Why giving away our wealth has been the most satisfying thing we've done... | Bill and Melinda Gates

2,934,395 views

2014-04-02 ・ TED


New videos

Why giving away our wealth has been the most satisfying thing we've done... | Bill and Melinda Gates

2,934,395 views ・ 2014-04-02

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:13
Chris Anderson: So, this is an interview with a difference.
0
13340
3607
00:16
On the basis that a picture is worth a thousand words,
1
16947
4068
00:21
what I did was, I asked Bill and Melinda
2
21015
2896
00:23
to dig out from their archive
3
23911
2207
00:26
some images that would help explain
4
26118
2098
00:28
some of what they've done,
5
28216
1436
00:29
and do a few things that way.
6
29652
2597
00:32
So, we're going to start here.
7
32249
3731
00:35
Melinda, when and where was this,
8
35980
2203
00:38
and who is that handsome man next to you?
9
38183
2034
00:40
Melinda Gates: With those big glasses, huh?
10
40217
2009
00:42
This is in Africa, our very first trip,
11
42226
2039
00:44
the first time either of us had ever been to Africa,
12
44265
1905
00:46
in the fall of 1993.
13
46170
1610
00:47
We were already engaged to be married.
14
47780
1988
00:49
We married a few months later,
15
49768
1706
00:51
and this was the trip where we really went to see
16
51474
2217
00:53
the animals and to see the savanna.
17
53691
1892
00:55
It was incredible. Bill had never taken that much time
18
55583
1988
00:57
off from work.
19
57571
1412
00:58
But what really touched us, actually, were the people,
20
58983
4627
01:03
and the extreme poverty.
21
63610
2608
01:06
We started asking ourselves questions.
22
66218
1573
01:07
Does it have to be like this?
23
67791
1804
01:09
And at the end of the trip,
24
69595
951
01:10
we went out to Zanzibar,
25
70546
1100
01:11
and took some time to walk on the beach,
26
71646
1488
01:13
which is something we had done a lot
27
73134
1366
01:14
while we were dating.
28
74500
1318
01:15
And we'd already been talking about during that time
29
75818
2973
01:18
that the wealth that had come from Microsoft
30
78791
1857
01:20
would be given back to society,
31
80648
1275
01:21
but it was really on that beach walk
32
81923
1574
01:23
that we started to talk about, well,
33
83497
1572
01:25
what might we do and how might we go about it?
34
85069
3533
01:28
CA: So, given that this vacation
35
88602
2732
01:31
led to the creation of
36
91334
2192
01:33
the world's biggest private foundation,
37
93526
2816
01:36
it's pretty expensive as vacations go. (Laughter)
38
96342
3132
01:39
MG: I guess so. We enjoyed it.
39
99474
2468
01:41
CA: Which of you was the key instigator here,
40
101942
2898
01:44
or was it symmetrical?
41
104840
2953
01:47
Bill Gates: Well, I think we were excited
42
107793
2393
01:50
that there'd be a phase of our life
43
110186
1467
01:51
where we'd get to work together
44
111653
2061
01:53
and figure out how to give this money back.
45
113714
6611
02:00
At this stage, we were talking about the poorest,
46
120325
3149
02:03
and could you have a big impact on them?
47
123474
2402
02:05
Were there things that weren't being done?
48
125876
1925
02:07
There was a lot we didn't know.
49
127801
1900
02:09
Our naïveté is pretty incredible,
50
129701
2088
02:11
when we look back on it.
51
131789
1092
02:12
But we had a certain enthusiasm
52
132881
1556
02:14
that that would be the phase,
53
134437
2997
02:17
the post-Microsoft phase
54
137434
2726
02:20
would be our philanthropy.
55
140160
2228
02:22
MG: Which Bill always thought was going to come
56
142388
2146
02:24
after he was 60,
57
144534
1136
02:25
so he hasn't quite hit 60 yet,
58
145670
1662
02:27
so some things change along the way.
59
147332
3193
02:30
CA: So it started there, but it got accelerated.
60
150525
2444
02:32
So that was '93, and it was '97, really,
61
152969
2520
02:35
before the foundation itself started.
62
155489
1738
02:37
MA: Yeah, in '97, we read an article
63
157227
2305
02:39
about diarrheal diseases killing so many kids around the world,
64
159532
3414
02:42
and we kept saying to ourselves,
65
162946
1614
02:44
"Well that can't be.
66
164560
1240
02:45
In the U.S., you just go down to the drug store."
67
165800
1754
02:47
And so we started gathering scientists
68
167554
2165
02:49
and started learning about population,
69
169719
2466
02:52
learning about vaccines,
70
172185
1360
02:53
learning about what had worked and what had failed,
71
173545
2387
02:55
and that's really when we got going,
72
175932
1906
02:57
was in late 1998, 1999.
73
177838
4377
03:02
CA: So, you've got a big pot of money
74
182215
2751
03:04
and a world full of so many different issues.
75
184966
2327
03:07
How on Earth do you decide what to focus on?
