Bill Gates Biography (Business Magnate)

Bill Gates Early Life

William Henry III was born on 28 th October 1955, in Seattle, Washington. Bill Gates belonged to the wealthy family of William Henry. Being a child Bill already possessed a potential businessman talent, mainly in mathematics. Bill scored 800 points in the mathematical part of the intelligence test and it is not accidental he has a talent and shows the best result. His family expected him that follows his father’s steps and enter Harvard Law School. In the year 1968 when Bill and his friend Paul Allen went to middle school, the administration of the school decided to buy a computer time from the General Electricity Company.

In that era, the system completely based on DEC PDP-10 micro-architecture was the center or basis of the market. Bill Gates and his friend spent most of their free time writing and figuring out the process of how to make the computer do something very interesting things. The administration of the school had underestimated its students. The computer’s whole year’s time was used in weeks. Luckily, a new student got admitted to Lakeside and his father worked as a senior programmer in the CCC-Computer Center Corporation, and then the new contract allowed Bill Gates and his friends again continue their experiments.

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Bill grew up in an upper-middle-class family, he has two sisters elder sister’s name is Krisrianne and his younger sister is Libby. Bill gate’s family atmosphere was warm and close and the children were encouraged to be competitive and also strive for excellence. He (Bill) showed early signs of competitiveness when he (Bill) coordinated family athletic games on Puget Sound at their summer house. Bill also relished playing board games and excelled at Monopoly. Bill’s relationship with his mother is very close, his mother would often take him along when she volunteered in schools and also at community organizations.

Bill was doing well in school, spending many hours poring over reference books, around the age of 11 or 12 his parents began to have concerns about Bill’s behavior. He blossomed in nearly all his subjects excelling in the subjects of science and math but also doing very well in drama and English. In 1970 when Bill was 15 years old went into business with Paul Allen. They developed “Traf-o- Data” a computer program that functions to monitor traffic patterns in Seattle and netted $20,000 for their efforts. Bill Gates and Paul Allen both wanted to start their own company. Gate’s parents wanted him to finish school first and then go to college because they hoped that Bill would work to become a lawyer. In 1973 Bill Gates graduated from Lakeside. Bill scored 1590 out of 1600 on the college SAT test.

Bill Gate’s Personal Life

In the year of 1987, a 23-year-old Microsoft product manager named Melinda French noted and caught the eye of Bill Gates, then 32. Melinda with her bright and organized personality was a perfect match for Bill Gates. Their relationship grew as they found an intimate and intellectual connection. On 1 st January 1994, Bill Gates and Melinda were married in Hawaii. Only a few months later Gates’s mother passed away and June and Bill were devastated.

Melinda and Bill took some time off in the year 995 to travel to different countries and catch a new perspective on life and the world. Bill and Melinda got their first daughter in 1996, daughter’s name is Jennifer. Their son Rory was born in 1999 and their second daughter Phoebe was born in 2002. A year later, Bill Gates moved his family into a 55,000-square- foot, $54-million house located on the shore of Lake Washington. Although Gate’s house serves as a business center, and also it is said to be a very cozy home for bill Gates his wife, and their three children.

Bill Gate’s Early Career

Bill Gates enrolled at Harvard University in the fall. He was thinking about a career in law but he spent more of his time in the computer lab than in the classroom, he did not really have a study regimen. He could get by on a few hours o sleep, revise for tests and pass with a reasonable grade.

Gates remained in contact with his friend Allen, Allen showed him an edition of Popular Electronics magazine featuring an article based on the Altair 8800 minicomputer kit. Bill and Paul both were fascinated with the possibilities that this computer could generate in the world of personal computing. Bill and Paul contacted the company and proclaimed that they were working on the BASIC software program of the computer that would run the Altair computer but in a reality, both of them didn’t have an Altair to work with or code to run it, but Bill and Paul wanted to know if MITS was interested in someone developing such kind of software. Ed Roberts president of MITS asked them for a demonstration, Bill and Paul scrambled, spending the next two months writing the software at the computer lab of Harvard. Paul was hired at MITS and Bill soon left Harvard to work with Paul. In 1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen made a partnership and they called Microsoft, it is a blend of “microcomputer” and “software.

