In his letter, Bill Gates wrote that he was lucky because he started his venture at the right time, when the digital revolution was just underway, and the young people at that time had had a great opportunity to shape it.

Today, college graduates have also the same chance with these fields:

If I were starting out today and looking for the same kind of opportunity to make a big impact in the world, I would consider three fields. One is artificial intelligence. We have only begun to tap into all the ways it will make people’s lives more productive and creative. The second is energy, because making it clean, affordable and reliable will be essential for fighting poverty and climate change. The third is biosciences, which are ripe with opportunities to help people live longer, healthier lives.

But his letter contains a very important point which I also agree with:

For one thing, intelligence is not quite as important as I thought it was, and it takes many different forms. In the early days of Microsoft, I believed that if you could write great code, you could also manage people well or run a marketing team or take on any other task. I was wrong about that. I had to learn to recognize and appreciate people’s different talents. The sooner you can do this, if you don’t already, the richer your life will be.

(emphasize mine)

Bill had the same point as with Jeremy Harbour in his book “Go Do Deals” in which: when one who is excel in his technical skill may not be ready to start his own company because he lacks other important skills.