These days "success" to Bill Gross means more than just performance, asset growth or anything business-related.
"I define success differently now than five or 10 years ago. I mean, you know, success in the early years was business-related, and asset growth related," says the Janus bond manager. "Now success becomes a function of what we can do with the rest of the world outside … to help others and to prove that some of the prior success can blend into success for the future for others."
In a rare occurrence, Gross talked openly about his philanthropy efforts during an interview with Bloomberg Television's Erik Schatzker.
According to Gross, he and his wife, Sue, have given away "probably $600 million to $700 million" already. And, by the time it's all said and done with, he says he will have given it all away.
"We'll give everything that we have other than our home away to either philanthropic causes that I've talked about, or to the [William and Sue Gross Family Foundation]," Gross told Bloomberg TV.
That means Gross, who has an estimated personal worth of more than $2 billion, will ultimately give away billions of dollars.
That amount "is staggering — even to me," Gross says.
"You know, it's really hard to sink in in terms of how much it is and what effect it could have," he added.
Among the Grosses' philanthropic efforts are donations to University of California at Irvine's stem cell research and Duke University's stem cell and Alzheimer's research. The couple also funded a hospital emergency department in Laguna Beach, California.
"We're frequent developers, I guess, of hospital and hospital foundations," he says.
The William and Sue Gross Family Foundation is also known for its donations to Columbia University, Doctors Without Borders and the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum.