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Within one year both of them dropped the hyphen and it became Microsoft, starting off on shaky footing. Their BASIC software program for the Altair computer netted that company a fee and royalties, this was not meeting their overhead. Microsoft’s BASIC software was popular with the computer hobbyists that got pre-market copies and were remaking and distributing them for free. According to Bill’s later account, only 10% of the people using the BASIC program in the Altair computer had really paid for it. Many of the personal computer enthusiasts were people not in it for the money at this time. They felt the ease of the remaking and distribution allowed them to share software programs with friends and fellow computer enthusiasts. Gates thought differently. He watched the free distribution of the software as stealing, particularly when it engaged software that was made to be sold.

In 1976, February, Bill Gates wrote an open letter to computer hobbyists saying that the use of software and continued distribution without paying for it would “Prevent good software from being written”. Pirating software would discourage developers from investing precious time and money into producing quality software. Gates’s letter was unpopular with computer enthusiasts, but he stuck to his beliefs and would apply the threat of innovation as a defense when faced with a fine or charges of unfair business practices.

The relationship between Gates and Ed Roberts president of MITS had more acrimonious, Gates clashed with Roberts on software development and also the direction of the business. Ed Roberts considered Bill Gates spoiled and obnoxious. In the year of 1977, Ed Roberts sold MITS to another company and went back to Georgia to go into medical school and become a country doctor. Bill and Paul both were on their own. Both of them had to sue the new owner of the MTIS to retain the rights to the software they had developed for Altair.

For the other companies, Microsoft wrote software in different formats, and at the start of 1979, Bill moved the company’s operations to Bellevue, Washing to the east of Seattle. He was very happy to be home again in the Pacific Northwest and engage himself in his work. He has 25 employees in the young company and they had broad responsibilities for all aspects of the functions or operations, product development, marketing, and business development. Bill with his acumen for software development and an active and keen business sense, placed himself as the head of Microsoft. Microsoft grossed approximately $2.5 million in the year 1979, Bill was only 23 years old.

The Rise of Microsoft

Bill’s expertise and acumen for not only software development but also in the operations of the business put him in the position of leading the company and also working as its spokesperson. Bill personally observed and reviewed every line of code the company shipped, sometimes writing code himself when he felt and observe it is necessary. As the competition became high and computer industries began to grow and developed more and more with the companies like Intel, Apple, and IBM developing hardware and components, Gate was continuously out on the road touting the merits of the Microsoft software applications.

In November 1980, IBM was looking for software that would function and operate their upcoming personal computer (PC) and approached Microsoft. Bill convinced them that he and his company could fulfill their needs, only one problem was that Microsoft had not developed the basic operating system which would run the new computers of IBM. Bill bought an operating system that was developed to run on the computer related to IBM’s PC. Gates made a deal with a software developer, producing Microsoft as the exclusive licensing agent and after that full ownership of the software but not saying them of the IBM deal. For this act, the company later sued Microsoft and Bill Gates for withholding important information.

Microsoft settled out of court for a hidden amount, but neither Bill Gates nor Microsoft admitted to any wrongdoing. Bill had to adopt the newly bought software to work for the IBM Personal Computer (PC). Gates delivered it for a $50,000 fee, the similar price he had paid for the software in its original form. IBM wanted to purchase the source code, but Bill refused, instead proposing that the company pay a licensing charge for the copies of the software sold with their computers. Doing this permitted Microsoft to license the software they named or called MS-DOS to any other Personal Computer (PC) manufacturer, should other companies of the computer clone the IBM Personal Computer (PC) that they soon did. Microsoft also launched software named Softcard, which permitted Microsoft BASIC to operate on Apple II machines.

Between 1979 and 1981, Microsoft’s growth exploded and the company’s staff increased from 25 to 128. The company’s revenue also shot up from $2.5 million to $16 million. In the mid of the year of 1981 Bill Gates and Paul Allen incorporated Microsoft Bill was appointed the president and chairman of the board and Allen was named the executive vice president of the company.

In the year of 1983, Microsoft was moving global with offices in Great Britain and Japan, and with 30% of the world’s computers running on its software.

The Invention of Microsoft Windows

Microsoft and Apple shared several of their early innovations, though their rivalry is a legend. In the year of 1981, Apple invited Microsoft to assist or help develop software for Macintosh computers. Few developers were engaged in both Microsoft development and the development of the Microsoft applications for Macintosh. Here the collaboration could be noted in some shared names between the Microsoft and Macintosh systems.

