--- title: Bill Gates' Advice to His Younger Self Reveals Something About the Best Kind of Intelligence description: 'In Reid Hoffman''s most recent podcast episode, Bill Gates offered advice about hiring and management: Specifically, he advocates for hiring specialists.' authors: - name: Rob Wile url: https://money.com/author/rob-wile/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 191 covers: - Career Advice - Business - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/rjwile former_staff: true published: '2017-06-06T19:06:31.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T06:01:14.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - Bill Gates - career advice - Careers - Microsoft - podcasts - Reid Hoffman word_count: 360 canonical: https://money.com/bill-gates-advice-career-tips-intelligence-hiring/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Season 5](https://img.money.com/2017/06/billgatesadviceyoungself-cr-464249939.jpg) *Microsoft founder Bill Gates.* Bill Gates, the [richest man](https://money.com/think-bill-gates-is-rich-now-heres-how-he-could-become-a-trillionaire/) on earth and one of the [world's leading philanthropists](https://money.com/meet-the-14-billionaires-who-just-promised-to-give-their-fortunes-away/), has a lot of wisdom to impart to the masses. And thanks to podcasts, it's never been easier to access it. Reid Hoffman, the founder of [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/), [has a new podcast](https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=1227971746&mt=2&ls=1&_branch_match_id=391573348721892946) in which he talks to his friends, who happen to be the most important people in tech, about what they've learned along their journeys — and what lessons they can teach the rest of us. In the [most recent episode](https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=1227971746&mt=2&ls=1&_branch_match_id=391573348721892946#), Hoffman asked Bill Gates what he would tell his younger self about hiring. Gates' answer reveals something about the best way to position yourself in your career — and the best way to create a successful business. Gates responded by saying that he wished he had hired more people with a narrow but profound knowledge of a certain subject, like sales management. He thought he'd be able to handle something like that himself, but he was wrong. "I thought partly because of myself, or misperceptions of self, 'Hey I can learn sales, what is that? Profit and loss, you take sales and subtract the losses...Do you need to go to biz school? I don't think so,'" Gates said. "I didn't have enough respect for different deep knowledge. I didn't have enough respect for good management, what really good management is." It's essentially Gates' description of the [fox and hedgehog parable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog_and_the_Fox), most famously put forward by philosopher Isaiah Berlin. The fox is clever, knows a little bit about many things, and can survive in different environments. But the hedgehog, who knows a lot about doing one thing, can do that one thing extraordinarily well and end up enjoying a deeper level of success. While foxes merely get by, hedgehogs can accomplish incredible things that would be simply impossible if they were well-rounded. There remains [some debate](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/06/06/norm_macdonald_on_trump_satire_and_his_netflix_special.html) about which approach to one's career is truly preferable, but Hoffman and Gates both believe in the hiring of hedgehogs for certain positions. In many cases, a manager should not be looking for generalists, or jacks of all trades, but specialists who are at the top of their specific fields. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-advice-career-tips-intelligence-hiring/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Job Interview", "item": "https://money.com/job-interview/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Bill Gates' Advice to His Younger Self Reveals Something About the Best Kind of Intelligence" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-advice-career-tips-intelligence-hiring/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/bill-gates-advice-career-tips-intelligence-hiring/", "name": "Bill Gates' Advice to His Younger Self Reveals Something About the Best Kind of Intelligence", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-06-06T19:06:31.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-advice-career-tips-intelligence-hiring/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-advice-career-tips-intelligence-hiring/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T06:01:14.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Bill Gates' Advice to His Younger Self Reveals Something About the Best Kind of Intelligence", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/06/billgatesadviceyoungself-cr-464249939.jpg", "width": 3000, "height": 2000, "caption": "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Season 5" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rob Wile", "url": "https://money.com/author/rob-wile/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/rob-wile/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/rjwile" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-06-06T19:06:31.000Z", "description": "In Reid Hoffman's most recent podcast episode, Bill Gates offered advice about hiring and management: Specifically, he advocates for hiring specialists.", "abstract": "In Reid Hoffman's most recent podcast episode, Bill Gates offered advice about hiring and management: Specifically, he advocates for hiring specialists.", "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-advice-career-tips-intelligence-hiring/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T06:01:14.000Z", "wordCount": 360, "keywords": [ "Bill Gates", "career advice", "Careers", "Microsoft", "podcasts", "Reid Hoffman" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Career counseling", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career_counseling" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Job interview", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_interview" ] } ] } ] } ```