Bill Gates Leadership Analysis

In society, many may know of William “Bill” H. Gates III, and his success with Microsoft through his successful ideals as a businessman. Prevalent and iconic businessmen not only flourish in their business, but also in the attention they spend on matters outside of their business and their contribution to society. Bill Gates presents a virtuous character, but one should understand one of his most prevalent virtues along with a vice that he has displayed in a circumstance to decide if he represents an ethical leader.

Background

Bill Gates demonstrates magnificence as his well-known virtue and has displayed rashness as a vice. The behavior of magnificence in virtue ethics focuses on the habits of spending or getting of an individual relating

According to Theodhosi (2000), at the young age of fifteen, he was able to recognize the possibility that the royalty basis used for payroll would present more financial gain than the traditional route. At nineteen years old, Gates recruited classmates and peers to aid him in setting up his first business with the flow of traffic charts. In this business, named “Traf-O-Data,” he charged much less than competitors (Theodhosi, 2000). This was one of the first moves as an entrepreneur that Gates displayed the vice of rashness, because he was making a risky move that showed the possibility of excess of courage through deciding to approach a business model with an unprecedented method of gaining revenue (Theodhosi, 2000). The vice of rashness comes from the excess of the virtue of courage, and the virtue of courage presents a moderate display of being bold (Brusseau, 2012). Gates showed more than a moderate display of being bold from this business move and continued his rash decision-making further with his decision on the release of the BASIC computer language at nineteen years old (Theodhosi, 2000). With the help of Paul Allen, Gates released the BASIC language of a personal computer and made the rash decision of making a deal on the revenue through royalties on each copy of the computer language sold (Theohosi, 2000). He based the revenue off royalties rather than charging a licensing fee like what would have been done with other businesses during that time (Theodhosi, 2000). According to Theodhosi (2000), making this decision with Allen presented a huge characteristic of a vice in his business decision-making, but it ended up paying off for him and his fellow