Melinda French Gates Reveals the Pivotal Career Advice Warren Buffett Once Gave Her — Here's What He Said

Melinda French Gates is sharing the impactful career advice multi-billionaire Warren Buffett once gave her.

While appearing on a recent episode of the LinkedIn podcast Hello Monday, Melinda, 60, said that she and ex-husband Bill Gates received the advice — which revolves around staying focused — during the early days of the Gates Foundation, which she and Bill, 69, founded in 2000. (Melinda has since stepped away from the organization).

“Warren Buffett once said to us, ‘Find your bullseye of what you’re working on and let the other things fall away. You’ll feel better if you keep your talents in that bullseye and keep working on those issues, and you’ll feel less bad about letting other things go,’ “ Melinda recalled.

“And I think that’s true,” added the mother of three, who shares daughters Jennifer and Phoebe, plus son Rory with her ex.

Buffett, 94, served as a Gates Foundation trustee from 2006 to 2021. He contributed $36 billion to the foundation as of 2022, per the organization’s website.

During the podcast appearance, Melinda also shared some of her own personal advice to others, stressing the importance of having a circle of trusted people to lean on when making major career decisions.

“Trust yourself — that you know why you’re making this career shift and why you’re moving to this role — but keep a set of trusted advisors around you,” she said. “They don’t have to be in your current job or your new job, but even trusted advisors outside who know you and can see … your talents, and remind you … you’re gonna be okay on the other side, even when you doubt.”

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Later in the conversation, the philanthropist also discussed imposter syndrome, noting that she has observed it particularly in women throughout her career.

“They think, ‘Oh, maybe I’m not good enough yet. Maybe I don’t deserve to belong here. Maybe I shouldn’t.’ And the truth is no,” Melinda said.

“That employer saw something in you. So lean into that,” she continued. “[And] again, lean into the people who can remind you why you got that job. You just gotta push through it.”

Recalling that she had to learn some lessons the hard way — especially during her younger years — Melissa said, “I have surrounded myself over time with people who believed in me … and I tried to push away the people who didn’t believe in me.”

“I didn’t see at the time, but maybe they were insecure in themselves. And so they would put that on me. That happened to me a lot coming up in my career,” she added.

After her departure from the Gates Foundation in June 2024, Melinda is now focussed on her own nonprofit, Pivotal Ventures, which works on projects to empower women.

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“What I am doing now in full force is making sure that women’s rights are not only on the agenda, but that women are setting the agenda,” she explained while appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in July of that year. 

“Women’s rights globally and in the United States [have] been rolled back. The fact that my granddaughter will have fewer rights right now because of the Supreme Court than I had makes zero sense to me,” she added.

Melinda also spoke about how her high-profile 2021 divorce from Bill changed her approach to her goals. 

“Fundamentally, I’m the same person,” she told host Stephen Colbert. “But I can use my full voice in any way I want to. And my full resources in any way I want to. And that, to me, it’s something I’ve been saying about women in society; that they should have their full voice, their full resources, their full decision-making authority. And now I’m role modeling that.”