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Bill Gates Speech at First Commencement at Harvard
It is rather interesting to note how peculiar the speech made at Harvard’s commencement in 2007 was. It was astonishing how a school dropout could return to his former University and give such a persuasive speech. It is established that Bill Gates is the most successful dropout that is globally known for his acumen in business,” Harvard’s most successful dropout”. Bill gates certainly qualify to give such a speech in such a congregation that entails a consortium of academic brains or rather academic giants (Schwarz et al., 69). The Harvard’s commencement speech by Bill Gates was directed to students and is still encouraging students that “humanity’s greatest advances are not in his discoveries- but in how such discoveries are utilized to reduce the inequity.”Bill Gates uses his examples to assert his claims in his speech. The examples he uses in his speech are specific and aimed at reducing the big gap created by the inequity that is ever-widening around the world. He uses an example of medicine delivery into the impoverished countries and lacks the necessary tools or facilities to curb the impacts of the ever-increasing infectious diseases around the world. He makes use of rhetorical questions in his speech to capture the attention of his audience. Gates knew exactly what address to give to his audience who were mainly masses of students from different faculties and other successful academic giants that included lecturers and professors. He posed a question regarding how one can do good to other people that are less privileged and using the resources that they have. It was a question that left the people at the congregation nagging their thoughts concerning the speech. Gates uses his question to try and trigger some positive thoughts into the audience about giving a helping hand to the needy in society. The corporate social responsibility of Microsoft company’s CEO is well received by many in society. He gives back to the community that is needed, and he uses the resources that he acquires from his company. His emotional appeal in his speech is captivating to the audience and serves to ignite a good measure of compassion in the students in the congregation. Perhaps the students that are seemingly weak in class in the line of academics can have a conviction of working smart knowing that academics is not the beginning of the end of success and greatness in anyone’s endeavor.
Regarding his speech, Gates triggers logic and reasoning in his audience with the sole aim of trying to find sustainable solutions to the suffering communities around the world. The address is meant to remind the audience that the discoveries that are made every day by individuals should not be subject to self-improvement only or establishment of a self-credibility in the long run. It was meant to welcome the congregation in supporting the claim that the discoveries should be used to provide help rather than to be used in self credibility. In other words, the corporate social responsibility of any successful business is critical in that; it is giving back to the communities in the form of reducing the never-ending inequity that has since been widened by the changing world. Bill Gates reaches out to his audience in a well-crafted manner that is effective and also tries to establish his credibility in the long run. It is vividly shown from the time he begins to make his speech at the first commencement at Harvard University, his former University. He starts his speech with remarks that are perceived to be humorous and use explicitly some of the few satirical phrases “I am just happy that Crimson has called me ‘Harvard’s most successful dropout” (Bill Gates). As time went by, the speech becomes more intense and serious. He replaces the use of humor in his remarks with a more anecdotal approach. Gates describes how boring it was in Davos, and he claims that the global health panel was boring given the fact that he had just been in the event that saw an introduction of software for Microsoft company (Warner, 17). In this part of his speech, he portrays the universal nature of human beings as being impatient. He then continues to prove his credibility of speech by providing an alternative to being in Davos with an event that was dwelling in technology.
Gates speech provides significant lessons to the audience who are generally students. First, he gave a lesson that simple solutions can help solve complex problems. People need to turn their caring nature into actions that will see the inequity gap reduced by great folds around the world. Finding solutions to issues at hand is of utmost importance and putting it into practical concern is by far the most significant milestone in alleviating poverty around the world (Di Fabio, 503). Secondly, there is a need to seek stories that are related to human beings so that the innovations that you make are targeted at helping other people get out of the claws of poverty. A successful individual needs to think of helping at least one person in the world, and the millions of people will follow suit. Thirdly, one needs to push themselves to do a lot of things in life to use the returns of hard work to help other people around the world. Not every person is blessed to have more (Herro et al., 881). The cosmic balance dictates who will have and who will not. It is, therefore, the role of those who have more to give some to the less fortunate.
Last but not least, individuals around the world need to set their minds to know the full world not just exclusively within their states. Most people have problems out there that need to be solved or lest people die when a few successful individuals can help them. Gates refers to millions of people living in despair due to the vast disparities in opportunities, wealth, and health around the world. Gates further claims that he left Harvard without knowing they people are suffering around the world because of disparities among the people. The speech by Bill Gates was one of the most talked-about speeches around the world. Probably it is because of his figure as one of the wealthiest individuals around the world (Kroll & Kerry, 31). He started his philanthropy way after he left Harvard. He is surely a good example of good-hearted individuals that look around the world and try to find the needs that people crave and in the long run, help them with resources to get out of poverty.
References
Bill Gates Harvard Commencement Address 2007: Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPx5N6Lh3sw
Di Fabio, Annamaria, and Jacobus G. Maree. “Using a transdisciplinary interpretive lens to broaden reflections on alleviating poverty and promoting decent work.” Frontiers in Psychology 7 (2016): 503.
Herro, Annie, and Franklin Obeng-Odoom. “Foundations of Radical Philanthropy.” VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 30.4 (2019): 881-890.
Kroll, Luisa, and Kerry A. Dolan. “Forbes 2017 billionaires list: meet the richest people on the planet.” (2017).
Schwarz, Yannick. “Philanthropy and Political Influence: A case study on the link between symbolic capital, political access, and public perception of Bill Gates.” (2016). Schwarz, Yannick. “Philanthropy and Political Influence: A case study on the link between symbolic capital, political access, and public perception of Bill Gates.” (2016).
Warner, Jacob Paul. “Microsoft: A Strategic Audit.” (2019).