76
187293
4222
03:11
BG: Well, we decided that we'd pick two causes,
77
191515
2545
03:14
whatever the biggest inequity was globally,
78
194060
2860
03:16
and there we looked at children dying,
79
196920
2260
03:19
children not having enough nutrition to ever develop,
80
199180
2740
03:21
and countries that were really stuck,
81
201920
1499
03:23
because with that level of death,
82
203419
2260
03:25
and parents would have so many kids
83
205679
1968
03:27
that they'd get huge population growth,
84
207647
1518
03:29
and that the kids were so sick
85
209165
3126
03:32
that they really couldn't be educated
86
212291
2646
03:34
and lift themselves up.
87
214937
1872
03:36
So that was our global thing,
88
216809
1108
03:37
and then in the U.S.,
89
217917
2720
03:40
both of us have had amazing educations,
90
220637
2774
03:43
and we saw that as the way that the U.S.
91
223411
3049
03:46
could live up to its promise of equal opportunity
92
226460
3012
03:49
is by having a phenomenal education system,
93
229472
2585
03:52
and the more we learned, the more we realized
94
232057
2628
03:54
we're not really fulfilling that promise.
95
234685
2428
03:57
And so we picked those two things,
96
237113
1837
03:58
and everything the foundation does
97
238950
1652
04:00
is focused there.
98
240602
3014
04:03
CA: So, I asked each of you to pick an image
99
243616
2336
04:05
that you like that illustrates your work,
100
245952
2432
04:08
and Melinda, this is what you picked.
101
248384
3068
04:11
What's this about?
102
251452
1467
04:12
MG: So I, one of the things I love to do when I travel
103
252919
3031
04:15
is to go out to the rural areas and talk to the women,
104
255950
3110
04:19
whether it's Bangladesh, India, lots of countries in Africa,
105
259060
2598
04:21
and I go in as a Western woman without a name.
106
261658
2408
04:24
I don't tell them who I am. Pair of khakis.
107
264066
3409
04:27
And I kept hearing from women,
108
267475
1504
04:28
over and over and over, the more I traveled,
109
268979
2883
04:31
"I want to be able to use this shot."
110
271862
2409
04:34
I would be there to talk to them about childhood vaccines,
111
274271
2569
04:36
and they would bring the conversation around to
112
276840
2400
04:39
"But what about the shot I get?"
113
279240
1981
04:41
which is an injection they were getting called Depo-Provera,
114
281221
2452
04:43
which is a contraceptive.
115
283673
1981
04:45
And I would come back and talk to global health experts,
116
285654
2332
04:47
and they'd say, "Oh no, contraceptives
117
287986
1553
04:49
are stocked in in the developing world."
118
289539
2392
04:51
Well, you had to dig deeper into the reports,
119
291931
1990
04:53
and this is what the team came to me with,
120
293921
1776
04:55
which is, to have the number one thing
121
295697
2146
04:57
that women tell you in Africa they want to use
122
297843
3138
05:00
stocked out more than 200 days a year
123
300981
2617
05:03
explains why women were saying to me,
124
303598
1904
05:05
"I walked 10 kilometers without my husband knowing it,
125
305502
3552
05:09
and I got to the clinic, and there was nothing there."
126
309054
3309
05:12
And so condoms were stocked in in Africa
127
312363
2807
05:15
because of all the AIDS work that the U.S.
128
315170
2277
05:17
and others supported.
129
317447
1404
05:18
But women will tell you over and over again,
130
318851
1671
05:20
"I can't negotiate a condom with my husband.
131
320522
2610
05:23
I'm either suggesting he has AIDS or I have AIDS,
132
323132
4208
05:27
and I need that tool because then I can space
133
327340
2760
05:30
the births of my children, and I can feed them
134
330100
2417
05:32
and have a chance of educating them."
135
332517
2538
05:35
CA: Melinda, you're Roman Catholic,
136
335055
2050
05:37
and you've often been embroiled
137
337105
3569
05:40
in controversy over this issue,
138
340674
1954
05:42
and on the abortion question,
139
342628
2249
05:44
on both sides, really.
140
344877
1455
05:46
How do you navigate that?
141
346332
1691
05:48
MG: Yeah, so I think that's a really important point,
142
348023
3110
05:51
which is, we had backed away from contraceptives
143
351133
3083
05:54
as a global community.
144
354216
1167
05:55
We knew that 210 million women
145
355383
3294
05:58
were saying they wanted access to contraceptives,
146
358677
2259
06:00
even the contraceptives we have here in the United States,
147
360936
2640
06:03
and we weren't providing them
148
363576
2305
06:05
because of the political controversy in our country,
149
365881
3751
06:09
and to me that was just a crime,
150
369632
2177
06:11
and I kept looking around trying to find the person
151
371809
2765
06:14
that would get this back on the global stage,
152
374574
2350
06:16
and I finally realized I just had to do it.
153
376924
2006
06:18
And even though I'm Catholic,
154
378930
1671
06:20
I believe in contraceptives
155
380601
1441
06:22
just like most of the Catholic women in the United States
156
382042
2296
06:24
who report using contraceptives,
157
384338
1831
06:26
and I shouldn't let that controversy
158
386169
2285
06:28
be the thing that holds us back.
