Who is Bill Gates is all about him. Bill Gates: biography and success story. Early start - childhood and youth

00:00 17.12.2012

There is probably no such person who has not heard or does not know who Bill Gates is. The name of this legendary man has already gone down in history, and his interviews and speeches are sorted into quotes. Bill Gates would have continued to be the richest man in the world according to Forbes if he had not transferred over $25 billion to a charitable account. Yes, and the story of a billionaire is like a fairy tale, in which the main character, working hard, achieved success and became one of the richest people on the planet.

Bill Gates Success Story

Bill Gates' real name is William Henry Gates III. The future billionaire was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle in the family of a lawyer and a teacher. Bill studied at one of the most prestigious schools, and everyone prophesied that he would become a lawyer. However, the boy "did not get along" with grammar and civics. But most of all, Bill loved mathematics and dreamed of becoming a professor. Already at school, Gates showed amazing programming abilities. At the age of 13, he wrote his first program - a computer game, and with his school friend (and future co-founder of Microsoft) Paul Allen even hacked into the database of one of the companies. For such an offense they were punished - to spend the whole summer without a computer. However, after the punishment expired, ComputerCentreCorporation, whose database was hacked by schoolchildren, invited them to find errors in their software. In return, they will use the company's computers for free and at any time. Thanks to this, the boys were able to learn several programming languages. After that company went bankrupt in 1970, schoolchildren were hired by InformationSciences to write a payroll program. Bill was never afraid to offer his projects to well-known companies, despite the fact that he was not even 18. So, at the age of 15, he sold a program to optimize traffic and read street traffic for 20 thousand dollars. Another project that Bill came up with while still in school was a timetable program. Thus, in the 10th grade, Bill himself taught computer science and programming at school.

Such a hobby for the computer forced Bill's parents to remove him from the computer and even take him to a psychiatrist. For a year without a computer, Bill Gates read the life stories of great people and continued to think through new projects in his head. At the age of 17, he received an order from which he earned $30,000.

After leaving school, Bill entered Harvard University, from which, a few years later, due to poor performance, he was expelled. Here he met Steve Ballmer, his future partner. Today, Steve is the company's vice president of sales and support.

Development of Microsoft

In 1975, Bill Gates invites his comrades to create a company that will develop software for personal computers. Despite the fact that this idea at that time seemed unpromising, and the first few orders did not bring the desired profit, Bill Gates was sure that their company would be the first, and he was right. Initially, their company was called "Micro-Soft", but after a few months the hyphen in the name disappeared, and on November 26, 1976, a new brand "Microsoft" was registered. Within five years, the company becomes a corporation run by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Microsoft also owns such developments as: a computer mouse, an MS-DOS text editor, and, of course, the Windows operating system, which continues to improve and develop even now. Gates' brainchild occupies a leading position in the software market, and competitors have long recognized Gates' victory in this area. Despite the fact that Bill is no longer the direct head of Microsoft, he continues to have a significant impact on the development of new products and cooperation with other companies. For example, it was Bill Gates who suggested the purchase of Skype and proposed the exchange of code between the Windows8 and WindowsPhone8 operating systems. At the end of 2008, Bill Gates finally left his company, handing over the reins to Steve Ballmer.

Other achievements of Bill Gates

In 1989 he founded the multimedia company Corbis;

In 1994, he bought the complete collection of Leonardo da Vinci's work, which is on display at the Art Museum in his hometown;

He wrote the book "The Road to the Future" in 1995, and in 1999 another one - "Business at the Speed ​​of Thought". All of Gates' books are recognized as bestsellers in America;

Creation in 2001 of the operating system WindowsXP;

In 2004, he connected his interests with Warren Buffett, with whom they founded a common company that combines several funds.

In 2005, the UK announced that Bill would be made a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his contribution to the alleviation of world poverty and involvement in English projects.

In June 2007, Harvard awarded Bill a diploma of education from this university. And he received it not for the fact that he graduated, but for outstanding services.

At the end of 2008 he registered his third company "bgC3".

Family and charity in the life of Bill Gates.

Bill is not only the father of a huge corporation, but also a wonderful family man. In 1994, he married Melinda French, who had previously worked for him at the company. They have three children. Bill loves to play bridge, reads a lot and loves to travel. His wife fully shares the views of her husband. So, together they created a charitable foundation and travel to third world countries, helping them not only financially, but also psychologically. As the billionaire himself says, the measure of the success of any businessman is saved lives and healthy children. He sincerely wonders why the world does not seek to help African children in the fight against those diseases from which people in other countries have not died for a long time. That is why Bill Gates does not spare money for charity: he allocated more than 6 billion dollars for medical needs and the purchase of vaccines to help Africa to save children already born. Thanks to his investments, new vaccines were invented and millions of lives were saved. Gates is sure that by the end of his life he will definitely achieve a reduction in mortality in such countries by at least 80%. Now in the field of health, he continues to actively fight malaria and polio, which he intends to eradicate completely.

