14 DAY TRIAL // In this week’s 60 Minutes Overtime feature on CBS, Bill Gates is not shy to let his emotions out speaking about Steve Jobs, his longtime rival, partner, and friend.
During the interview, Gates recalled his last encounter with Jobs before his death in 2011.
Visibly close to crying, Gates said, “He showed me the boat he was working on, and talked about how he's looking forward to being on it, even though we both knew there was a good chance that wouldn't happen.”
Pressed further to talk about their early years together, the Microsoft founder explained, “He and I, in a sense, grew up together. We were within a year of the same age, and we were kind of naively optimistic and built big companies.”
Asked what he admired most in Jobs, without hesitation, Gates said, “His sense of design,” adding that Jobs wanted everything “to fit a certain aesthetic.”
The former Microsoft CEO elaborated on the matter, as if to highlight that geniuses don’t necessarily need to be straight-A students.
“The fact that he, with as little engineering background as he had, it shows that design can lead you in a good direction. And so phenomenal products came out of it,” he said.