Bill Gates is an American Business mogul, Investor, Author, Humanitarian and Philanthropist.He is known as the principal founder of Microsoft Corporation, a multinational technology company that develops and sells personal computers, software and related products around the world. He is also one of the most influential and richest people on earth.
| Net Worth: | 95 Billion $ |
| Age: | 63 Years |
| Born: | October 28, 1955 |
| Country of Origin: | United States Of America |
| Source Of Wealth: | American business magnate, investor, author, philanthropist, humanitarian, and principal founder of Microsoft Corporation |
| Spouse: | Melinda Gates (m. 1994) |
| Children: | 3 |
| Last Updated: | 2018 |
Bill Gates Biography: Success Story of Microsoft Co-Founder
Growing up in a family that rewarded winners in a competition and admonished the losers, Gates had a desire to know more. His love for reading and trying out new things enabled him to experience ‘playing around with computers’ at an early age.
His love for computers ushered him into the world of writing codes in BASIC with his friends.
It is these codes that led him to realize that other people who desired to use computers would need friendlier programs and hence the development of Microsoft Windows.
Though his initial idea was ‘placing a computer on every desk and in every home running Microsoft Software’, Gate’s focus was on the here and now and the ability to hire the best engineers in the world.
He, however, assumed a global focus on satisfying his clients with the best software for their computers.
Despite seeing several computer company owners named as the wealthiest people in the world, money wasn’t his motivation but the ability to keep running, hiring the best engineers and producing the most efficient software.
Whether in business or philanthropy, Gates assumes a practical approach to life with the aim of giving the best to everyone he serves.
How Bill Gates, the world’s 2nd richest man, got his start
Though he didn’t know what career he would pursue later in life,
Gates had a sincere desire to find out things mostly by reading.
He came across the first computer at Lakeside sc hool when he was 13.
A machine he now considers to be an insufficient device compared to what is available today.
Together with his friends amongst them Paul Allen who later co-founded Microsoft with Gates, they tinkered around the machine and figured out its ability since most of the teachers were intimidated by its complexity.
This time paid off, and Gates was able to tutor his fellow students on how to use a computer. He occasionally got paid to do some computer jobs.
By the time he joined high school, Gates had volunteered in places where he could use the computer more often since finding an idle computer them was a rare incident. His desire to interact with computers was insatiable.
Between the ages of 15 and 17, Gates wrote many programs by combining simple instructions to come up with complex ones that could convert numbers in various ways.
A firm believer in feedback, Gates says,
“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”
He received corrective input from experienced programmers encouraging him to carry on with programming.
At his school’s request, Gates managed to put together a program that scheduled various classes in favor of balancing among others, the student-teacher ratio.
This had a double benefit for him and his friends; they were able to choose the students they wanted to share class with and were even paid for the job.
Gates and his friends seized various opportunities to interact with computers exposing themselves to new levels and generations of computers.
He led his friends in creating a payroll program for a company in Portland in exchange for computer time and later wrote a program that would allow several computers to control the entire electricity grid in the dams of the Pacific North.
Guided by his zeal to create smaller yet better programs, Gates and Paul Allen created a program on punched cards that would run on a newer computer, Altair 8800 computer based on Intel 8080 CPU released by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, MITS.
The program was successful and landed the two a good job that saw Gates take an official leave of absence and later drop out of Harvard College in his second year. The key idea in Gates’ mind was to begin a software company which was named Micro-Soft in 1973.
Gates’ parents were supportive of his decision under the agreement that if the company didn’t succeed, he would return to school and complete his degree.
To his advantage, he was able to set up the company in Albuquerque and began writing software for personal computers.
Desiring to seize the opportunity, MITS asked if they could conduct the sales part of the software and earn some commission.
Gates made a contract to ensure that MITS sold the software to plenty of companies while he and Allen focused on programming.
MITS collapsed shortly after leaving Gates without a sales department.
The company that took over didn’t understand the details of the contract, instead of making sales; they put Microsoft in a stressful situation.
With his father’s assistance, Gates terminated the contract after consulting with an arbitrator and moved his company to Seattle in 1979.
Despite not completing his college degree, Gates emphasizes,
“Unless you have something really uniquely amazingly time-dependent, it is an amazing thing to complete the degree.”
A college is a place he believes allows students to access plenty of experience.
His delight in producing software for personal computers at a time when no company paid attention to such propelled Gates to focus on writing more programs and running the business aspect of Microsoft.
For the first 5 years, he keenly inspected every line of code to ensure it was what he wanted it to be. Sometimes, he replaced the code with what felt was good.
His breakthrough only came in 1997 after Gates’ Microsoft created Disk Operating System for the IBM PC and it became a success.
He then built Windows, software with Graphical User Interface built upon DOS making users experience friendlier. That portrayed Microsoft as the company that revolutionized the personal computer’s software.
Gates led his team at Microsoft into in-depth research in the needs of different clients; unlike other companies that developed only one solution, their focus was to create suitable solutions for each client.
