The Bill Gates Retirement Tour

I was amazed at how long the Jack Nicklaus retirement love fest lasted. That will be like the back nine on the local municipal course compared to the US Open that Bill Gates' retirement tour has the potential to become. Bill has announced a 2 year transition so he can focus more on his charitable activities.

What a remarkable story. Survive IBM at its peak. Survive bruising government scrutiny and regulation. Survive everything thrown at you from start ups to established companies. Be mistaken as President of the US by a significant portion of the world. Richest man in the world. Most generous man in the world.

George Colony of Forrester summarized it best in a NY Times story ""I think we'll look back at this day as the separation between two eras in software — the first being software in a box, and the second software distributed over the Internet for free and funded by advertising,"

The end of the Nicklaus era. The beginning of the Tiger Woods era. We gave Nicklaus a long good bye. Gates deserves that - and much more.