Bill Gates, or William Gates III, was born on October 28, 1955.
The future businessman and computer genius was born in the United States (Washington). Bill’s mother, Mary Maxwell, was a member of the board of directors of Pacific Northwest, First Interstate Bank, and the national parliament of United Way (now United Way Worldwide). Father – William Henry Gates II – worked as a lawyer.
Childhood and youth
Gates studied at one of the most elite schools in Seattle – “Laceda”. It was there that he learned the basics of programming, which helped him get a fortune in the future. He attended this subject with pleasure and even devoted all his free time to it. Already in his teens, Bill created the first program and wrote it in the Basic language – Tic-Tac-Toe.
The incredible success in programming did not please the boy’s parents at all. After all, in other subjects, Bill received only low scores. Poor academic performance led to an appeal to a child psychiatrist.
Being in the eighth grade, at one of the programming lessons, Gates met his future business partner, Paul Allen. Young people immediately become friends, because both have the same interests – programming.
Together with his friends, Bill was testing the PDP-10 computer, owned by the “Computer Corporation Center” (“CCC”). When the CCC work contract was cancelled, Gates and his comrades, including Allen, hacked into the security program. For this act, all four were given a “sentence”, which consisted of a ban on using computers throughout the summer. To mitigate the punishment, Bill and Allen offer their services to the company.
Friends ask for permission to use their computers, and in return they will look for errors in their software. Allen and Bill studied many programs created in machine code and in FORTRAN, LISP. Friends worked until CCC declared itself bankrupt.
In the same year, another company – Information Sciences Inc. – offers a job, which consisted in writing a program for maintaining payment documents in the Cobol language. As a thank you, the friends got the opportunity to carry out their activities on PDP-10 computers free of charge. However, the project was never completed.
In 1972, the same Bud Pembroke who had offered his friends a job at Information Sciences Inc. invited them to help TRW. It was supposed to create a large software project in which the PDP-10 was involved.
Education
In 1973, Bill Gates enters Harvard University. There, fate brings him to another person who will become a business partner in the future – Steve Ballmer. However, the prospect of sitting at a desk for 6 years did not attract Bill. Therefore, he regularly missed classes, for which he was expelled in the second year.
Creating Microsoft
In 1975, in one of the newspapers, Paul Allen reads an interesting article that talks about the creation of a new computer by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems” company – Altair 8800. Bill gathers courage and calls its developer – Ed Roberts. Gates tells him that he and a friend are writing software specifically for the Altair 8800.
Gates’ assertiveness is bearing fruit: the president of the company invites the guys for an interview and on the same day takes them to work.
Friends had to come up with a name for their company. Initially it was supposed to be called “Allen and Gates”, but such a name was not quite familiar to the market for innovative technologies. It was later decided to be called “Micro-Soft“.
In 1975, Bill was first arrested for driving without a driver’s license and speeding in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gates then had a big fight with the police and he was put in a cell with other criminals. He was released from prison by Paul, having collected his last savings. The second time Bill was caught again for driving without a license was in 1977.
Despite this unpleasant incident, the friends continued to work at Micro-Soft and write programs for Micro Telemetry Systems and Instrumentation. Within six months, the hyphen was removed from the name of Bill and Allen’s company. In 1976, on November 26, a new trademark “MicroSoft” was officially registered in New Mexico. Bill owned 64% of the shares because he invested more in this project. The rest belonged to Allen.
In a joint business, friends performed various functions. Paul was responsible for technical developments and promising projects, and Bill was in charge of negotiations, documents, contracts. And yet disputes arose between them. Later, Bill will share with the press and talk about the fact that sometimes they argued for 6 or even 8 hours in a row.
After 3 years, Bill and Paul make a deal with the IBM corporation, which at that time is considered a monster of computer technology. The company then commissioned the creation of an operating system for their new computer to Digital Research. However, Bill and Paul were able to develop a more promising and perfect system in all respects. Therefore, the company chose Gates and Allen. It is worth noting that the acquaintance of Bill’s mother with the leaders of IBM, John Akers and John Opel, played an important role in this deal.