Through this knowledge sharing, Microsoft was to develop Windows, a system that used a mouse to drive a graphic interface, images on the screen, and displaying text. Bill announced in an advertising campaign that the latest and new Microsoft operating system was going to be developed that would use a graphic interface.

In November 1985, Gates and Microsoft launched Windows, almost 2 years after Gate’s announcement. In March 1986, Gates took Microsoft public with an initial public suggestion or offering (IPO) of $21 per share. Bill held 45% of the company’s 24.7 million shares and Bill became an instant millionaire just at the age of 31. In 1987 Bill Gates became a billionaire when the stock increased to $90.75 a share. Since then, Bill Gates has been at the top or at least very near the top of the annual list of the top 400 wealthiest people in America. In the year of 1999, with stock rates at an all-time high and stock splitting eight-fold since its IPO, Bill Gates’s wealth briefly topped $ 101 billion.

Bill Gates’s intelligence allowed him to be able to observe all sides of the software industry, the development of the products, and corporate strategy. Gates’s confrontational management style no doubt became a legend as he would challenge employees and their new ideas to keep the creative process going. Outside of the company, Bill was gaining a reputation as a ruthless competitor. In 1989 Microsoft launched office, which bundled office productivity applications like Microsoft Word and Excel into one system that was very compatible with all the products of Microsoft. Microsoft‘s new version of Windows sold 100,000 copies in just 2 weeks.

Throughout the era of the 1990s, Microsoft faced a string of Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department investigations. At one stage, Microsoft faced a possible break up of its two divisions, software development, and operating systems. At that point Microsoft defended itself, harking back to Gate’s earlier clashes with software piracy and proclaiming that few restrictions were a threat to innovation. In time Microsoft was able to get a settlement with the Federal Government to neglect a breakup. Through it all, Bill found some inventive ways to repel the pressure with lighthearted commercials and also the public appearances at computer trade shows, during appearances he posed as Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. Bill continued to run the company.

Bill Gate’s Philanthropic Efforts

Bill Gates with his wife Melinda’s influence, took an interest in filling his mother’s role as a civic leader. Bill began to realize that he had an obligation to present more of his wealth for charity purposes. Being the consummate student he was, Bill studied the philanthropic activity of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller the titans of the American industrial revolution. Gates his wife Melinda 1994, established the William H. Gates Foundation, the foundation was dedicated to supporting and helping in world health, education, and investment in low-income communities. Bill and Melinda 2000, combined many family foundations to form the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The couple started out by making a $28 billion contribution to set up the foundation. In the history of the world Bill Gates is one of the richest and most successful businessmen, he has received many awards for philanthropic work. According to Time magazine, Bill Gates name is one of the most influential people of the 20 Century. In the list of the person of the year 2005, Gates and his wife Melinda are present on that list.

Not only award and in the top lists Gates’s name included, but he also holds so many honorary doctorates from different universities throughout the world, but Gates also holds an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire given by Queen Elizabeth II in the year of 2005.

Gates and his Wife Melinda were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the Mexican Government in 2006 for their philanthropic work throughout the world in the field of education and health.

In the year of 2014, Bill Gates announced that he would be stepping down as the chairman of Microsoft due to shifting into a new position as the technology advisor.

Bill Gates continues to devote much of his precious time and energy to the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Their foundation deals with international and domestic issues, like education and health.

In 2005, Bill Gates spoke out in support and favor of national Common Core standards in grades K through 12 and charter schools.

In 2015, Bill Gates gave $1 billion to clean energy projects, as he observes supporting new ‘greener’ technologies as an approach to help deal with global warming.

In 2016, Bill Gates and his wife were recognized for their philanthropic work, when both were named recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an award presented by Barack Obama.

Bill Gates has said that he has no use for money, and he will only leave a very small percentage of his total wealth to his children.

Bill Gates founded Microsoft, the world’s largest software business, and with Paul Allen, Bill Gates became one of the richest men in the world.

Bill Gates keeps pushing to save lives through efforts to eliminate diseases and expand childhood vaccinations. Both of them their foundation “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation” focused on K-12 education in the United States.