Melinda French Gates on risk, power, and why you need to bet on yourself
She is in the midst of a massive life transition. The future is still playing out.
Melinda Gates is a woman in full possession of her power. It hasn’t been a full year since she left the eponymous foundation she launched a quarter century ago with ex-husband Bill Gates. Now she’s pointing all of her time—and the $12.5 billion that Bill is paying her as part of that departure—in new directions.
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You probably know that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation reshaped modern philanthropy. The organization redefined both scale and ambition in giving, embraced data, collaborated with governments and other nonprofits in new ways—and inspired billionaires to step up. Imagine the challenge of walking away from that legacy.
You may also know that in 2015, Melinda launched her own purpose-related outfit, Pivotal Ventures, to invest in women and girls. This time, she set it up differently. For one, rather than naming it for herself, she named it for what she hopes it can be to gender equity: PIVOTAL. And, as an LLC, Pivotal Ventures is free to seed companies and make political contributions in addition to its philanthropic work.
To mark International Women’s Day, I invited Melinda into our studio to talk through some of the advice she might offer to her own daughters. I sat with a leader fully in the midst of her transition, her identity reconstituting itself as she adjusts to this new version of her life; she doesn’t know what’s ahead. Melinda shares much more about this in her new book, "The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward," which will comes out on April 15. What’s obvious is that she’s been through enough transitions to intuit that she can trust herself.
Here are a few things you’ll hear us on touch on:
Career Transitions and Trust: Melinda emphasizes the importance of trusting oneself during career transitions, even when it feels uncomfortable or foreign. She uses the analogy of a trapeze artist who must let go of one bar and trust that the next bar will be there to grab.
Mentorship vs. Sponsorship: Melinda distinguishes between mentors and sponsors. Mentors provide advice and coaching, while sponsors actively advocate for you, putting their reputation on the line to help you advance in your career.
Building Confidence: Melinda shares that surrounding oneself with people who believe in you is crucial for building confidence. She advises pushing away those who don't support you and leaning into the support of trusted advisors.
Role of Trusted Advisors: Melinda highlights the importance of having a personal board of directors—trusted advisors who can provide guidance and remind you of your strengths.
Creating Opportunities for Women: Melinda discusses the need for investing in women's businesses and supporting VCs that fund women and people of color. She also emphasizes the importance of having a diverse management team that reflects society.
Balancing Personal Growth and Leadership: Melinda believes that leaders must continue to learn and grow themselves to effectively lead others. She encourages asking questions and role modeling vulnerability to cultivate a learning environment.
Importance of Sports for Women: Melinda notes that playing sports can help women develop resilience, teamwork, and the ability to handle failure, which are valuable skills for leadership.
I Can’t Stop Thinking About This…
There’s a lot of talk in the New York Times this week about the imminent arrival of AGI—artificial general intelligence capable of understanding, learning, and performing any intellectual task that a human being can do. Ezra Klein speaks to Georgetown professor Ben Buchanan about the fact that the government anticipates it. Kevin Roose makes the point that it’s closer than we think. Both journalists harangue us with the ominous concern: we’re not ready.
They aren’t wrong: we’re not ready. We should absolutely take every measure to shore up our institutions, our businesses, and our government so that we can reap the potential rewards of this shift and more, so that we can survive the disruption it introduces. BUT.
This shift is not happening in some amorphous near future—it’s already happening right now. Daily on LinkedIn, I watch people I know announce that they’ve lost their jobs. Maybe you’re one of them. There are no familiar roles to replace them. There’s not always even a clear path to new skills that will enable future employment for many people. The anguish and concern people feel as they can’t meet the demands of their current living conditions will continue and amplify.
Work is so much more than a means to pay the mortgage. It is a path to dignity and often, the center of our identities. This is particularly true in the West, and especially in the United States.
One critical way we can prepare for this future, which often gets little attention from those working in business and technology, is by fostering a better relationship with ourselves. This goes beyond just introspection; it’s about actively engaging in deep self-awareness and understanding the core of what it means to be human in this new world. As we face unprecedented change, we must embrace the responsibility of redefining our value not only as individuals but as a collective species. This means confronting our insecurities, questioning our purpose, and learning to believe in ourselves and each other. If we fail to build this internal resilience and collective connection, we risk being left behind in a future that is driven not just by innovation, but by our ability to adapt and remain human.
