It turns out that Bill Gates could have been worth a lot more than Elon Musk if he hadn’t made one simple but crucial decision.

The co-founder of Microsoft is one of the richest people in the world with an enormous fortune of $115.9 billion.

However, despite his huge wealth, Musk still far exceeds that with $421.2 billion.

So, what could Gates have done differently to secure the top spot on the billionaire list?

It turns out that one simple decision changed everything.

Elon Musk is the richest person in the world (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

All the way back in 1986, just before Microsoft went public, Gates owned a whopping 11.2 million shares of the company which equated to a 49% stake in the business.

This amount of shares were worth about $200 million and if he had held onto them, he would now be worth a whopping $1.2 trillion.

However, Gates didn’t decide to hold onto his shares and instead sold them off and gave them away.

Now, Gates has just a 0.9% stake in the company he co-founded which is worth just $28 billion.

Still, it doesn’t seem like Gates needs to worry about his finances anytime soon as the billionaire is still the 11th wealthiest person in the world.

In fact, Gates has pledged to donate almost all of his fortune to charitable causes during his lifetime.

Setting up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has now been renamed the Gates Foundation, the couple have given around $47.7 billion to charitable organizations over the years.

These charitable donations have mainly been focused on health and poverty solutions.

Speaking to the BBC, Gates said: “I’ve given over 100 billion, but I still have more to give.”

Bill Gates could have become the world’s first trillionaire (ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Philanthropy is second nature to the entrepreneur, who revealed that it was his mom who gave him some important advice.

He recalled how she had told him that ‘with wealth came the responsibility to give it away’.

And Gates intends to follow her words of wisdom and he has plans to give away the majority of his fortune during his lifetime.

But despite the huge donations, it hasn’t actually impacted his lifestyle.

Gates said: “I made no personal sacrifice. I didn’t order less hamburgers or less movies.”

The billionaire also shared that he has been considering how much money to set aside to leave his children.

When asked if they will be poor after his death, Gates said: “They will not”.

He went on to add: “In absolute, they’ll do well, in percentage terms it’s not a gigantic number.”