159
388454
1815
06:30
We used to have consensus in the United States
160
390269
1958
06:32
around contraceptives,
161
392227
1265
06:33
and so we got back to that global consensus,
162
393492
2480
06:35
and actually raised 2.6 billion dollars
163
395972
2644
06:38
around exactly this issue for women.
164
398616
2533
06:41
(Applause)
165
401149
5467
06:49
CA: Bill, this is your graph. What's this about?
166
409249
3856
06:53
BG: Well, my graph has numbers on it.
167
413105
1985
06:55
(Laughter)
168
415090
2118
06:57
I really like this graph.
169
417208
1817
06:59
This is the number of children
170
419025
2975
07:02
who die before the age of five every year.
171
422000
2562
07:04
And what you find is really
172
424582
1823
07:06
a phenomenal success story
173
426405
1950
07:08
which is not widely known,
174
428355
2154
07:10
that we are making incredible progress.
175
430509
2675
07:13
We go from 20 million
176
433184
2378
07:15
not long after I was born
177
435562
1704
07:17
to now we're down to about six million.
178
437266
3686
07:20
So this is a story
179
440952
2137
07:23
largely of vaccines.
180
443089
1667
07:24
Smallpox was killing a couple million kids a year.
181
444756
3124
07:27
That was eradicated, so that got down to zero.
182
447880
2190
07:30
Measles was killing a couple million a year.
183
450070
1840
07:31
That's down to a few hundred thousand.
184
451910
1703
07:33
Anyway, this is a chart
185
453613
1908
07:35
where you want to get that number to continue,
186
455521
4187
07:39
and it's going to be possible,
187
459708
1740
07:41
using the science of new vaccines,
188
461448
1676
07:43
getting the vaccines out to kids.
189
463124
1892
07:45
We can actually accelerate the progress.
190
465016
1724
07:46
The last decade,
191
466740
1563
07:48
that number has dropped faster
192
468303
1812
07:50
than ever in history,
193
470115
2278
07:52
and so I just love the fact that
194
472393
2723
07:55
you can say, okay, if we can invent new vaccines,
195
475116
2265
07:57
we can get them out there,
196
477381
1508
07:58
use the very latest understanding of these things,
197
478889
2485
08:01
and get the delivery right, that we can perform a miracle.
198
481374
4611
08:05
CA: I mean, you do the math on this,
199
485985
1158
08:07
and it works out, I think, literally
200
487143
1874
08:09
to thousands of kids' lives saved every day
201
489017
2126
08:11
compared to the prior year.
202
491143
2054
08:13
It's not reported.
203
493197
1847
08:15
An airliner with 200-plus deaths
204
495044
3246
08:18
is a far, far bigger story than that.
205
498290
2210
08:20
Does that drive you crazy?
206
500500
1549
08:22
BG: Yeah, because it's a silent thing going on.
207
502049
2991
08:25
It's a kid, one kid at a time.
208
505040
2670
08:27
Ninety-eight percent of this
209
507710
1463
08:29
has nothing to do with natural disasters,
210
509173
1877
08:31
and yet, people's charity,
211
511050
1477
08:32
when they see a natural disaster, are wonderful.
212
512527
1523
08:34
It's incredible how people think, okay,
213
514050
2236
08:36
that could be me, and the money flows.
214
516286
2776
08:39
These causes have been a bit invisible.
215
519062
3406
08:42
Now that the Millennium Development Goals
216
522468
2211
08:44
and various things are getting out there,
217
524679
1550
08:46
we are seeing some increased generosity,
218
526229
2844
08:49
so the goal is to get this well below a million,
219
529073
3271
08:52
which should be possible in our lifetime.
220
532344
2418
08:54
CA: Maybe it needed someone
221
534762
1180
08:55
who is turned on by numbers and graphs
222
535942
2096
08:58
rather than just the big, sad face
223
538038
2414
09:00
to get engaged.
224
540452
1655
09:02
I mean, you've used it in your letter this year,
225
542107
1723
09:03
you used basically this argument to say that aid,
226
543830
3451
09:07
contrary to the current meme
227
547281
1671
09:08
that aid is kind of worthless and broken,
228
548952
3083
09:12
that actually it has been effective.
229
552035
1953
09:13
BG: Yeah, well people can take,
230
553988
1980
09:15
there is some aid that was well-meaning
231
555968
3180
09:19
and didn't go well.
232
559148
1923
09:21
There's some venture capital investments
233
561071
1933
09:23
that were well-meaning and didn't go well.
234
563004
2900
09:25
You shouldn't just say, okay, because of that,
235
565904
2839
09:28
because we don't have a perfect record,
236
568743
3118
09:31
this is a bad endeavor.
237
571861
1532
09:33
You should look at, what was your goal?
238
573393
1870
09:35
How are you trying to uplift nutrition
239
575263
2608
09:37
and survival and literacy
240
577871
3404
09:41
so these countries can take care of themselves,
241
581275
1635
09:42
and say wow, this is going well,
242
582910
2004
09:44
and be smarter.
