I have been guessing that
the nuns that taught Melinda
got her highly devoted to
'charity' in some general
sense and that she and Bill
had a 'deal': After he worked
his tail off at Microsoft to
make a lot of money and, thus,
necessarily spent a lot of
time at the office instead of
at home with her and the kids,
he was to back off from an
active role at Microsoft, e.g.,
be just COB, and, then, join
with her in using much of the
money for charity. So, in this
way Melinda would get to pursue the
goals and values of charity she
got from her nuns. Just a guess.
I could make this guess because my
wife, her sisters, and their mother
were all highly devoted to a life
of charity via 'volunteer' work,
and much of the origin of their
interests in charity was from
Christian religion, although in
their case Methodist instead of
Roman Catholic.
But, 'deal' with Bill or not,
the record seems to be that
Melinda is one heck of a 'super
fundraiser': She also got
Buffett to hand over much or
nearly all of his fortune. Then
she publicized the value that
any really wealthy person should
leave 50% or so to charity.
So, I'm guessing that the nuns
got Melinda to get Bill and others
to cough up $100 billion and
counting.
And what is Melinda's
'sales pitch?" My guess is
just total sincerity with nothing
for herself, no money, of course
not, but neither fame, status,
prestige, etc. It seems to me
that in charity Melinda is fairly
closely following the values of
the nuns.
And she did one more: As we know,
just having the money and giving
it away does not necessarily do much
to 'alleviate human suffering' or
'improve the world' as the nuns
might want. Instead, giving the
money away in effective ways is
hard work. So, Melinda got Bill
dedicated to the work, and Bill
is a bright guy who knows the heck
how to get things done.
I'm suspecting that heavily Melinda,
and before her her nuns, are
the real driving force behind
all of this. Instead, Bill might
be driving/racing Porsche cars!
Finally, we have to suspect that
'hard hearted', no nonsense,
bottom line oriented, take no
prisoners Bill is totally taken
with, in awe of, head over heels
in love with, and has awesome
respect for Melinda. But then
some such fits: Supposedly
Bill's mother was a big influence
on Bill, and a boy with a good
mother tends to look for a wife
much like his mother.
It's nice that tough guy Bill
is now harnessed as a very bright
and capable horse pulling the
wagon of Melinda and her nuns!