We’ve seen plenty of Bill Gates on television, but we’d never seen him get emotional before. It was a striking, yet subtle moment in Gates’ 60 Minutes interview this week when Charlie Rose asked him about his longtime business rival, the late Steve Jobs. Gates grew emotional as he recalled visiting Jobs just before his death. The billionaire welled up as he described their last conversation, which he described as “forward-looking.”
“He showed me the boat he was working on,” said Gates, “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.”
“He and I, in a sense, grew up together,” explained Gates. “We were within a year of the same age, and we were kind of naively optimistic and built big companies. And every fantasy we had about creating products and learning new things– we achieved all of it. And most of it as rivals. But we always retained a certain respect and communication, including even when he was sick.”
See the full conversation — including Gates’ great “tell him I’m an a**hole” story — in this week’s 60 Minutes Overtime feature.
Video of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs at the D5 Conference courtesy of All Things Digital Video of the Charlie Rose show courtesy Charlie Rose