243
584914
1272
09:46
We can spend aid smarter.
244
586186
1840
09:48
It is not all a panacea.
245
588026
3412
09:51
We can do better than venture capital, I think,
246
591438
2932
09:54
including big hits like this.
247
594370
2787
09:57
CA: Traditional wisdom is that
248
597157
2743
09:59
it's pretty hard for married couples to work together.
249
599900
4048
10:03
How have you guys managed it?
250
603948
1616
10:05
MG: Yeah, I've had a lot of women say to me,
251
605564
1670
10:07
"I really don't think I could work with my husband.
252
607234
1859
10:09
That just wouldn't work out."
253
609093
2147
10:11
You know, we enjoy it, and we don't --
254
611240
3589
10:14
this foundation has been a coming to for both of us
255
614829
2486
10:17
in its continuous learning journey,
256
617315
2828
10:20
and we don't travel together as much
257
620143
2759
10:22
for the foundation, actually, as we used to
258
622902
1928
10:24
when Bill was working at Microsoft.
259
624830
1456
10:26
We have more trips where we're traveling separately,
260
626286
2223
10:28
but I always know when I come home,
261
628509
2142
10:30
Bill's going to be interested in what I learned,
262
630651
2139
10:32
whether it's about women or girls
263
632790
1743
10:34
or something new about the vaccine delivery chain,
264
634533
2686
10:37
or this person that is a great leader.
265
637219
2236
10:39
He's going to listen and be really interested.
266
639455
2467
10:41
And he knows when he comes home,
267
641922
1603
10:43
even if it's to talk about the speech he did
268
643525
1833
10:45
or the data or what he's learned,
269
645358
1742
10:47
I'm really interested,
270
647100
1242
10:48
and I think we have a really collaborative relationship.
271
648342
2900
10:51
But we don't every minute together, that's for sure.
272
651242
2674
10:53
(Laughter)
273
653916
4175
10:58
CA: But now you are, and we're very happy that you are.
274
658091
2495
11:00
Melinda, early on, you were basically
275
660586
3586
11:04
largely running the show.
276
664172
2001
11:06
Six years ago, I guess,
277
666173
1212
11:07
Bill came on full time, so moved from Microsoft
278
667385
2583
11:09
and became full time.
279
669968
1111
11:11
That must have been hard,
280
671079
979
11:12
adjusting to that. No?
281
672058
2036
11:14
MG: Yeah. I think actually,
282
674094
3054
11:17
for the foundation employees,
283
677148
1989
11:19
there was way more angst for them
284
679137
2547
11:21
than there was for me about Bill coming.
285
681684
1366
11:23
I was actually really excited.
286
683050
1206
11:24
I mean, Bill made this decision
287
684256
1619
11:25
even obviously before it got announced in 2006,
288
685875
2683
11:28
and it was really his decision,
289
688558
1702
11:30
but again, it was a beach vacation
290
690260
1886
11:32
where we were walking on the beach
291
692146
1304
11:33
and he was starting to think of this idea.
292
693450
2264
11:35
And for me, the excitement of Bill
293
695714
2612
11:38
putting his brain and his heart
294
698326
2709
11:41
against these huge global problems,
295
701035
2347
11:43
these inequities, to me that was exciting.
296
703382
2328
11:45
Yes, the foundation employees had angst about that.
297
705710
3734
11:49
(Applause)
298
709444
1675
11:51
CA: That's cool.
299
711119
2116
11:53
MG: But that went away within three months,
300
713235
1684
11:54
once he was there.
301
714919
927
11:55
BG: Including some of the employees.
302
715846
1665
11:57
MG: That's what I said, the employees,
303
717511
1273
11:58
it went away for them three months after you were there.
304
718784
2122
12:00
BG: No, I'm kidding. MG: Oh, you mean, the employees didn't go away.
305
720906
2320
12:03
BG: A few of them did, but —
306
723226
1901
12:05
(Laughter)
307
725127
1833
12:06
CA: So what do you guys argue about?
308
726960
1943
12:08
Sunday, 11 o'clock,
309
728903
2657
12:11
you're away from work,
310
731560
1421
12:12
what comes up? What's the argument?
311
732981
2513
12:15
BG: Because we built this thing
312
735494
1645
12:17
together from the beginning,
313
737139
3119
12:20
it's this great partnership.
314
740258
1646
12:21
I had that with Paul Allen
315
741904
1854
12:23
in the early days of Microsoft.
316
743758
1911
12:25
I had it with Steve Ballmer as Microsoft got bigger,
317
745669
2812
12:28
and now Melinda, and in even stronger,
318
748481
3004
12:31
equal ways, is the partner,
319
751485
1886
12:33
so we talk a lot about
320
753371
1757
12:35
which things should we give more to,
321
755128
2128
12:37
which groups are working well?
322
757256
2544
12:39
She's got a lot of insight.
323
759800
1253
12:41
She'll sit down with the employees a lot.
324
761053
1647
12:42
We'll take the different trips she described.
325
762700
2116
12:44
So there's a lot of collaboration.
