????微軟成為一家成功的公司后，在他的宏大理念：“人人桌上都有電腦”的指引下，蓋茨擴大了他的目標。隨后，蓋茨和他的妻子創立了蓋茨夫婦基金會（Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation）。他們有著遠大的目標，比如在地球上根除瘧疾。正如他在2007年哈佛的畢業典禮上所言：“梅琳達（蓋茨的妻子——譯注）和我面臨著共同的問題：我們如何利用手上的資源，為最多的人們做出最大的貢獻。”（習慣2：以終為始）。

????真正的法則意味著要用我們最好的時間來做最重要的事情，也意味著不要在“最好”這個概念上墨守成規。“每個人”可能都會說完成哈佛的學業對年輕的比爾?蓋茨來說是最重要的事。然而，他為自己的使命傾注了全部努力，不在乎好心人投來的反對目光。建立微軟后，他將全部經歷投入了兩件首要的事情：招攬最好的人才，努力開發幾款大型軟件；除此之外的其他任何事情都是次要的。蓋茨第一次在晚餐遇見沃倫?巴菲特時，主人邀請所有在座者給出自己心目中的人生中最重要的品質。如愛麗絲?施羅德在她的《滾雪球》（The Snowball）中所說，蓋茨和巴菲特都給出了同一個詞作為答案：“專注。”（習慣3：要事第一）。

????蓋茨與第四個習慣（習慣4：雙贏思維）的關系有一些復雜。乍看之下，蓋茨似乎是想贏怕輸的性格，一個兇猛的斗士，無比害怕公司垮掉，以至于還撰寫了一份“夢魘”備忘錄記下微軟垮掉的情形。行業標準的競爭中只能有極少部分大贏家和大量輸家，而蓋茨從來沒想過讓微軟脫離贏家的行列。不過更仔細地觀察之后，你會發現他很善于讓互補的各派結成同盟。為了達成雄心壯志，蓋茨明白微軟需要與其他巨頭優勢互補：善于制造微處理器的英特爾（Intel），還有個人電腦制造商IBM和戴爾（Dell）。他還共享了股權，如此一來，微軟取得成功時，微軟的員工同樣取得了成功。他還展現了將自己個人的優勢與其他人的優勢互補的非凡能力，尤其是與他的長期商業伙伴史蒂夫?鮑爾默。蓋茨和鮑爾默通過合作所作出的貢獻遠大于他們各自單獨能做出的貢獻。1+1遠大于2。（習慣6：統合綜效。）

????蓋茨轉向慈善基金追求社會影響后，他并未走向前臺說：“我已經在商界取得了成功，所以我已經知道如何獲得社會影響了。”完全相反，他帶來了強烈的好奇心，不斷努力著增長知識。他一直提問，試著掌握知識和方法，去解決一些最棘手的問題，用一句“我需要了解更多關于磷酸鹽的知識”結束了與他朋友的交談。（習慣5：知彼解己。）最后，我還驚訝于蓋茨自我恢復的方式。即便是在創立微軟的最緊張的那幾年，他也會定期抽出一整周時間用于閱讀和反思，這是個“思考周”。他還培養了閱讀人物傳記的愛好。有一次他對《財富》的布倫特?施倫德說：“一些人的人生成長軌跡令人驚奇”——蓋茨學到的這一堂課已經成為了他自己的人生寫照（習慣7：不斷更新。）

????蓋茨是一個很好的案例，不過我同樣也可以用其他人的經歷來舉例子。比如溫蒂?柯普。她是“為美國而教”（Teach For America）的創立者，希望借此鼓勵成千上萬的大學畢業生去美國服務水平最低下的學校，為孩子們擔任至少兩年的教師。它的最終目的是創造一股頑強的社會力量，從根本上促進美國的K-12教育（積極主動、以終為始）。我也可以舉例說史蒂夫?喬布斯住在一間沒有家具的房子里，忙于創造瘋狂而偉大的產品，沒空考慮購買餐桌或沙發這類似乎無關緊要的事情（要事第一）。或者舉西南航空公司（Southwest Airlines）赫伯?凱勒爾的例子，他創造了管理層和員工的雙贏文化。911事件后，所有人都聯合起來，保證公司連續三十年實現了盈利，每一個職位都得以保全（雙贏思維）。甚至是溫斯頓?丘吉爾，他在第二次世界大戰期間常常打盹，這讓他每天有了“兩個早晨”（不斷更新）。

