He dropped out of college after completing his junior year at Harvard. Instead, he and his bosom friend Paul Allen set up a small business - a software company - in far away New Mexico. This move was in accordance with his vision.

His vision became clearer as he moved from a total newbie to one with a small business to keep. His vision was clothed in clearer terms, as he negotiated the DOS deal with IBM.

Better late than never
Bill Gates's company ultimately became the leader in the software arena. During the first half of the 1990's - 1993 to be exact - he was among the last of the software titans to acknowledge the future significance of the Internet.

But once he did realize that indeed Internet was the wave of the future, he had the tenacity to reshape his vision. His vision retained its old flavor - that is, software dominance in commerce, industry and in every field. It was rehashed in his own words as follows:

"In the years ahead, the Internet will have an even more profound effect on the way we work, live and learn … this technology will be one of the key cultural and economic forces of the early 21st century."

At this moment in time, Bill Gates is guided by the vision that the Internet is the wave of the present and the foreseeable future.

Lessons Learned
You can learn from Bill Gates by having your own vision for your small business. Lay down this vision in your mind. Then put it into writing. Read your vision everyday while at work in your small corner of the house. Your vision could be as short-term as the following:

"To make my web site land within the top five of Google when people search for the keywords 'home based business,'" or

"$200,000 earning this year from Google Adsense,"or

"To enrich the content of my web site using the theme 'scrap book making.'"

Do not limit yourself to short-term vision. Aim for the long-term. A five to ten years period would suffice. Technology may change but your vision will essentially be the same. You may refine it if deemed necessary, like incorporating the effect of technological changes - as Bill Gates did.