326
764816
3617
12:48
I can't think of anything where one of us
327
768433
1976
12:50
had a super strong opinion
328
770409
3270
12:53
about one thing or another?
329
773679
1836
12:55
CA: How about you, Melinda, though? Can you? (Laughter)
330
775515
2802
12:58
You never know.
331
778317
1216
12:59
MG: Well, here's the thing.
332
779533
1526
13:01
We come at things from different angles,
333
781059
1739
13:02
and I actually think that's really good.
334
782798
1932
13:04
So Bill can look at the big data
335
784730
2008
13:06
and say, "I want to act based on these global statistics."
336
786738
3012
13:09
For me, I come at it from intuition.
337
789750
1866
13:11
I meet with lots of people on the ground
338
791616
1933
13:13
and Bill's taught me to take that
339
793549
1980
13:15
and read up to the global data and see if they match,
340
795529
2623
13:18
and I think what I've taught him
341
798152
1089
13:19
is to take that data
342
799241
1428
13:20
and meet with people on the ground to understand,
343
800669
1614
13:22
can you actually deliver that vaccine?
344
802283
2384
13:24
Can you get a woman to accept those polio drops
345
804667
3201
13:27
in her child's mouth?
346
807868
1330
13:29
Because the delivery piece
347
809198
1558
13:30
is every bit as important as the science.
348
810756
2203
13:32
So I think it's been more a coming to over time
349
812959
2522
13:35
towards each other's point of view,
350
815481
1295
13:36
and quite frankly, the work is better because of it.
351
816776
3270
13:40
CA: So, in vaccines and polio and so forth,
352
820046
2273
13:42
you've had some amazing successes.
353
822319
3799
13:46
What about failure, though?
354
826118
1232
13:47
Can you talk about a failure
355
827350
1691
13:49
and maybe what you've learned from it?
356
829041
2096
13:51
BG: Yeah. Fortunately, we can afford a few failures,
357
831137
2568
13:53
because we've certainly had them.
358
833705
2137
13:55
We do a lot of drug work or vaccine work
359
835842
4374
14:00
that you know you're going to have different failures.
360
840216
3276
14:03
Like, we put out, one that got a lot of publicity
361
843492
2227
14:05
was asking for a better condom.
362
845719
1301
14:07
Well, we got hundreds of ideas.
363
847020
1494
14:08
Maybe a few of those will work out.
364
848514
3194
14:11
We were very naïve, certainly I was, about a drug
365
851708
3379
14:15
for a disease in India, visceral leishmaniasis,
366
855087
2616
14:17
that I thought, once I got this drug,
367
857703
1651
14:19
we can just go wipe out the disease.
368
859354
1356
14:20
Well, turns out it took an injection
369
860710
2580
14:23
every day for 10 days.
370
863290
1636
14:24
It took three more years to get it than we expected,
371
864926
2387
14:27
and then there was no way
372
867313
1458
14:28
it was going to get out there.
373
868771
2368
14:31
Fortunately, we found out
374
871139
1219
14:32
that if you go kill the sand flies,
375
872358
3162
14:35
you probably can have success there,
376
875520
2122
14:37
but we spent five years,
377
877642
1855
14:39
you could say wasted five years,
378
879497
1378
14:40
and about 60 million,
379
880875
2007
14:42
on a path that turned out to have
380
882882
1340
14:44
very modest benefit when we got there.
381
884222
4165
14:48
CA: You're spending, like, a billion dollars a year
382
888387
3444
14:51
in education, I think, something like that.
383
891831
1935
14:53
Is anything, the story of what's gone right there
384
893766
4024
14:57
is quite a long and complex one.
385
897790
2456
15:00
Are there any failures that you can talk about?
386
900246
3922
15:04
MG: Well, I would say a huge lesson for us
387
904168
1790
15:05
out of the early work is we thought
388
905958
1248
15:07
that these small schools were the answer,
389
907206
2533
15:09
and small schools definitely help.
390
909739
1470
15:11
They bring down the dropout rate.
391
911209
1524
15:12
They have less violence and crime in those schools.
392
912733
2600
15:15
But the thing that we learned from that work,
393
915333
2146
15:17
and what turned out to be the fundamental key,
394
917479
2534
15:20
is a great teacher in front of the classroom.
395
920013
2064
15:22
If you don't have an effective teacher
396
922077
1607
15:23
in the front of the classroom,
397
923684
1066
15:24
I don't care how big or small the building is,
398
924750
2156
15:26
you're not going to change the trajectory
399
926906
1654
15:28
of whether that student will be ready for college.
400
928560
1953
15:30
(Applause)
401
930513
4595
15:35
CA: So Melinda, this is you and
402
935108
2310
15:37
your eldest daughter, Jenn.
403
937418
3554
15:40
And just taken about three weeks ago, I think,
404
940972
1899
15:42
three or four weeks ago. Where was this?
405
942871
1584
15:44
MG: So we went to Tanzania.
406
944455
1756
15:46
Jenn's been to Tanzania.
407
946211
842
15:47
All our kids have been to Africa quite a bit, actually.
