I remember when the most common thing I heard about Bill Gates came from the IT guy in our office. Frustrated by a bug in the latest version edition of Windows or some other Microsoft product, he’d mutter, “Bill Gates is the devil.”

What a difference a decade makes.

Bill Gates has become our generation’s most influential and admired business person. He drove the creation of one of the world’s most successful enterprises and in doing so, he spun off legions of Microsoft millionaires who are out there, starting businesses and charitable foundations or in the case of Paul Allen, otherwise disrupting the marketplace.

This may be the most dramatic reputation 180 ever.

Needless to say, the guy has some clout. A shout-out, a nod or any sort of recognition from Gates – real or implied – is the ultimate endorsement. Just ask Sal Kahn, hedge fund guy turned Internet educator. At the Aspen Ideas Festival, Gates gave a shout-out to Kahn’s online education channel.

Almost immediately, Khan Academy’s viewership spiked to 70,000 viewers a day and is the most popular education site online. He’s gone from working in his closet for free to paying himself a six-figure salary, with money people in hot pursuit.

Like another famous Bill who started a little movement known as CGI, Gates has become more like-able and more influential in his “retirement” than he was in leading one of the most disruptive and transformative companies in America since the industrial revolution. He’s transformed philanthropy with his foundation and joined forces with Warren Buffet to challenge the uber-wealthy to give half of their fortunes away in life or at death. He’s even making nuclear power cool.

Is there anything Gates can’t do? And is there anyone more influential today?

cwinters General Corporate Aspen Ideas Festival, Bill Gates, CGI, Khan Academy, Microsoft, Warren Buffet