The Microsoft boss has revealed his ‘greatest mistake ever’ ended up costing the company $400,000,000,000.

Bill Gates kick-started the software company we’re all familiar with, Microsoft, with his childhood buddy and fellow Washington native, Paul Allen, in 1975.

In just four short years, the pals saw their revolutionary technology snowball with success, surpassing its first $1 million in sales before hitting public shelves in 1986.

Microsoft co-founders, Gates and Allen, post for a picture in 1984 (Doug Wilson/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Today, Microsoft Corporation is worth some three trillion dollars and Gates was considered the world’s richest person for various years – up until 2023 when he dropped to the sixth richest American and seventh richest person around the globe.

Still, according to Forbes he has a net worth of $103.8 billion and enjoys the philanthropic life through his private charity, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Yet that’s not to say he’s off the clock as the 69-year-old recently sat down with Eventbrite CEO, Julia Hartz, at an event by venture firm Village Global to talk all things business and the secrets to success.

It was here that Gates admitted he made one of the most costly mistakes of his career to the tune of $400 billion – which is an awful lot of zeroes to lose out on.

The businessman said the eye-watering blow all came to a head when tech companies raced to secure the second-best spot in the phone market after Apple, and Microsoft lagged behind.

He explained in the interview: “You know, in the software world, in particular for platforms, these are winner-take-all markets. So, you know, the greatest mistake ever is the whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is, [meaning] Android is the standard non-Apple phone form platform.

“That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win.”

Gates admitted it was a major ‘screw up’ (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Netflix)

Gates continued: “It really is winner take all. If you’re there with half as many apps or 90 percent as many apps, you’re on your way to complete doom.

“There’s room for exactly one non-Apple operating system, and what’s that worth? $400 billion that would be transferred from company G [Google] to company M [Microsoft].”

As well as the $400 billion loss, Gates said the screw up was ‘a super important one’ and may just be ‘one of the greatest mistakes of all time’.

Microsoft lost out in the battle of the phones (Getty Images)

According to Inc.com, Apple’s iPhone came into the public realm in June 2007, shortly followed by Google’s Android-based smartphone a little more than a year later, September 2008.

Meanwhile, the Windows Phone 7 didn’t come out until October 2010, leaving Android and Apple to dominate with 99.9 percent of the market share and blow other competitors out of the water.

While Gates said Microsoft is still ‘a leading company’, if it had landed the mobile spot after Apple, ‘we would be the company’, TechCrunch reports.

‘But oh well’, he shrugged.

The Bishop of Washington has defended her comments after she used her platform to make an emotive plea to President Donald Trump at his inauguration.

Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde gave a 15-minute long sermon on Monday (January 20), as the Republican was sworn-in to power once again – and for just over a minute of that she pleaded with the 78-year-old to ‘have mercy’ on the LGBTQ+ community.

Now, the bishop has insisted she won’t apologize to the president but that she does pray for him.

Speaking during the sermon, Right Rev. Budde said: “Mr President, millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.

Right Rev. Budde issued a ‘plea’ to the president (CBS News)

“And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labour in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals – they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”

Trump hit back at her after the service, branding it ‘not too exciting’ and that he ‘didn’t think it was a good service,’ concluding: “They could do much better.”

He also took to his social media platform Truth Social to slam Budde, even calling for her and the church to apologize to the ‘public’.

Following the backlash, Budde was invited on to NPR (National Public Radio) to discuss the incident.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to state there are only two recognized genders in the US (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I don’t hate the president, and I pray for him,” the bishop said. “I don’t feel there’s a need to apologize for a request for mercy.”

“I regret that it was something that has caused the kind of response that it has, in the sense that it actually confirmed the very thing that I was speaking of earlier, which is our tendency to jump to outrage and not speak to one another with respect,” she continued. “But no, I won’t, I won’t apologize for what I said.”

Within just his first 24 hours in the Oval Office, Trump signed off a number of executive orders, including a policy stating there are ‘only two genders’ alongside many orders blocking migrants from being able to enter the US.

Donald Trump has been welcomed into the White House alongside his wife Melania by the Bidens.