408
947053
2703
15:49
And we did something very different,
409
949756
2215
15:51
which is, we decided to go spend
410
951971
1827
15:53
two nights and three days with a family.
411
953798
2419
15:56
Anna and Sanare are the parents.
412
956217
3101
15:59
They invited us to come and stay in their boma.
413
959318
3034
16:02
Actually, the goats had been there, I think,
414
962352
1499
16:03
living in that particular little hut
415
963851
1399
16:05
on their little compound before we got there.
416
965250
2671
16:07
And we stayed with their family,
417
967921
1498
16:09
and we really, really learned
418
969419
1934
16:11
what life is like in rural Tanzania.
419
971353
1853
16:13
And the difference between just going
420
973206
1614
16:14
and visiting for half a day
421
974820
1719
16:16
or three quarters of a day
422
976539
1462
16:18
versus staying overnight was profound,
423
978001
2398
16:20
and so let me just give you one explanation of that.
424
980399
3491
16:23
They had six children, and as I talked to Anna
425
983890
2129
16:26
in the kitchen, we cooked for about five hours
426
986019
1775
16:27
in the cooking hut that day,
427
987794
1643
16:29
and as I talked to her, she had absolutely planned
428
989437
1811
16:31
and spaced with her husband
429
991248
1470
16:32
the births of their children.
430
992718
1437
16:34
It was a very loving relationship.
431
994155
1655
16:35
This was a Maasai warrior and his wife,
432
995810
2303
16:38
but they had decided to get married,
433
998113
1909
16:40
they clearly had respect and love in the relationship.
434
1000022
3335
16:43
Their children, their six children,
435
1003357
1611
16:44
the two in the middle were twins, 13,
436
1004968
2519
16:47
a boy, and a girl named Grace.
437
1007487
2253
16:49
And when we'd go out to chop wood
438
1009740
1573
16:51
and do all the things that Grace and her mother would do,
439
1011313
2435
16:53
Grace was not a child, she was an adolescent,
440
1013748
2592
16:56
but she wasn't an adult.
441
1016340
1477
16:57
She was very, very shy.
442
1017817
1751
16:59
So she kept wanting to talk to me and Jenn.
443
1019568
1761
17:01
We kept trying to engage her, but she was shy.
444
1021329
2835
17:04
And at night, though,
445
1024164
1606
17:05
when all the lights went out in rural Tanzania,
446
1025770
2807
17:08
and there was no moon that night,
447
1028577
1504
17:10
the first night, and no stars,
448
1030081
1722
17:11
and Jenn came out of our hut
449
1031803
1826
17:13
with her REI little headlamp on,
450
1033629
2817
17:16
Grace went immediately,
451
1036446
2138
17:18
and got the translator,
452
1038584
1356
17:19
came straight up to my Jenn and said,
453
1039940
2090
17:22
"When you go home,
454
1042030
1233
17:23
can I have your headlamp
455
1043263
1175
17:24
so I can study at night?"
456
1044438
1730
17:26
CA: Oh, wow.
457
1046168
1082
17:27
MG: And her dad had told me
458
1047250
1484
17:28
how afraid he was that unlike the son,
459
1048734
2087
17:30
who had passed his secondary exams,
460
1050821
1662
17:32
because of her chores,
461
1052483
1530
17:34
she'd not done so well
462
1054013
1438
17:35
and wasn't in the government school yet.
463
1055451
1804
17:37
He said, "I don't know how I'm going to pay for her education.
464
1057255
2535
17:39
I can't pay for private school,
465
1059790
1826
17:41
and she may end up on this farm like my wife."
466
1061616
2579
17:44
So they know the difference
467
1064195
1129
17:45
that an education can make
468
1065324
1025
17:46
in a huge, profound way.
469
1066349
2997
17:49
CA: I mean, this is another pic
470
1069346
1421
17:50
of your other two kids, Rory and Phoebe,
471
1070767
3406
17:54
along with Paul Farmer.
472
1074173
4138
17:58
Bringing up three children
473
1078311
1614
17:59
when you're the world's richest family
474
1079925
3002
18:02
seems like a social experiment
475
1082927
2296
18:05
without much prior art.
476
1085223
3572
18:08
How have you managed it?
477
1088795
1535
18:10
What's been your approach?
478
1090330
2215
18:12
BG: Well, I'd say overall
479
1092545
2633
18:15
the kids get a great education,
480
1095178
1762
18:16
but you've got to make sure
481
1096940
898
18:17
they have a sense of their own ability
482
1097838
1702
18:19
and what they're going to go and do,
483
1099540
1989
18:21
and our philosophy has been
484
1101529
2373
18:23
to be very clear with them --
485
1103902
1222
18:25
most of the money's going to the foundation --
486
1105124
1545
18:26
and help them find something they're excited about.
487
1106669
4341
18:31
We want to strike a balance where they have
488
1111010
1395
18:32
the freedom to do anything
489
1112405
1793
18:34
but not a lot of money showered on them
490
1114198
3340
18:37
so they could go out and do nothing.
