Bill Gates advice to wannabes? Dudes, don't get sued

Bill Gates performed the London leg of his farewell tour this morning, telling aspiring entrepreneurs they should sign up to Microsoft's CRM platform and to try not to get sued.

Gates took to the stage at the Institute of Directors as the Eighties soft rock classic The Final Countdown played in the background.

He threw out lots of buzzwords such as "democratisation", "diverse economy", "simplicity" and "community" as he explained what he plans to do after he hangs up his Redmond boots.

He also took the chance to punt the software giants' latest CRM offering, version 4.0, which has been integrated with Microsoft's email client Outlook and was given its general UK release today.

When asked if he would run for president Gates quipped: "I'm certainly not going to do it."

Rather, he repeated that his full-time role after stepping down as Microsoft head honcho in July this year would be working with his missus at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"There's a lot of reform and improvement that, by being off on the side and working with governments and development agencies and filling our unique role - I think that's the highest impact. But running for an election, worrying about the next election? I don't think I'll get into that," he said.

Gates also offered his own advice on how to keep stress levels down when being the boss of a business.

"There's certainly been stressful points along the way – try not to get sued by anybody... especially not your own government... especially if unjust."

Before disappearing for tea and sandwiches at Number 10 with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Gates couldn't resist needling his big rivals.

On IBM, when asked about the inflexibility of Microsoft's licencing, he said: "We'll match their Ts and Cs". And on Google, he said its advertiser-supported biz model was not "a charitable act".

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/30/gates_iod_crm_4/