Today (January 20) marks Trump‘s inauguration ceremony, but before he’s sworn into office for a second time, he and Melania were invited to the White House by President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill.

It’s an age-old tradition that the president and first lady invite their successors for tea before the new president-elect’s inauguration.

Following their meet-up, the foursome will travel to Trump’s inauguration ceremony in the same car. It’s thought they usually travel in two separate vehicles.

With Biden being a Democrat, and Trump a Republican, it’s safe to say that the pair haven’t always seen eye-to-eye when it comes to politics, but they seemingly put any bad blood aside at today’s meet.

When the Trumps arrived at the White House, Biden said, as per PEOPLE: “Welcome home!”

Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Melania Trump seen at the White House (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

While Biden has hosted a tea ceremony for Trump and his wife, the Republican didn’t do the same for him when Biden won the 2020 election.

In fact, Trump didn’t attend his then-successor’s inauguration altogether.

Trump and his family quickly jetted back to his home in Florida instead.

Ahead of today’s swearing-in ceremony, Trump has made a series of promises about what will happen when he returns to office.

One of the most notable plans of his is to delay the TikTok ban, which briefly came into force over the weekend before the app reemerged on people’s devices.

Joe Biden’s successor Donald Trump is being sworn into office today (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

When the video sharing platform went dark for a brief period, users were met with the following message: “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.

“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”

And it wasn’t long until the app was working again, sparking people to suggest that the whole thing was simply a PR stunt.

One person said on social media: “This was such an obvious PR stunt to try to garner favor with Trump. They never had to take TikTok offline, and if they were legally required to, then nothing Trump said to them could have allowed them to restore service.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed similar sentiments in the run up to TikTok’s deadline yesterday (January 19).

Everything Trump has pledged to do as 47th US President

Immigration

In a statement during a rally at Madison Square Garden during his presidential race he said: “On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out.

“I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail, then kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible.”

Planning over 100 executive orders

It’s been reported by AP that Trump plans on preparing over 100 executive orders on his first day in the White House. Trump’s allies have reportedly spent time preparing documents that Trump can sign quickly, on issues such as deportation, school gender policies and vaccine mandates, without input from congress.

“There will be a substantial number,” said Senator John Hoeven, R-N.D.

Donald Trump will sign over 100 executive orders on his first day in office (JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Making hidden government files public

Including the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr., Trump promised at his recent rally in Washington D.C that, in a bid to increase government transparency, he will be making these disclosures in ‘the coming days’.

“And in the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

‘Make Greenland Great Again Act’

In a bid that has not gone down well with Greenlanders, taking to his social media platform Truth Social Trump said: “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.

“Greenland is an incredible place. The people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation. We will protect it, cherish it, from a very vicious outside World. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”

January 6 pardons

Trump’s loss in the 2020 election led to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in turn resulting in the arrests of a number of Trump supporters.

In an interview with TIME, Trump said that looking into the cases of the rioters’ will take place in ‘the first nine minutes’ of his time in office.

In a post shared on his social media channel, Trump said: “I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one, because a couple of them, probably they got out of control.”

Getting rid of birthright citizenship

Exactly as it sounds, Trump once declared he wanted to get rid of birthright citizenship, which immediately gives citizenship to anyone born in US. Noting that this may not be possible as it’s written into the constitution, he said he wants to achieve this by executive order – bypassing congress again – ‘if we can’.

Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 47th president (Morry Gash – Pool/Getty Images)

Cut federal funding for schools educating on ‘inappropriate’ topics

Speaking early last year, Trump addressed a crowd in Iowa and made plans to ‘save [the] country from destruction’.

“On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity,” he said, per NPR.

Trump also said he would target schools pushing ‘any other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children’.

Making the US the ‘crypto capital’

Back in 2021, Trump called crypto a ‘scam against the dollar.’ But four years on, he’s pulled a u-turn as he vowed to make the US the ‘crypto capital of the planet’.

On social media, Trump claimed crypto would be ‘mined, minted and made in the US’.

Both he and wife Melania released their own memecoins ahead of the inauguration, while experts previously predicted Bitcoin could reach up to $250,000 this year.

