TIME Persons of the Year

On my way home from a Christmas vacation in Oklahoma I read the Dec. 26/Jan. 2 issue of TIME magazine, the one with Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates on the cover. It was informative. I had no idea how much money the Gateses have given away to international public health causes. The article pointed out how no-nonsense Bill Gates is. The journalist said Gates didn’t look at her for the first fifteen minutes of the interview, letting his wife answer the softie questions that he simply can’t bear. The article said if you can’t talk with Bill on a high level about international aid or science, you will be wasting his time, and he’ll let you know. Something to keep in mind if you ever bump into him.

What I appreciate are the straightforward questions Bill Gates asks when he’s researching a crisis or deciding whether or not to support a cause. He asks questions like “Who owns the land?” and “How much do the health-care workers earn?” He’s interested in the practical nitty-gritty. It’s also been widely reported that the Gates Foundation has abruptly cut off its aid to organizations that do not meet the foundation's criteria for putting resources to good use. I appreciate these things about the Gateses because they demonstrate a commitment to get things done. I need to admit something: I’m prone to daydream and imagine without getting anything done. Say what you want about his business practices; Bill Gates is a guy who really does stuff. Bono claims Gates has figured out how to fix Malaria in ten years, for example. Gates's results-based approach reminds me that at some point, you have to roll up your sleeves and convert ideas into action.

I was also pleased to read that Bono isn’t just lending his charm and celebrity to his poverty eradication campaign. He has a detailed working knowledge of the issues, and one has only to talk with him for a few minutes, according to Bill Gates, to discover he knows what he’s talking about.