He took up key responsibilities at Microsoft from the time he set it up, ensuring that business strategies were in place and all software was produced according to plan.
Growing Microsoft to become a prominent company and expanding beyond software production hasn’t come without a cost.
In 2004, Microsoft was sued by Novell, another software developing company on claims that Microsoft violated U.S. antitrust laws while launching Windows 95.
An initial $536 million settlement with Microsoft was reached but that didn’t slow down Microsoft’s growth.
Besides Microsoft, in 1989 Gates founded Corbis, a digital imaging company that later changed its objectives to advertising and licensing.
He also runs other ventures that include TerraPower, a nuclear reactor design company and bgC3; a think tank, incubator and venture capital firm.
Gates is pro higher taxes for the rich and in an interview with BBC in 2014, he revealed that he had paid over $6 billion in taxes; an amount he claimed was the highest ever paid by any individual.
Why Philanthropy King (Bill Gates) give away billions:
With Microsoft popularity rising, Gates reduced his daily involvement in running the company in mid-2006 and shifted his focus to giving back to the society.
In his thoughts,
“Although I don’t have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very fortunate and I feel a responsibility to give back to society in a significant way.”
So he offloaded some of his active responsibilities to other senior employees.
Inspired by the works of a Scottish-American business magnate Andrew Carnegie and Oil industry business mogul, John D. Rockefeller, Gates began supporting charities. In 1994 Gates donated part of Microsoft’s stock to start William H. Gates foundation that focused on global health.
Together with his wife, he put up
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
that eased the access of computer and internet in US libraries in 1997.
His belief,
“The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.”
In 1999 the foundation was renamed to Gates Learning Foundation with the objective of enabling minority students from disadvantaged families to access the college education.
It is by merging the two foundations that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was born in 2000 where Gates is a co-chair. The new foundation focuses on three main areas; global development, global health and the United States Program.
In 2013, Funds for NGOs Company valued Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at $34.6 billion.
In 2010, Gates and Warren Buffet, a close friend and billionaire began The Giving Pledge, a foundation that inspires the world’s wealthiest people to give at least half of their wealth to charity in the course of time.
On his own, Gates also gives donations to various causes such as Dementia Discovery fund, Universities, and various research-based start-ups. Supported by his wife, Gates desires to give away all his wealth and only leave each of his children $10 million.
Bill Gates Net worth (World’s second richest man)
As early as 1987, Forbes named Gates the youngest self-made billionaire with $1.25 billion to his name.
Though he only owns slightly over 1% of Microsoft after selling and giving away his shares, as at 30th July 2018, Gates’ net worth stood at $95 billion making him the second richest man in the world.
Here His Top Rules:
How Old Is Bill Gates?
Born William Henry Gates III on 28th October 1955 in Seattle, Washington, Gates is the only son of William H. Gates Senior, a retired attorney, and Mary Maxwell Gates, an American businesswoman who served for 18 years on University of Washington board of regents.
He has two sisters.
Gates’ parents sent him to a private preparatory school, Lakeside School after realizing that he wasn’t exploiting his full potential in public school.
Though at first, he considered writing the wrong answers in the entry-level examination at Lakeside, Gates realized it was against his moral belief; a decision he is glad he made then.
In the private school, discipline was vital, and his teachers expected nothing but the best from him. This enabled him to put more effort in his studies and later began scoring higher marks.
Though his love for science and Math was undoubted, Gates was exempted from attending math classes in order to allow him to pursue his interest in programming a General Electric computer in BASIC.
This paved a way for him to learn various computer programs and even develop a computer game where users could play against the computer.
Outside his computer world, Gates read a lot of science fiction books and biographies over summer time competing with a bunch of girls to see who could read more books and get more rewards.
With more focus in his grades, Gates scored 1590 out of 1600 points on Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT); his direct ticket to Harvard College.
Personal life of Bill G (Wife and Children)
Gates met Melinda Ann French a few weeks after she started working for Microsoft during an Expo trade fair dinner in 1987.
It took him a couple of months and a bit of research to ask her out for dinner in a manner Melinda first pointed out as unspontaneous. This led to a long dating period and then their wedding on 1st January 1994.
Together, they have three children; Jennifer Kathrine, Rory John, and Phoebe Adele.
Gates ensured that the children attended Catholic Church which Melinda attends and he supports.
Bill Gates House
He lives in Medina, Washington in a 66,000 square-foot mansion nicknamed Xanadu 2.0 whose worth was estimated at $178 million in April 2018.
While not running his businesses or working on a cause, Gates prefers to play bridge, a game his parents taught him and enjoys it even better while playing with his friend Warren Buffet.
He also plays tennis. Gates also travel a lot for fun and service to the foundation.
Being a devoted reader, Gates says,
‘Whether I’m at the office, at home or on the road, I always have a stack of books I’m looking forward to reading” hence he reads at least one book per week.
He has written two books so far; The Road Ahead, a book he co-authored with two others featuring the implication of personal computing and how it affects the future. He also wrote Business @Speed of Thought that shows how business and technology are interconnected.
