Há um documentário muito interessante sobre Bill Gates no Netflix. São alguns episódios que, sem uma ordem cronológica, vão contando o que ele tem feito depois que saiu da Microsoft; situações de sua vida pessoal e profissional, inclusive vídeos de quando era criança; como nasceu a Microsoft; seu relacionamento com familiares e amigos, como Warren Buffet, que deu muito dinheiro à sua Fundação entre outros fatos da sua vida.

Ele tem um blog e escreve com um vocabulário muito rico e variado. Uma ótima fonte para incrementar seu repertório em inglês e manter-se informado!

Selecionei o artigo abaixo, que saiu recentemente no portal da CNBC, porque tem muitas palavras relacionadas com tomada de decisão, objetivos e riscos, ou seja, bastante útil para o mundo corporativo.  Vamos fazer um exercício?

FILL IN THE BLANKS:

Wiped out
To invest time and money into projects
Dropped out of
How much analysis one does
Paid off
Goals ever set
Took another gamble
Risks are worth taking
To take on
The decision is always calculated
To tackle
Guarantee of success
Takes risk
End goal
Makes an investment on a bet
Hunch
Staying the course through
Bets
Diving deep into details
Uncertainty
Achieving great success

Bill Gates has a brilliant method for taking risks—and he says it’s very similar to Warren Buffett’s

Bill Gates ____________ that very few people in this world will. He took a risk in 1975, when he _______________ Harvard to build Microsoft. In 2008, he took a risk in leaving Microsoft to work full-time at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

And in 2013, he __________________, when his foundation contributed to a $5.5 billion initiative ___________ one of the most ambitious public-health _______________: eradicating polio.

Those big ____________ have ____________ — polio still remains a problem in certain parts of the world, but significant improvements, such as the development of effective vaccinations, have been made since Gates got involved — which proves that taking big risks and _______________________ can go hand in hand.

But how does one determine which ______________________, and which ones aren’t?

That’s a question the Microsoft co-founder explored in a recent blog post, in which he talks about Netflix’s new series, “Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates.” A major theme in the documentary is Gates’ willingness _________________________ that have no ____________________.

“Watching the series got me thinking about what the word ‘risk’ really means,” Gates wrote in his post. “Whether we invest $100,000 or $100 million, _____________________. I spend a lot of time thinking, analyzing data and talking to experts to judge whether we can really help make a difference.”

But Gates says no matter __________________, it’s important to be comfortable with _______________. “We are tackling problems where progress is measured not just in years, but often decades — where your ____________ doesn’t change, but your path to get there might have to.”

Gates’ trick to being comfortable with uncertainty, he explained, is to continue learning and be open to new strategies that can bring him closer to his goals. “That approach has guided every big bet I’ve made in my career from Microsoft to today, including polio.”

A willingness to take risks is important, but Gates emphasized another key point: a good bet is based on proper models, not a ______________. In the decision ______________ polio, Gates said he had a model in mind, and that model was the history of smallpox: the only human disease ever successfully ___________________.

Ultimately, Gates said his approach to taking risks is “very similar to what Warren Buffett does when he _______________________, that it will be worth 10 times as much down the road.”

“Warren spends a lot of time looking for a company that has great long-term prospects. Then he makes a big investment and holds it for many years,” Gates explained. “He’s famous for _________________________ market gyrations and economic cycles.”

Like Buffett, Gates also picks his projects carefully, looking for ones that will make a difference and create better lives for generations to come. Analyzing whether achieving a certain goal can really help make a difference is what Gates loves most about his job: “I’m never happier than when I’m ___________________________of a problem.”

Of course, deciding what risks to take is never easy. “I also feel pressure to make every dollar and every day count,” he wrote. “I say no to a lot more opportunities than I say yes to.”

Depois que você terminar de fazer essa atividade e selecionar uma estratégia para automatizar essas palavras, assista ao documentário Inside Bill’s Brain para praticar compreensão oral e acompanhe seu blog para compreensão escrita. Lembre-se de que é muito importante estabelecer sempre uma intenção de aprendizagem quando vai assistir a um vídeo, série, filme e ler artigos e livros. O nível de retenção será muito maior!

KEY

Bill Gates takes risks that very few people in this world will. He took a risk in 1975, when he dropped out of Harvard to build Microsoft. In 2008, he took a risk in leaving Microsoft to work full-time at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

And in 2013, he took another gamble, when his foundation contributed to a $5.5 billion initiative to tackle one of the most ambitious public-health goals ever set: eradicating polio.

Those big bets have paid off — polio still remains a problem in certain parts of the world, but significant improvements, such as the development of effective vaccinations, have been made since Gates got involved — which proves that taking big risks and achieving great success can go hand in hand.

But how does one determine which risks are worth taking, and which ones aren’t?

That’s a question the Microsoft co-founder explored in a recent blog post, in which he talks about Netflix’s new series, “Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates.” A major theme in the documentary is Gates’ willingness to invest time and money into projects that have no guarantee of success.

“Watching the series got me thinking about what the word ‘risk’ really means,” Gates wrote in his post. “Whether we invest $100,000 or $100 million, the decision is always calculated. I spend a lot of time thinking, analyzing data and talking to experts to judge whether we can really help make a difference.”

But Gates says no matter how much analysis one does, it’s important to be comfortable with uncertainty. “We are tackling problems where progress is measured not just in years, but often decades — where your end goal doesn’t change, but your path to get there might have to.”

Gates’ trick to being comfortable with uncertainty, he explained, is to continue learning and be open to new strategies that can bring him closer to his goals. “That approach has guided every big bet I’ve made in my career from Microsoft to today, including polio.”

A willingness to take risks is important, but Gates emphasized another key point: a good bet is based on proper models, not a hunch. In the decision to take on polio, Gates said he had a model in mind, and that model was the history of smallpox: the only human disease ever successfully wiped out.

Ultimately, Gates said his approach to taking risks is “very similar to what Warren Buffett does when he makes an investment on a bet, that it will be worth 10 times as much down the road.”

“Warren spends a lot of time looking for a company that has great long-term prospects. Then he makes a big investment and holds it for many years,” Gates explained. “He’s famous for staying the course through market gyrations and economic cycles.”

Like Buffett, Gates also picks his projects carefully, looking for ones that will make a difference and create better lives for generations to come. Analyzing whether achieving a certain goal can really help make a difference is what Gates loves most about his job: “I’m never happier than when I’m diving deep into the details of a problem.”

Of course, deciding what risks to take is never easy. “I also feel pressure to make every dollar and every day count,” he wrote. “I say no to a lot more opportunities than I say yes to.”

Lígia Velozo Crispino, fundadora e sócia-diretora da Companhia de Idiomas. Graduada em Letras e Tradução pela Unibero. Curso de Business English em Boston pela ELC e extensões na área de Marketing na ESPM, FGV e Insper. Coautora do Guia de Implantação de Programas de Idiomas em empresas e autora do livro de poemas Fora da Linha. Colunista do portal Vagas Profissões. Mobilizadora cultural à frente do Sarau Conversar na Livraria Martins Fontes. Quer falar comigo? Meu e-mail é ligia@companhiadeidiomas.com.br e Skype ligiavelozo.