‘There Is More To Life Than Work’: Bill Gates Delivers Emotional Message To Graduates About Learning To Take A Break
The billionaire spoke at Northern Arizona University as the 2023 commencement speaker over the weekend
By | EMILY RELLA | www.entrepreneur.com
Bill Gates spoke at the commencement ceremony for Northern Arizona University last weekend, where he doled out life advice to soon-to-be graduates about preparing for work-life balance in the “real world.”
The May 13th speech was creatively crafted as the advice he wished he had been given had he not dropped out of college, aptly titled, “5 Things I Wish I Heard at the Graduation I Never Had.”
The billionaire, who enrolled in Harvard in 1973 and dropped out in 1975, delivered a hard-hitting life lesson to college seniors about work ethic: Take a break!
“When I was your age, I didn’t believe in vacations. I didn’t believe in weekends. I pushed everyone around me to work very long hours,” Gates told the crowd, noting that in the earliest days of founding Microsoft, he would take note of which employees were working the longest hours daily. “But as I got older—and especially once I became a father—I realized there is more to life than work. Don’t wait as long as I did to learn this lesson. Take time to nurture your relationships, to celebrate your successes, and to recover from your losses.”