????As Microsoft grew into a successful company, Gates expanded his objectives, guided by a very big idea: a computer on every desk. Later, Gates and his wife created the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with huge goals, such as eradicating malaria from the face of the Earth. As he put it in his 2007 Harvard commencement speech, "For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have" (Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind).

????True discipline means channeling our best hours into first-order objectives, and that means being a nonconformist in the best sense. "Everyone" might say finishing Harvard should be the most important task for a young Bill Gates. Instead, he aligned his efforts with his mission, despite any disapproving glances from well-meaning people. As he built Microsoft, he poured his energies into two overriding objectives: getting the best people and executing on a few big software bets; everything else was secondary. When Gates first met Warren Buffett at a dinner, the host asked all those at the table what they saw as the single most important factor in their journey through life. As Alice Schroeder related in her book The Snowball, both Gates and Buffett gave the same one-word answer: "Focus." (Habit 3: Put First Things First).

????Gates's relationship to the fourth habit (Habit 4: Think Win/Win) is a bit more complicated. At first glance, Gates would appear to be a win/lose character, a fierce combatant who so feared how easily a company's flanks could be turned that he wrote a "nightmare" memo laying out scenarios of how Microsoft could lose. In the race for industry standards, there would be only a small set of big winners, and a lot of losers, and Gates had no intention of Microsoft's being anything less than one of the big winners. But a closer look reveals that he was masterful at assembling complementary forces into a coalition. To achieve his big dream, Gates understood that Microsoft would need to complement its strengths with the strengths of others: Intel (INTC) with its microprocessors, and personal computer manufacturers such as IBM and Dell (DELL). He also shared equity, so that when Microsoft won, Microsoft people would win as well. And he displayed a remarkable ability to complement his personal strengths with the strengths of others, especially his longtime business alter ego, Steve Ballmer; Gates and Ballmer accomplished much more by working together than they ever could alone; 1 + 1 is much larger than 2. (Habit 6: Synergize).

????As Gates moved to social impact with the Foundation, he did not step forth saying, "I've been successful in business, so I already know how to achieve social impact." Quite the opposite; he brought a relentless curiosity, a quest to gain understanding. He pushed with questions, trying to get a handle on the science and methods needed to solve some of the most intractable problems, ending one exchange with a friend with a comment along the lines of "I need to learn more about phosphates." (Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.) And, finally, I'm struck by how Gates renewed. Even during the most intense years building Microsoft, he periodically set aside an entire week to unplug for reading and reflection, a Think Week. He also developed a penchant for reading biographies; at one point he told Brent Schlender of Fortune, "It's amazing how some people develop during their lives" -- a lesson Gates looks to have taken as a mantra for his own life (Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw.)

????Gates is a fabulous case, but I could have used others. I could have highlighted Wendy Kopp, who founded Teach For America with the idea to inspire hundreds of thousands of college graduates to serve at least two years teaching children in our most underserved schools, with the ultimate aim to create an indomitable social force to radically improve K-12 education (Be Proactive; Begin with the End in Mind). Or I could have used Steve Jobs living in a house without furniture, too busy creating insanely great products to get around to seemingly unimportant activities like buying a kitchen table or a sofa (Put First Things First). Or Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines (LUV), who created a win/win culture between management and labor, with everyone uniting together after 9/11 to keep its thirty years of consecutive profitability intact while also keeping intact every single job (Think Win/Win). Or even Winston Churchill, who took naps throughout the Second World War, thereby giving himself "two mornings" every day (Sharpen the Saw).