1. Years and years of hard work precede success
Many of us, having heard that Microsoft was started out of Gate’s garage, would be tempted to think that he was a kid with no prior knowledge and managed to start a multi-billion dollar business from those little experiments done there.

But the truth is that, a quick read into his history will make you realize that Gates’ has had tremendous experience with programming and coding prior to even starting Microsoft.

It was his vast experience in the area of programming and coding that allowed him to build the first software DOS that launched Microsoft into its global position.

So before we start believing that overnight successes are possible, remember that even the richest man in the world did it through many hours of hard work; and so you must too, if you want to see success in your life.

2. Go where your passion leads
Bill Gates didn’t work extra hard doing programming because he was hungry to become a millionaire and he wanted to do everything he could do pursue that. He worked very hard because he was simply passionate about what he was doing. He found programming software to be extremely interesting to him and it motivated him to do more. Through that, it gave him the experience to set up Microsoft.

If you want to become a success like Bill Gates, don’t chase the dollar sign. Don’t go to opportunity after opportunity trying to find which one makes you the top dollar. This will only cause you to lose focus on what you want for your own life and set you up for a big fall.

Money is everywhere and there are many ways you can make it; the more important thing is that you follow your passion. Money will find you naturally.

3. Give back
Giving back to the community is an important act because it is a reflection of your character. Are you a giver or a taker? Do you exist in this world to become a blessing to the community, or do you expect the community you’re in to bless you?

The attitude that you adopt in this will determine if you will become a person of success or a person of significance. There are a lot of people who are successful, but few names are remember through time. The ones that we remember even till today are those that made a difference in the world that we lived in.

If you want to become a leader that people admire and respect, you must become a person of significance. People don’t follow you because you take from them; they follow you because you give to them.

Strive to live out a life that makes a difference in this world; give back more than what you’ve taken from society. Your life then will be a true success.

4. Take two “retreats” every year.
“Leave your office to develop long-range strategies.” Leadership transcends the tactical management and leads the strategic initiatives. A great way to refresh and refocus is to get out of the mold, so you can gain a different perspective on where things are heading.

5. Read books on other topics.
“Read books on topics that don’t pertain strictly to your business or industry. It’s the best way to maintain a broad perspective.” Leaders need to open up broad channels of input; you need to assess what other industries are doing as they impact yours. Microsoft did not attain its level of success by forgetting about their customers were doing. Their customers were small and medium businesses in healthcare, government, finance, and “mom and pop” shops, etc. All these other industries are intertwined with all the rest of the world.

6. Identify problems early.
“Identify problems early by tracking “exceptions,” such as sales figures that suddenly sag for a particular product. Jump on them right away.” Know what to expect and you will find anomalies. Once you found an anomaly, you have found a potential problem worth exploring. But, all in all, you need metrics in place to track anything.

7. Stop at the end of each day
“Stop at the end of each day to analyze how well you used it. If you wasted time on things you didn’t need to do, eliminate them tomorrow.” Just imagine how much more efficient and effective you will be!

8. On Vision
A leader should have the vision and that too an impeccable one. He should be able to see what might lie ahead in times to come. Bill Gates could “see” that the future of computers was in the software, not in the hardware. This made things easy for him as he now had well-defined targets to chase. According to Gates, most successful people have had a vision which has enabled them to make it out big in the world. A leader sans vision soon loses team and goes out of the race.