<story><title>How Hard Could it Be? Joel Spolsky recalls what it was like to work for Bill Gates</title><url>http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080701/how-hard-could-it-be-glory-days_Printer_Friendly.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>wallflower</author><text>My favorite billg story:&lt;p&gt;I actually heard this originally from my ex-boss when he was telling stories during a lull at his startup. A friend of his worked for MSFT in the 1980s; I was just thrilled that it was googleable as I had the gist of the story but not the detail in my memory.&lt;p&gt;&quot;What are the greatest business lessons Bill has taught you over the years?&lt;p&gt;Very early in my career at Microsoft, around February 1984, we found a data-crashing bug. I wondered if I would get fired over it. I went to Bill with the head of development. I was then the product manager.&lt;p&gt;It was a classic meeting. Bill was on the couch looking down. I explained that we found this bug and that we thought we were going to have to recall the product. He nodded, did his rocking thing and kept looked down. We were both wondering if we would get fired. Bill wasn&apos;t saying anything so my anxiety was growing.&lt;p&gt;I explained that we&apos;re going to have to recall the product, and that it&apos;s going to cost several hundred thousand dollars and be a hit to our reputation. Bill rocks and looks down. We didn&apos;t have anything else to say. I thought: Is this when the ax comes?&lt;p&gt;Then Bill looks up and says: &quot;You came in today and lost a few hundred thousand dollars. You come in tomorrow and hope you do better.&quot;&lt;p&gt;His expectation wasn&apos;t that we weren&apos;t going to make mistakes. He wanted to know that we took it seriously and learned from our mistakes. That&apos;s very motivating.&quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/06/25/raikes-bill-gates-tech-cz_vb_0625techraikes.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/06/25/raikes-bill-gate...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>How Hard Could it Be? Joel Spolsky recalls what it was like to work for Bill Gates</title><url>http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080701/how-hard-could-it-be-glory-days_Printer_Friendly.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jgrahamc</author><text>Actually this isn&apos;t about what it&apos;s like to work for Bill Gates, it&apos;s about Joel Spolsky and reflected glory.</text></comment>