What would you say to Bill?

There are two responses that I see frequently when MS people run into Bill at work. There’s the “oh my god, it’s Bill Gates!” reaction and the antithesis “he’s just a guy” reaction. The first I think is natural for people who don’t see him very much and even though he is just a guy, you would have to agree that it is something to e-mail home about.

So, here’s a hypothetical... You run into Mr. Gates in an elevator and you have 10 to 20 seconds to speak with him. What do you say?

Btw, saying hi and handing him a Linux box would not top my list of choices even if he weren’t the boss. Just seems disrespectful. So let’s have it…

1. Hi, I am so and so. I work in x.
2. ???