Bill Gates Chats with Ellen for the First Time

I'm so happy to have you here this is the first time having you on so thanks so I know you were you were nervous about the entrance you thought I think people feel like they're supposed to dance and so and I was really surprised because I was here earlier today for your rehearsal and then you abandoned it but we should at least show them the rehearsal because it was really good [Music] [Applause] [Music] day your daughter's looking at you like I've never seen you dance like that hi so the last time we saw each other

it was at the white house we both who are receiving the the medal of freedom and that was quite a day wasn't it that was an amazing group yeah really really fun so you are here with your daughter who is 21 right and you were 21 when you became a billionaire is that right almost yeah all right so I round that age you weren't you were like the youngest person to become a billionaire is that right yeah yeah in terms of my own earning it on my own yeah right okay so what's the most important

thing yeah so did you when you were a kid did you did you care about money or you just cared about technology and that's it just happened mostly I love software I do remember at the private school I went to there were other kids whose families were better off like they had a Porsche or something but it wasn't that that big of a deal my thing was that I just love doing software I loved hiring people and I was stunned when it ended up being so valuable really yeah you it surprised you yeah because I

always had to be careful that we wouldn't hire too many people I was always worried because I was people who work for me were older than me and they had kids and I always thought well what if we don't get paid will I be able to meet the payroll so I was always very conservative about the finances and then when we did go public what was I thirty by then then I was kind of stunned at what it multiplied out to right so when you became a billionaire at what point did you start relaxing were

you still nervous when you became a billionaire like I gotta watch this well I always wanted to have enough money in the bank so that even if our customers didn't pays for a year we could still keep paying everybody and do the R&D so I still be viewed as conservative you know there I don't have that many things that are extravagant tastes so didn't change too much so nothing really changed so you didn't say oh I'm gonna buy a Porsche I did yeah that was that was an indulgence and then eventually for my travel I

got a plane which is a huge indulgence so those are my two well not really because you travel all the times that's important that you have a plane so you have a portion a plane and that's it well in terms of crazy things yeah yeah there's not like any like wild like you didn't build like an aquarium with sharks in it or something like that we have a trampoline room in our house oh wow the kids like that indoor trampoline I recommend it just one giant trampoline yeah yeah it's a room with a very high

ceiling yeah that would be cool if you didn't put a high ceiling in there just go on kids all right so let's talk about this so you have you already put forty billion dollars of your own money into your foundation yep forty billion and and you've I think kind of encouraged other billionaires to do this as well because it really is kind of up to the people to fix the problems in the world it seems right so what is your main focus right now my wife Allen and I picked global health as our big thing

the fact that still we have five million kids who died under the age of five now it was over ten million when we got started so there's been huge progress over the last 18 years so things like malaria diarrhea coming up with new drugs and vaccines and getting them out to all the kids in the world that's our main thing our second biggest thing is all in the US which is trying to help improve the education system here yeah that which needs and how do you do that I always think you get what you pay

for so if you don't pay teachers because most teachers are paying out of their own pocket to take care of these students so how do you do that well there are some really phenomenal teachers and so the dream is that you could take that top 10% and have them help the others to get best practices the best teaching ideas to spread all over the country and and how would you know we're listening to you obviously 40 billion dollars does a lot and there are other people that are helping but how would what can what can

we do what what is the best thing that you could say that that just one person can do to help well particularly with schools the ability to go to the local public school or charter school and engage with the kids mentor kids talk about the kind of work you do there's huge opportunities there with the challenges say in Africa part of its people's voice there's a real question now whether the u.s. sort of takes this less than 1% of our budget that saves tens of millions of lives some other we part don't prioritize continuing that

so it's it's a hot debate you know in terms of is it good for America to be generous and and help the rest of the world live a healthy life well I mean the fact that you're helping so many people all around the world that you have this because that to me is what money we when you have that kind of money it's for it's like you that's the best thing you can do is actually you're making such a huge difference so I'm glad you're a billionaire all right you can learn more about the Bill

and Melinda Gates Foundation on the website and at gates letter com