14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella is definitely a people person, and whenever he’s asked to do something that’s good for charity or help those in need, he accepts pretty much every challenge.
That’s how he ended up being sopping wet with ice-cold water in order to raise awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease that’s said to kill an American every 90 minutes.
Steve Gleason, a former pro football player who is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and also appeared in the “Empowering” commercial aired by Microsoft during this year’s Superbowl, challenged Satya Nadella to participate in the famous ALS ice bucket challenge that involves a number of people throwing cold water over a celebrity.
Until now, several well-known figures across the world have accepted such challenges, including Facebook’s very own founder Mark Zuckerberg, who in his turn called for Bill Gates to do the same.
The rules for this apparently fun game are as simple as they could be: the participant needs to get drenched in cold water, record everything, and post the video on YouTube. After that, every contestant has the right to challenge other people to do the same thing.
“On early Wednesday morning, Gleason challenged Nadella to participate in what’s known as an ALS ice bucket challenge via Twitter, and Nadella readily accepted,” Microsoft explained.
“For those who may not be familiar with it, the ALS ice bucket challenge is a social media movement wherein people post videos of themselves dumping a bucket of ice water over their heads. Once they’re sopping wet with cold water, they then challenge others to either do the same or make a donation to an organization dedicated to fighting ALS, and that’s just what Nadella did.”
Redmond’s CEO obviously accepted the challenge, and in the video he posted on YouTube he calls for American businessman Jeff Bezos and Google co-founder Larry Page to do the same, obviously in order to raise awareness of ALS.
“The thing I’m really excited about is what Steve and the team have done to raise awareness for ALS,” Nadella said. “Now, let me take this opportunity to challenge Jeff Bezos and Larry Page to take their own ice bucket challenge. And let me tell you again from personal experience, it’s better to have your head in the clouds than under a bucket of ice.”
Those guys are really having tons of fun. And still, we can’t wait to see Bill Gates and Larry Page taking the challenge.
For my not naked ALS #icebucketchallenge I nominate @Microsoft @satyanadella. Hackathon to ice-a-thon. #StrikeOutALS #NoWhiteFlags
— steve gleason (@TeamGleason) August 13, 2014