Be a ‘dictator’

In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity last year, he referred to himself as a ‘dictator’ when asked if he was promising to ‘never abuse power as retribution against anybody’.

In response, Trump said: “Except for Day 1.

“I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling,” he continued.

“After that, I’m not a dictator.”

End Green Deals

Trump has spoken previously about his plan to ‘terminate the Green New Deal’, which he dubbed the ‘Green New Scam’.

The Green New Deal was pitched by Democrats Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, but it was never signed into law.

Addressing the policies in a speech in September, Trump said: “To further defeat inflation, my plan will terminate the Green New Deal, which I call the Green New Scam. Greatest scam in history, probably.

“We [will] rescind all unspent funds under the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.”

“I’m going to write it out in an executive order. It’s going to end on Day 1.”

Arrange green cards for college graduates

Despite making his stance on migration clear, Trump has advocated for non-US citizens to receive green cards to stay in the country if they graduate from college.

During an episode of the ‘All In’ podcast recorded this year, Trump said: “Anybody graduates from a college, you go in there for two years or four years, if you graduate, or you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country […]

“Somebody graduates at the top of the class, they can’t even make a deal with the company because they don’t think they’re going to be able to stay in the country. That is going to end on Day 1.”

Scrap ‘electric vehicle mandates’

Trump plans to scrap Biden administration’s so-called electric vehicle mandate, referring to new pollution standards that incentivize auto manufacturers to increase production of electric and lower-emission vehicles.

Despite vowing to get rid of the policy on his first day, Trump told podcaster Joe Rogan the move could take ‘maybe two days, because it’s a little bit busy’.

Fire the man who indicted him

Trump faced two federal cases in relation to the 2020 election result from special counsel Jack Smith, and the future POTUS has no plans to work with him again.

Speaking on October 24, Trump told the Hugh Hewitt show he would fire Smith ‘within two seconds’.

“He’ll be one of the first things addressed,” he said.

Bill Gates has revealed his perfect response to a job interview question that would have most of us stumped.

And if you’re going to take career advice off anyone, it should be him.

The tech magnate is famed for co-founding Microsoft back in 1975, and some nearly 50 years on, he’s worth a huge $105.9 billion.

We all know the job hunt can be one hell of a rollercoaster.

From finding your dream role, to filling out all the details of a seemingly-endless application, only for it to end in rejection – it can be pretty disheartening.

Then, there’s the times you make it to interview, only to be let down with very little feedback.

Not to mention that job interviews themselves are a minefield, especially as answering just one question wrong could instantly get you rejected.

Some bosses even pull secret stunts in a bid to catch interviewees out, from the now-famous coffee cup test to the lesser-known ‘salt and pepper’ test.

But there’s one question you can answer in a way which helps you seriously stand out.

And that’s your salary expectations.

Talking about money during a first interview could be daunting – and while Gates doesn’t give an actual figure you should ask for, he explains how best to answer it.

Salary questions can be tricky to navigate (Boy_Anupong/Getty Images)

He advises saying: “I hope the option package is good. I’m able to take risk and I think the company has a great future, so I prefer to get stock options even more than cash compensation.”

He adds: “I hear some other companies are paying a lot, but treat me fairly and emphasize the options.”

Gates is showing he’s no pushover by exploring a number of options, even if they aren’t on the table.

And he’s proving he’s invested in the business by tying his earnings to his performance – which then, in turn, demonstrates his confidence in his own performance abilities.

This sentiment could easily be adapted for any company that has a bonus scheme.

For example, you could talk about how you’re dedicated to proving why you should earn 100 percent every quarter by giving the best output you can.

The question is a chance to show real confidence in your abilities (Drazen Zigic/Getty Images)

This shows that, while you’re here to make money personally, you’re also dedicated to performing for the company.

If salary was a cause for concern, however, it would be the case of checking what the average wages for similar roles are and basing it off that.

It’s actually become more commonplace for employers to include salaries within their job adverts.

In August 2023, job site Indeed reported that half of US job posts uploaded to their website advertised ‘at least some employer-provided salary information’- the highest share yet recorded by the company.