which made they made could make a difference.
“We even called it evangelization. Some people might not like that we stole a term of religion, but telling the story of the magic of software is something that – certainly by the time I was in my 30s – was a big part of the job,” he said.
The Microsoft co-founder said that he still copies Steve Jobs’ communication approach. He said, “A big part of the job I had at Microsoft and the job I have now is explaining what we’re up to in a hopefully straightforward way that connects with a particular audience. I like trying to explain things and I like getting feedback – what stories resonated or what didn’t connect.”
In their 2015 book “Becoming Steve Jobs,” Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli described how the former Apple CEO would often prepare for his speeches months in advance. Brent Schlender noted, “I once spent an entire day watching him run through multiple rehearsals of a single presentation, tweaking everything from the color and angle of certain spotlights to editing and rearranging the order of the Keynote presentation slides to improve his pacing.”
The author shared, “He just sat silently onstage with his chin in his hand, staring at the floor for nearly 15 minutes out of frustration with a wrong lighting cue. He didn’t yell this time but just made everyone wait while he cooled down.”