Mythbusting: The Importance of Facts – Viral Bill Gates Memes.
William Henry Gates III, the founder of Microsoft, billionaire, philanthropist and according to the internet, a stingy tipper. He is also regularly hailed as a ‘drop out icon’, that he managed to succeed despite being a drop out.
We here would like to point out a few obvious things in the interest of education and intelligence.
If you read the above meme, it very sagely points out how one must never forget one’s past. Sound advice we must agree. But peddling absolute falsehood as well. Bill Gates is a famous philanthropist and one of the richest people in the world, he is a good person to tell us about financial prudence. It also so happens that he isn’t the son of a woodcutter. He is the son of a lawyer and a banker. And there’s a lot to learn from him, from his achievements and his life, all it takes is reading and researching, not spreading falsehoods.
Similarly, this meme somehow portrays that Gates achieved success despite being a drop out. Now, this is not just misleading but also dangerous for young impressionable minds. Yes Gates did drop out, but he did so because he was amazing at what he did. He didn’t drop out because he didn’t want to learn, he dropped out because he had reached the limit of learning that Harvard could offer in his field at that point in time. And he had a plan, he had financing, he knew what he was going to do, he didn’t drop out and then achieve success, he was successful enough already to take that step.
Our point is a little more universal than these two specific memes, what we are trying to say is that there are enough random, ‘inspiring’ anecdotes and quotes out there but it helps to go in depth, research and peel of the layers. Especially in the field of academics and education, there is a lot to learn and appreciate and maybe pandering to rhetoric isn’t the best idea for a student. Facts always triumph, facts are your biggest weapon, stick to the facts and nothing but the facts.
Bill Gates, billionaire, philanthropist, genius, business magnate – an inspiration not just for potential entrepreneurs and business students but for everyone. Let us not make him into a meme propagating falsehood.
Mythbusting: The Importance of Facts – Viral Bill Gates Memes.
