Bill Gates, who was named William Henry Gates III at birth, was born in 1955 in the well-known American city of Seattle. The father of the future billionaire was a lawyer, his mother held a fairly high position in the banking system, that is, it is impossible to call the family quite simple. In addition to this, his grandfather and great-grandfather held senior positions in finance and politics. However, Bill did not become a lawyer, nor a bank employee, let alone a politician, but went the difficult path of a programmer. In addition to him, there were two more girls in the family – the older and younger sisters.
Bill Gates showed a penchant for programming from an early age. This was facilitated to some extent by the fact that he studied at the prestigious Lakeside School, where computer labs were already equipped in those years. The first creation was a simple program, ordinary tic-tac-toe, translated into a programming language. From that moment on, a serious hobby for computer topics begins, Bill and his friends spent a lot of time in front of the monitor, constantly improving their skills.
Already at the age of 15, cooperation with companies working in the field of high technologies begins. As a schoolboy, Bill was already so well-versed in computers that the two companies worked with him and his comrades, that is, they had a business relationship. Of course, this was not direct financial cooperation, but the very fact that the student attracted the attention of business speaks volumes.
And by the age of 17, Gates had founded the first company whose product was the software used in road calculations. Surprisingly, it was used for a whole decade, that is, by that time the well-known Microsoft had already been created.
After school, Billy Gates went to the most prestigious educational institution in the country – Harvard. However, his training within the walls of the university was neither long nor glorious. After two years the student was expelled. Subsequently, in the spirit of the American education system, he was awarded a diploma and then awarded a doctorate. That is, Bill Gates is positioned as a Harvard graduate.
Microsoft and the beginning of a career takeoff
After leaving the university, Bill Gates is completely focused on work, and together with his partner he is looking for a permanent job, the result of this search was the MITS company, it is with her that the path to big money begins. As ordinary employees, they eventually decided to create their own company, and already on behalf of this company, do business with MITS. This is how Microsoft appeared, but at the beginning, the name was written with a hyphen, then it was removed.
At this point, a change in their vector of activity of Gates himself begins to appear, he increasingly began to deal with the issue of negotiations, administration, and the conduct of the business itself, while his main partner Allen was mostly occupied with the technical side of the issue of the company’s work, new developments, and so on.
Even though friends made any important decisions about the future together, Gates constantly tried to increase his share as Microsoft grew. As a result, this led to the fact that Gates was left alone, having bought shares from Allen, however, not all. At the same time, Paul took a seat on the board of directors of the growing firm. Someone may say that it was a huge stupidity to sell shares of a company that later became a giant, but competent investment activities led to the fact that Allen became a very, very rich man even without Microsoft. Gates, on the other hand, gave himself completely to the development of Microsoft, and for some time the first version of Windows known to all today appeared. This moment can be considered the beginning of a dizzying advance on the Forbes list.
Ranks and achievements
During his life, Bill Gates received many different titles and awards, including those outside the United States. Many of them are connected precisely with his charitable activities, while others evaluate exclusively his business qualities. Among the main ones are the following:
- The richest person in the world (1996-2007 and 2009-2016).
- One of the leaders in the list of philanthropists in terms of the number of funds donated to charity. The total amount of deductions is over $ 30 billion.
- The title of Man of the Year with his wife in 2005 according to Time magazine.
- The fourth place in the list of the most influential people in the world (2012), which is an amazing result for a businessman, since the first lines are usually occupied by politicians.
- In 2019, Gates crossed the $ 100 billion threshold.
- Knight Commander title awarded for his investment and charitable work in the UK.
- Bauer Prize 2010, awarded for the advancement of scientific progress and leadership in the business environment.
- Order of the Aztec Eagle was received in Mexico for recognition of merit.
- Padma Bhushan, obtained in India (the country is known for the rapid development of information technology and a huge number of talents).
- Presidential Medal of Freedom for Contribution to U.S. Security.
