Droppedout to billionaire Bill Gates

The Story of Bill Gates's Success

Birthday: 28-10-955

Father: William H. Gates

Profession: Lawyer

Mother: Mary Maxwell

Profession: Businesswoman

Born: Seattle, USA

Children: 3

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Awards: Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society (1994)

              Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2005)

              Padma Bhushan (2015)

              Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016)

               Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun (2020)

               Hilal-e-Pakistan (2022)

Introduction:

 ·  Early Interest in Computers

·         In 8th grade, Lakeside’s Mothers’ Club purchased a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and computer time on a GE computer.

·         Wrote his first computer program: a tic-tac-toe game allowing users to play against the computer.

·         Fascinated by computers’ precision in executing software code.

·         Along with Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans, accessed DEC PDP-10 systems at Computer Center Corporation (CCC) but was later banned for exploiting system bugs.

·  Early Ventures

·         At 17 years old, co-founded Traf-O-Data with Paul Allen, creating traffic counters using the Intel 8008 processor.

·         Served as a congressional page (1972).

·         National Merit Scholar.

·  Education

·         Graduated from Lakeside School (1973).

·         Enrolled at Harvard University, studied mathematics and computer science.

·         Met Steve Ballmer (later Microsoft’s CEO, 2000–2014).

·         Collaborated with Christos Papadimitriou on algorithms; Gates’ pancake sorting algorithm was the fastest in the world for decades.

·  Path to Microsoft

·         Worked at Honeywell (1974) with Paul Allen.

·         Saw opportunity in computer software as personal computing began to grow.

·         Left Harvard in 1975 to start his own company, with his parents’ support (they encouraged him to return if it failed).

·         Co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen.

·  Achievements

·         Became a billionaire in 1987 at the age of 31.

·         Ranked as the world’s richest person (1995–2007) by Forbes.

·         According to Forbes (2025), his net worth is $115.1 billion.

·         Currently the richest person in the world.

 Microsoft 

When Microsoft granted IBM a license to run MS-DOS on its first microcomputer, the IBM PC, the company's clout in the microcomputer sector grew. IBM established the PC industry's technical benchmark, and MS-DOS drove out rival operating systems. By the 1990s, Gates had turned the PC industry into the ultimate kingmaker by forcing IBM to rely on him for critical software, even though Microsoft was now independent. 

Gates became the richest private individual in the world in 1986 when Microsoft's success made him a paper billionaire. He initially avoided the spotlight, unobtrusively managing humanitarian and civic matters. But Gates gained more notoriety as Microsoft's influence and standing increased and the antitrust division of the US Justice Department took an interest. Supporters praised his business sense, adaptability, and desire to use software to increase the use of computers and electronics, while opponents characterized him as motivated and determined to make money from electronic transactions.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a donation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was established in 1994 by Microsoft executive Bill Gates to support Pacific Northwest initiatives and worldwide health initiatives. Minority study fellowships and libraries in North America were also supported by the charity. 41% of the foundation's 2006 funding came from Warren Buffett, with the remaining portion coming from Gates's Microsoft wealth. Gates declared in May 2025 that he would give the foundation 99% of his $107 billion remaining fortune. This would enable the foundation to spend $200 billion over 20 years until closing its doors in 2045. Before closing, the foundation wants to concentrate on high-impact objectives like eliminating polio, lowering childhood hunger, and managing illnesses like malaria.

Career and transition

Bill Gates, former chairman of Microsoft, shifted his focus to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2008, stepping down in 2014 but remaining on the board until 2020. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 and divorced his wife in 2019.

Influence and legacy
Whether Gates' remarkable achievement will secure him a permanent position in the annals of great Americans is still up in the air. Historians will probably consider him, at the very least, a businessman as significant to computers as John D. Rockefeller was to oil. In his 1995 best-selling book The Road Ahead, Gates himself demonstrated a keen understanding of the dangers of success when he wrote, "Success is a lousy teacher." It fools intelligent individuals into believing they are unbeatable.

Sources

1. "Bill Gates (American computer programmer, businessman, and philanthropist)." Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Retrieved March 20, 2013.

2. Manes, Stephen (1994). Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry and Made Himself the Richest Man in America. Touchstone Pictures. ISBN 0-671-88074-8.

3. Gates, Bill (1996). The Road Ahead. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-026040-4.

4. Hitt, Michael; Ireland, R. Duane; Hoskisson, Robert (2012). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases: Competitiveness and Globalization. Cengage Learning. p. 263. ISBN 978-1-111-82587-4. Retrieved October 25, 2015.

5. The History of Microsoft – 1976 Archived February 11, 2017, at the Wayback Machine:Bill Gates explaining that his departure from Harvard was reversible if Microsoft had failed.

6. Britannica.com