In addition, Bill invests huge amounts in education and the development of innovative technologies. And also, together with Warren Buffett, he created the GivingPledge charitable organization, which encourages millionaires to donate half of their fortune. More than 70 people have already joined this campaign.

Despite the good intentions of the creator of a great corporation, many believe that he is too arrogant and plays God out of himself, which he does in order not to pay taxes, and many doctors are outraged that he pays great attention to vaccines without solving other problems medicine. And someone calls him a saint and the savior of the world. How many people, so many opinions. And, in the words of the philanthropist himself, I want to say: "Well, life is unfair - get used to it." In any case, we must give him his due that, donating a huge part of his fortune to charity, he understood that these amounts deprive him of the championship on Olympus of the richest people in the world. And continues to do so. So who is of great value to the world: a person who occupies all the top lines in the list of the richest and most influential people, or one who does not spare the billions earned for the future of the world, even to the detriment of his own profit? One thing is for sure: the world will never do without Bill Gates, the world needs him more than the world needs him.

• Personal qualities of Bill Gates
• Books by Bill Gates

Austrian psychologist, psychiatrist and thinker Alfred Adler, creator of the system of individual psychology, said that successful people are driven through life by the desire for superiority. Bill Gates, acknowledged as the father of the computer software industry, is the epitome of Adler's portrait of the successful person. US Today writes that "Gates is a man who competes even in who can throw the best party, and in business he proves himself to be decisive, combative and ruthless." Ink magazine describes Gates as "a restless bundle of energy."

The success story of Bill Gates is reminiscent of the American dream. Working hard, he achieved not only the prosperity of the company, but also the title of one of the richest people on earth. Now Gates' fortune is about 57 billion dollars in the list of the richest people in the world for 2011, annually published by Forbes magazine, Bill Gates took second place, with a fortune of $ 56 billion. I suggest you read the biography of Bill Gates and find out the story of his success.

Success Story, Biography of Bill Gates

Childhood and youth of Bill Gates

And the success story of Bill Gates began in the city of Seattle, Washington, just over half a century ago. date of birth Bill Gates is October 28, 1955. He was born to William Gates, a corporate lawyer, and Mary Maxwell Gates, a board member of First Interstate Bank.

Bill Gates went to the most privileged school in Seattle. His parents expected him to follow in his father's footsteps and attend Harvard Law School. However, Gates did not excel in grammar, civics and other subjects he considered trivial, by the seventh grade he became interested in mathematics and dreamed of becoming a professor. In 1968, when Bill and his schoolmate Paul Allen were in middle school, the school decided to buy computer time from General Electric. At that time, systems based on the DEC PDP-10 microarchitecture ruled the market.

It changed Bill's life. He and Allen got carried away in earnest, they even skipped classes in order to study all available computer literature. At the same time, Bill wrote one of his first programs - a simple simulator that allowed you to play against the machine. The school management underestimated its students, the computer time bought for the whole year was used up in a few weeks. Fortunately, a new student entered Lakeside, whose father was the chief programmer at the Computer Center Corporation. The school's new contract allowed Gates and his comrades to continue their experiments.

Young hackers quickly figured out the intricacies of the machine, found vulnerabilities and began to cause trouble - they cracked the protection, caused the system to crash several times, changed the files that recorded information about the computer time used. Noticing this, the CCC suspended them from working with computers for several weeks.

Meanwhile, the company's business began to suffer from constant failures and weak protection. Remembering the destructive activities of Lakeside computer scientists, the CCC invited
them to identify flaws and security holes. In return, the company offered endless computer time. Of course, Bill and his comrades could not refuse. That's when they went headlong into computers. The time of day lost its meaning, the guys hung out in the laboratory for hours. In addition to finding bugs, they studied every material about automated computing that came to hand and improved their skills.

In 1969, the Computer Center Corporation was in trouble again, and in 1970 it declared itself bankrupt. Lakeside students lost their jobs and access to computer time. There was nothing to do, I had to use my brains in a slightly different direction - to find a new place for self-realization. Fortunately, Paul Allen's father was working at the University of Washington at the time and had access to a computer center. Young programmers got down to business - they were looking for where they could apply their knowledge. The work itself came to them already in 1971, when Information Sciences hired the guys to write a program that would compile payrolls. In addition to unlimited computer time, employers agreed to pay developers every time their software made a profit.

Gates' other project during his school years was a program for scheduling classes. The loophole embedded in it constantly redefined Bill in classes with the most beautiful girls. In the tenth grade, Bill no longer studied computer science, but taught it.

A group of little programmers regularly received orders. Bill Gates, he says, was the initiator: "I was the guy who said, 'Let's call the real world and offer to sell it something.' And the most interesting thing is that he really found and sold - for example, he developed a program for optimizing traffic and sold it for $ 20,000. This is 15 years old!

