Born
|
William Henry
Gates, III in Seattle, Washington, 28/10/1955 (age 58)
|
Residence
|
Medina,
Washington
|
Alma mater
|
Harvard
University
|
Occupation
|
Technology
Advisor of Microsoft, Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CEO
of Cascade Investment, Chairman of Corbis
|
Net worth
|
$ 80.2 billion
(second richest man in the World)
|
Bill Gates born in October 28, 1955 is an American
business magnate, philanthropist, investor, computer programmer and inventor.
The story of Bill Gates is well known, young math whiz discovers computer
programming. Drops out of Harvard and starts a little computer company called
Microsoft with his co-founder Paul Allen.
Through sheer brilliance and ambition and guts
builds into the giant of the software world. That’s the broad outline but when
we dig a little deeper we learn more about this time and again “richest man in
the world”. Gates’ father was a wealthy and prominent lawyer in Seattle and his
mother was the daughter of a well to do banker. Many would term Gates as being
‘set for life’ coming from a well to do background. But this did not prevent
him from seeking out his own path and transforming the software world. Honestly
as I type this article, I can’t picture life without Windows and more precisely
without Microsoft Word!
As a child, Bill was precocious and easily bored by
his studies so his parents took him out of Public school and at the beginning
of the seventh grade, sent him to Lakeside, a private school in Seattle. The
school later started a computer club and “The Mothers’ Club” did a rummage sale
annually and some of the money ($3000) went to a computer terminal and it was
an object of fascination to Gates and his peers. Lakeside was quite privileged
as most colleges didn’t have computer clubs in the 1960s. The even more
remarkable thing was the type of computer Lakeside bought which was a time
sharing terminal with direct link to a mainframe computer in downtown Seattle.
Bill Gates got a great deal of time programming as
an eighth grader in 1968 and from that moment forward Gates lived in the
computer room. Another key thing we notice is that Gates had the interest and
was also self-taught. He did not become a programmer overnight but it actually
took time. This specially goes out to us young people who are termed as the
‘microwave generation’.
I’m sure many of us have heard about the 10,000 hour
rule (practice, practice makes perfect) and by the time Gates was joining
Harvard he had put in more than his fair share of 10,000 hours. After the $3000
had run out, Gates was lucky enough to get access to the computer center at the
University of Washington. Bill Gates said the reason he is so generous to the
University of Washington is that they let him steal so much of their computer
time. That’s a key thing for us young people to learn that on our way to the
top we should keep in mind the people who helped us get there.
Bill Gates got a series of opportunities such as
getting sent to Lakeside and that Gates happened to live within a walking distance
of University of Washington. Had he not taken advantage of them, he probably
wouldn’t have made it into the leader he now is. As young people when we hear about
billionaires we always wonder, “How did he do it?” Well, taking advantage of
opportunities is one of them.
All the opportunities Gates got gave him extra time
to practice and by the time Gates dropped out of Harvard after his sophomore
year to start his software company he had been programming practically nonstop
for seven consecutive years. I have had many people wanting to drop out of
college say things like, “Even Bill Gates never finished college.” What they
don’t realize is the kind of exposure he had and that his decision was not on a
whim but a burning desire to bring something great to the world.
Bill Gates as seen through the years was quite a
humble man such that despite his immense wealth he flew ‘coach’ till 1997 when
he bought a private jet. Gates has several investments outside Microsoft which
bring in good returns. Since Microsoft’s founding in 1975 until 2006 he had
primary responsibility of the company’s product strategy. He however had his
fair share of weaknesses and had gained a reputation for being distant and
rude. This just goes to show that no man is without flaws.
He left day-to-day operations at Microsoft to focus
on The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has seen him donate billions to
philanthropic causes. He dared to be different, to surpass the stereotype that
billionaires are misers and even risked his company’s stock price through
donations.
Bill Gates has managed to stay with his family of
Melinda and their three children despite the pressures he faces. Every so
often, we read about and see people who let business get in the way of their
family life. The Foundation was built around the philanthropic principles of
the Rockefeller Family and this just shows that as a
successful person you can always learn from others before you. A unique thing
about the foundation is the transparency it has which allows benefactors to
access information that shows how its money is being spent.
As we conclude this article, a phenomenal thing
about Gates was how he got fellow billionaires Warren Buffet and Mark
Zuckerberg to pledge to donate at least half of their wealth over the course of
time to charity.This is truly what being a transformational leader is all
about!
