business, political and community service background. His great grandfather
was a state legislator and a mayor, his grandfather was
vice president of national bank and his father was a lawyer.
Bill strongly believes in hard work. He believes that if you are
intelligent and know how to apply your intelligence, you can achieve
anything. From childhood Bill was ambitious, intelligent and
competitive. These qualities helped him to attain top position in the
profession he chose. In school, he had an excellent record in
mathematics and science. Still he was getting very bored in school
and his parents knew it, so they always tried to feed him with more
information to keep him busy. Bill’s parents came to know their son's
intelligence and decided to enroll him in a private school, known for
its intense academic environment. It was a very important decision in
Bill Gate's life where he was first introduced to a computer. Bill Gates
and his friends were very much interested in computer and formed
"Programmers Group" in late 1968. Being in this group, they found a
new way to apply their computer skill in university of Washington. In
the next year, they got their first opportunity in Information Sciences
Inc. in which they were selected as programmers. ISI (Information
Sciences Inc.) agreed to give them royalties whenever it made money
from any of the group’s program. As a result of the business deal
signed with Information Sciences Inc., the group also became a legal
business.
Bill Gates and his close friend Allen started new company of their
own, Traf-O-Data. They developed a small computer to measure
traffic flow. From this project they earned around $20,000. The era
of Traf-O-Data came to an end when Gates left the college. In 1973, he
left home for Harvard University. He didn’t know what to do, so he
enrolled his name for pre-law. He took the standard freshman
courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvard's toughest
mathematics courses. He did well over there, but he couldn’t find it
interesting too.
He spent many long nights in front of the school's
computer and the next day asleep in class. After leaving school, he
almost lost himself from the world of computers. Gates and his friend
Paul Allen remained in close contact even though they were away
from school. They would often discuss new ideas for future projects
and the possibility of starting a business one fine day. At the end of
Bill's first year, Allen came close to him so that they could follow
some of their ideas. That summer they got job in Honeywell. Allen
kept on pushing Bill for opening a new software company.
Within a year, Bill Gates dropped out from Harvard. Then he formed
Microsoft. Microsoft's vision is "A computer on every desk and
Microsoft software on every computer". Bill is a visionary person and
works very hard to achieve his vision. His belief in high intelligence
and hard work has put him where he is today. He does not believe in
mere luck or God’s grace, but just hard work and competitiveness.
Bill’s Microsoft is good competition for other software companies and
he will continue to stomp out the competition until he dies. He likes
to play the game of Risk and the game of world domination. His
beliefs are so powerful, which have helped him increase his wealth
and his monopoly in the industry.
Bill Gates is not a greedy person. In fact, he is quite giving person
when it comes to computers, internet and any kind of funding. Some
years back, he visited Chicago's Einstein Elementary School and
announced grants benefiting Chicago's schools and museums where
he donated a total of $110,000, a bunch of computers, and provided
internet connectivity to number of schools. Secondly, Bill Gates
donated 38 million dollars for the building of a computer institute at
Stanford University. Gates plans to give away 95% of all his earnings
when he is old and gray.
Bill Gates from this story may seem a superhero and do it alone guy
but in reality, he is not. He was able to achieve it because of the kind
of people that he choose to mingle with.
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