Melinda French Gates says this is the best advice she got: ‘We need each other…’

Melinda French Gates shared the story of a close friend whom she comforted when her young husband died of cancer.

Billionaire philanthropist Melinda French Gates shared the best lesson that she learned from Charlie Munger who died last year at 99. At a commencement speech in Stanford University, Melinda French Gates said that Charlie Munger was amazing at offering life advice as well as managing Berkshire Hathaway. She said, “Charlie famously said that the highest form which civilization can reach is a seamless web of deserved trust. Totally reliable people, correctly trusting each other. What a thing to aspire to.”

US philanthropist Melinda French Gates speaks during a panel at the annual spring meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, DC. (AFP)

“As a society, we aren’t always set up to feel responsibility for the person who’s next to us or the person who’s on the other side of a divide or a debate. But we need each other. No matter who you are, there will be moments in your journey when you need to be carried or when someone else will need you to carry them," she added.

Reminiscing how this advice helped her, Melinda French Gates shared the story of a close friend whom she comforted when her young husband died of cancer. This friend helped Melinda when her marriage with Bill Gates ended after 27 years, she shared.

“Yes, you are graduating into a broken world, but it is community that rebuilds things. You’ve already started building that community here, and together is how you’ll make the broken things whole again," she said.