However, Microsoft” introduced a completely new operating system to the computer market, which in the future will become the main one based on Intel – “MS-DOS”.
In 1985, Bill and Paul develop “Windows”. Then Gates does not suspect that he has created something brilliant. In 1993, the third version appears – Windows 3.1, which becomes a real breakthrough in the computer world.
In 1998, Bill Gates is recognized as the richest man in the world. In the same year, he leaves the leading position in the Microsoft organization, but continues to be responsible for production strategy right up to 2006.
In 2013, 3 major shareholders of Microsoft demanded the resignation of Bill Gates from the post of head of the board of directors. In 2014, he decides to leave the company and come to grips with charity.
Other important projects of Bill Gates
In 1989, Corbis Corporation was founded by Bill. Its main goal was the development of multimedia material, the licensing of video recordings and photographs for the media.
Today, Corbis holds the rights to reproduce images of various works of art in various museums around the world. By the way, Bill collects rare works by Leonardo da Vinci. They are currently on display at the Seattle Museum of Art.
10 years ago, Gates officially registered a new company called “bgC3” (“Bill Gates Company Three”). Its main task is to provide technological and scientific services.
Bill Gates’ current state
Almost 2 decades have passed since Gates was recognized as the richest man on the planet. Only a few times competitors managed to push him to second place, but each time the billionaire appropriated the status familiar to him and the whole world.
Today, Bill Gates’ fortune reaches an unprecedented size – 90 billion dollars.
Doing charity work
Bill Gates is rightfully considered a man who spends cosmic amounts on charity. According to one well-known source, from 1994 to 2010, he gave $ 28 billion to those in need. The Gates and his wife’s charitable foundation is engaged in education, agriculture. In addition, Bill Gates’ Annual Message provides assistance to sick children and beggars.
Personal qualities, philosophy, attitudes
Friends of the billionaire claim that Bill is a very modest person. But the house in which he lives can hardly be called modest. Gates’ home is stuffed with the latest technical equipment. According to some reports, its cost is 125 million dollars.
Bill’s favorite hobbies are playing bridge and trampolining. Bill claims that in the process of jumping, his thoughts are concentrated.
One of the main character traits of a billionaire is the ability to recognize the degree of intelligence and abilities of another person. Gates says he doesn’t hire “stupid people.” In some cases, he independently conducts an interview for a particular position in his company.
He believes that the main thing in business is intellectual wealth. His team is a collection of the most promising and smart programmers.
Bill is a person who likes to succeed and be the first everywhere. He believes that success is a bad teacher that makes smart people think that it is impossible to lose.
In addition, Bill claims that only hard work and practicality are his incentive in life.
Books, films with his participation
In 1995, Gates published a book called The Road to the Future. It describes Bill’s views on the path society is taking due to the development of computer technology. A year later, some changes were made to the book.
In 1999, Gates again released a book called Business at the Speed of Thought. It talks about how computer technology affects business decisions. This book has been edited in 20 languages and is sold in more than 50 countries.
Books have also been written about Bill Gates himself. One of them is Janet Lowe. Bill Gates speaking. The life of the famous billionaire is also told in the film “Pirates of Silicon Valley” (“Pirates of Silicon Valley”) and “Ground Breakers. Bill Gates A Tycoon Story “(” Destroyers of the foundations. Bill Gates. The story of a tycoon “).
Interesting facts about Bill Gates
- One of the most curious facts from the life of a billionaire is that Bill Gates was a victim of extortion by Adam Pletcher. The man studied with Gates at the university. In 1997, he demanded money from a billionaire for a computer program allegedly stolen from him. Fortunately, the extortionist was caught and, by court order, sentenced to 6 years in prison.
- Another important event in the life of a billionaire was the assignment of the title “Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire” to him. He was awarded this high award for his contribution to the fight to reduce poverty in the world.
- Bill Gates currently earns $250 per second. It is easy to calculate that $ 21,600,000 is credited to his account per day, and $ 788,400,000 accumulates in 1 year. If the money stopped flowing into Gates’ account, and in 1 day he would spend $1,000,000, then he would become impoverished in 220 years.
