Bill Gates is impatient

“I’m an optimist, but I’m an impatient optimist,” he said during his speech. “The world is not getting better fast enough, and it’s not getting better for everyone.”

Coupled with the $33 billion foundation that he has set up with his wife, Melinda, the new Gates philosophy is a radical shift from the world view he evinced during several decades as a fierce competitor in the personal-computer software industry. (New York Times)

A $33 billion foundation funded with one’s own fortune is laudable indeed. And a skeptic would wonder at which billion of his personal net worth Mr. Gates became impatient for the welfare of others.

More importantly, however, is figuring out -for oneself, mostly- what one can do when one’s impatience does not come with a $33 billion foundation.