491
1117538
3129
18:40
And so far, they're fairly diligent,
492
1120667
2978
18:43
excited to pick their own direction.
493
1123645
3208
18:46
CA: You've obviously guarded their privacy carefully for obvious reasons.
494
1126853
5568
18:52
I'm curious why you've given me permission
495
1132421
2194
18:54
to show this picture now here at TED.
496
1134615
1625
18:56
MG: Well, it's interesting.
497
1136240
1137
18:57
As they get older, they so know
498
1137377
1841
18:59
that our family belief is about responsibility,
499
1139218
3009
19:02
that we are in an unbelievable situation
500
1142227
2115
19:04
just to live in the United States
501
1144342
1618
19:05
and have a great education,
502
1145960
1691
19:07
and we have a responsibility to give back to the world.
503
1147651
2048
19:09
And so as they get older
504
1149699
1053
19:10
and we are teaching them --
505
1150752
1020
19:11
they have been to so many countries around the world —
506
1151772
2360
19:14
they're saying,
507
1154132
1132
19:15
we do want people to know that we believe
508
1155264
1752
19:17
in what you're doing, Mom and Dad,
509
1157016
1501
19:18
and it is okay to show us more.
510
1158517
1961
19:20
So we have their permission to show this picture,
511
1160478
2652
19:23
and I think Paul Farmer is probably going to put it
512
1163130
1715
19:24
eventually in some of his work.
513
1164845
2455
19:27
But they really care deeply
514
1167300
1602
19:28
about the mission of the foundation, too.
515
1168902
2425
19:31
CA: You've easily got enough money
516
1171327
1922
19:33
despite your vast contributions to the foundation
517
1173249
2591
19:35
to make them all billionaires.
518
1175840
1634
19:37
Is that your plan for them?
519
1177474
1517
19:38
BG: Nope. No. They won't have anything like that.
520
1178991
2336
19:41
They need to have a sense
521
1181327
1935
19:43
that their own work is meaningful and important.
522
1183262
6536
19:49
We read an article long, actually, before we got married,
523
1189798
3472
19:53
where Warren Buffett talked about that,
524
1193270
2645
19:55
and we're quite convinced that it wasn't a favor
525
1195915
2249
19:58
either to society or to the kids.
526
1198164
3254
20:01
CA: Well, speaking of Warren Buffett,
527
1201418
2068
20:03
something really amazing happened in 2006,
528
1203486
2664
20:06
when somehow your only real rival
529
1206150
2960
20:09
for richest person in America
530
1209110
1552
20:10
suddenly turned around and agreed to give
531
1210662
1370
20:12
80 percent of his fortune
532
1212032
2593
20:14
to your foundation.
533
1214625
1717
20:16
How on Earth did that happen?
534
1216342
1736
20:18
I guess there's a long version and a short version of that.
535
1218078
1978
20:20
We've got time for the short version.
536
1220056
1382
20:21
BG: All right. Well, Warren was a close friend,
537
1221438
3755
20:25
and he was going to have his wife Suzie
538
1225193
4657
20:29
give it all away.
539
1229850
1555
20:31
Tragically, she passed away before he did,
540
1231405
3441
20:34
and he's big on delegation, and
541
1234846
3598
20:38
— (Laughter) —
542
1238444
2158
20:40
he said —
543
1240602
1411
20:42
CA: Tweet that.
544
1242013
855
20:42
BG: If he's got somebody who is doing something well,
545
1242868
3161
20:46
and is willing to do it at no charge,
546
1246029
4457
20:50
maybe that's okay. But we were stunned.
547
1250486
2378
20:52
MG: Totally stunned. BG: We had never expected it,
548
1252864
2096
20:54
and it has been unbelievable.
549
1254960
1565
20:56
It's allowed us to increase our ambition
550
1256525
3140
20:59
in what the foundation can do quite dramatically.
551
1259665
3617
21:03
Half the resources we have
552
1263282
1504
21:04
come from Warren's mind-blowing generosity.
553
1264786
2884
21:07
CA: And I think you've pledged that
554
1267670
884
21:08
by the time you're done,
555
1268554
1790
21:10
more than, or 95 percent of your wealth,
556
1270344
1878
21:12
will be given to the foundation.
557
1272222
1895
21:14
BG: Yes.
558
1274117
1154
21:15
CA: And since this relationship, it's amazing—
559
1275271
3749
21:19
(Applause)
560
1279020
3366
21:22
And recently, you and Warren
561
1282386
2637
21:25
have been going around trying to persuade
562
1285023
1880
21:26
other billionaires and successful people
563
1286903
1976
21:28
to pledge to give, what,
564
1288879
1523
21:30
more than half of their assets for philanthropy.
565
1290402
5758
21:36
How is that going?
566
1296160
2415
21:38
BG: Well, we've got about 120 people
567
1298575
3172
21:41
who have now taken this giving pledge.
568
1301747
2438
21:44
The thing that's great is that we get together
569
1304185
2606
21:46
yearly and talk about, okay,
570
1306791
2109
21:48
do you hire staff, what do you give to them?
571
1308900
1965
21:50
We're not trying to homogenize it.
