World’s richest man yearns for privacy

TOKYO: The world's richest man, running a successful business and blessed with a loving family of a wife and two children, still wants more.

Bill Gates, the co-founder of the world's largest software company Microsoft Corp, told a crowd of university students in Tokyo on Friday that he still has not exhausted his list of goals in life, with privacy topping his wish list. Asked what more he wanted in life, Gates promptly replied, "privacy."

Gates, ranked the world's richest man by Forbes magazine, said he still has not fulfilled his dream to make a software that was truly easy to use, and that his and his company's future will continue to be about producing good software.

"By setting a very ambitious goal, I never had the problem of arriving at a finish line," Gates told the 10,000 students packed inside the university auditorium. Gates was in Tokyo to receive an honorary degree from Japan's Rikkyo University, where he fielded questions ranging from the future of the digital revolution to approaches in problem-solving.

Asked what he would do if his son decided to leave school to start a business like he did, Gates retold of how his parents were supportive of him despite being skeptical about the chances of their son succeeding.

"I'm sure that my parents felt that there was a good chance that the company would fail and that I'd go back to school...but after seeing how committed I was, and knowing that even the worst-case situation was not really a disaster, they were actually supportive once I made that decision," Gates said.

"I hope I'll do as good as my parents did," he said. The software mogul, who is in the midst of an antitrust case where his company may be ordered to split in two, called himself a "rational optimist" and said he believed the world was always moving towards the better.

"I'm certainly about the most optimistic person you'd ever meet. I think it's based on a rational view of the world. I don't think my optimism is insane," Gates said. The students appeared impressed.

"I thought a rich man like Mr Gates would be more cold, but I learned that you need to be well-versed in many things to be successful like him," said Kayoko Takematsu, a 20-year-old university student who attended the session.

"His mind is very flexible," said 20-year-old Saeko Takiyama. "I guess that's a common trait in all those who succeed."

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