572
1310865
1227
21:52
I mean, the beauty of philanthropy
573
1312092
1048
21:53
is this mind-blowing diversity.
574
1313140
2007
21:55
People give to some things.
575
1315147
1163
21:56
We look and go, "Wow."
576
1316310
2679
21:58
But that's great.
577
1318989
1108
22:00
That's the role of philanthropy
578
1320097
1129
22:01
is to pick different approaches,
579
1321226
2487
22:03
including even in one space, like education.
580
1323713
1992
22:05
We need more experimentation.
581
1325705
2371
22:08
But it's been wonderful, meeting those people,
582
1328076
2904
22:10
sharing their journey to philanthropy,
583
1330980
2232
22:13
how they involve their kids,
584
1333212
1104
22:14
where they're doing it differently,
585
1334316
1834
22:16
and it's been way more successful than we expected.
586
1336150
2706
22:18
Now it looks like it'll just keep growing in size
587
1338856
2695
22:21
in the years ahead.
588
1341551
2563
22:24
MG: And having people see that other people
589
1344114
3512
22:27
are making change with philanthropy,
590
1347626
1704
22:29
I mean, these are people who have
591
1349330
2336
22:31
created their own businesses,
592
1351666
1045
22:32
put their own ingenuity behind incredible ideas.
593
1352711
2648
22:35
If they put their ideas and their brain
594
1355359
2226
22:37
behind philanthropy, they can change the world.
595
1357585
2533
22:40
And they start to see others doing it, and saying,
596
1360118
2291
22:42
"Wow, I want to do that with my own money."
597
1362409
2040
22:44
To me, that's the piece that's incredible.
598
1364449
2044
22:46
CA: It seems to me, it's actually really hard
599
1366493
2918
22:49
for some people to figure out
600
1369411
1246
22:50
even how to remotely spend that much money
601
1370657
2683
22:53
on something else.
602
1373340
2173
22:55
There are probably some billionaires in the room
603
1375513
2093
22:57
and certainly some successful people.
604
1377606
2109
22:59
I'm curious, can you make the pitch?
605
1379715
2060
23:01
What's the pitch?
606
1381775
1234
23:03
BG: Well, it's the most fulfilling thing
607
1383009
1381
23:04
we've ever done,
608
1384390
1482
23:05
and you can't take it with you,
609
1385872
2970
23:08
and if it's not good for your kids,
610
1388842
3182
23:12
let's get together and brainstorm
611
1392024
1289
23:13
about what we can be done.
612
1393313
2687
23:16
The world is a far better place
613
1396000
2190
23:18
because of the philanthropists of the past,
614
1398190
2638
23:20
and the U.S. tradition here, which is the strongest,
615
1400828
3033
23:23
is the envy of the world.
616
1403861
1351
23:25
And part of the reason I'm so optimistic
617
1405212
1918
23:27
is because I do think philanthropy
618
1407130
1944
23:29
is going to grow
619
1409074
1614
23:30
and take some of these things
620
1410688
1119
23:31
government's not just good at working on and discovering
621
1411807
2899
23:34
and shine some light in the right direction.
622
1414706
3470
23:38
CA: The world's got this terrible inequality,
623
1418176
2942
23:41
growing inequality problem
624
1421118
1161
23:42
that seems structural.
625
1422279
1461
23:43
It does seem to me that if more of your peers
626
1423740
2866
23:46
took the approach that you two have made,
627
1426606
2376
23:48
it would make a dent
628
1428982
1592
23:50
both in that problem and certainly
629
1430574
1266
23:51
in the perception of that problem.
630
1431840
1600
23:53
Is that a fair comment?
631
1433440
1404
23:54
BG: Oh yeah. If you take from the most wealthy
632
1434844
1658
23:56
and give to the least wealthy, it's good.
633
1436502
3332
23:59
It tries to balance out, and that's just.
634
1439834
2132
24:01
MG: But you change systems.
635
1441966
1756
24:03
In the U.S., we're trying to change the education system
636
1443722
2613
24:06
so it's just for everybody
637
1446335
2068
24:08
and it works for all students.
638
1448403
1557
24:09
That, to me, really changes
639
1449960
1890
24:11
the inequality balance.
640
1451850
1157
24:13
BG: That's the most important.
641
1453007
1582
24:14
(Applause)
642
1454589
3548
24:18
CA: Well, I really think that most people here
643
1458137
3415
24:21
and many millions around the world
644
1461552
1745
24:23
are just in awe of the trajectory
645
1463297
2549
24:25
your lives have taken
646
1465846
1308
24:27
and the spectacular degree to which
647
1467154
3731
24:30
you have shaped the future.
648
1470885
2115
24:33
Thank you so much for coming to TED
649
1473000
1340
24:34
and for sharing with us and for all you do.
650
1474340
1461
24:35
BG: Thank you. MG: Thank you.
651
1475801
1936
24:37
(Applause)
652
1477737
2787
24:46
BG: Thank you. MG: Thank you very much.
653
1486515
4395
24:50
BG: All right, good job. (Applause)
654
1490910
4171
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7