The parents were somewhat frightened by such a hobby for their son and, by a strong-willed decision, removed him from computer projects. For a whole year, Bill did not approach the subject of his passion, reading biographies of great people from Napoleon to Roosevelt. But by the age of seventeen, Gates received an offer to write a software package for the distribution of energy at the Bonneville Dam, which his parents no longer objected to. For a year of work on this project, Gates received $30,000.

The last year of study at Lakeside brought Gates and Allen a new part-time job - TRW encountered a bug that Bill and Paul had found in Computer Center Corporation's computer. However, this time they were given a task of a completely different level - to correct the mistake. It is believed that it was at TRW that Bill Gates began to develop programming skills. Then they first started talking about creating a software company.

In 1973, Bill Gates entered Harvard University, intending to either follow in his father's footsteps or become a professor of mathematics. According to him, he was there in body, but not in soul. For most of his time at Harvard, he played pinball, bridge, and poker. How many stories do we know when a child prodigy, under the influence of circumstances or the environment, over the years became the same as everyone else, but this rule, fortunately, did not work with Bill Gates. Focus on victory, competitive spirit and a great desire to do better and more than others haunted him.

Gates' friend Paul Allen unexpectedly got a job at Honeywell in Boston, and he and Bill continued their nightly programming sessions. In 1974, Allen learns about the company's MITS personal computer Altair 8800. Gates plucked up courage and proposed a new programming language to the company that created this computer BASIC. He, of course, was cunning that the language was designed specifically for Altair, but the program went literally the first time. This option suited the managers, who offered young people to work on writing programming languages.

In the same year, Bill Gates proposes to create a software development company and gives it the name Microsoft (the first version had the spelling Micro-Soft). Despite the painstaking work of employees, the company at first experienced certain difficulties with the distribution of its products. The firm did not have sufficient funds to hire a good sales manager, so the mother of Bill Gates performed this function.

The first five Microsoft customers went bankrupt, but the guys did not despair and returned to Seattle in 1979. That year, Bill Gates was expelled from the university for absenteeism and poor progress, but this fact did not greatly upset the unfortunate student, since he received an offer from IBM to create an operating system for the world's first personal computer.

However, Bill Gates was forced to refuse IBM, because at that time he did not have the development to create an OS. Therefore, the head of Microsoft was forced to recommend that IBM seek help from its competitor, Digital Research, which would subsequently receive the task of developing the OS.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, having made time work for itself, buys the "raw" operating system 86-DOS for $50,000 from Seattle Computer and invites OS creator Tim Patterson to work. Bill Gates' company significantly improved 86-DOS, and MS-DOS soon saw the light, which Microsoft offered as an OS for the IBM PC, thus ahead of Digital Research. In September 1980, IBM entered into an extended contract with Microsoft. This contract was destined to change the history of the personal computer industry. Both IBM and Microsoft benefited. The debatable question is who won more. Gates' main competitor - Digital Research - changed the direction of the business and no longer participated in the competition (you can see how events unfolded in biopic"Pirates of Silicon Valley").

In 1981, Microsoft becomes a corporation, the management of which is shared by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. In the same year, IBM introduces its PC with 16-bit MS-DOS 1.0 operating system. In addition, the computer software includes other Microsoft products - BASIC, COBOL, Pascal and others.

During this period, it begins to develop rapidly. The first representative offices of the company appear in Europe and Great Britain. In 1982, Gates convinces IBM management that MS-DOS should also be licensed to other computer manufacturers, thereby competing with Apple, which by that time was selling its computers based on its own OS.

Then Microsoft thinks about creating an operating system based on the graphical interface that Apple already had at that time. But first, Microsoft is experimenting with GUI capabilities on its Word and Excel programs, which were designed specifically for Apple Macintosh computers.

In 1983, Microsoft creates the Mouse manipulator (mouse) for more convenient data entry into a computer with a graphical interface. In the same year, the corporation introduces a text editor for MS-DOS. In addition, Bill Gates' company announces Windows - operating system extension for MS-DOS as a universal operating environment for graphical applications.

In 1986, Microsoft shares go public. During the day, their value on the exchange rises from 22 to 28 dollars. In March 1990, the company announced the accrual of dividends on shares, while the shareholders were able to receive one more share as a gift.

Microsoft certainly dominates the industry - it owns 44 percent of the profits of the entire software market. This hinders the growth of their closest competitors. In 1991, Mitch Kapor, founder of rival Lotus, told reporters, “The revolution is over. Bill Gates won. The current software industry is the Kingdom of the Dead.”

People magazine considers Gates to be the epitome of a true entrepreneurial innovator. He says, "Gates is as much to the programming world as Edison is to the light bulb: part innovator, part entrepreneur, part merchant, but always a genius." Playboy, to all the praises of Gates, in 1991 added a story in which Microsoft is mentioned as the savior of the programming industry. "The role of DOS as a unified component of most PCs has helped solidify the position of the US as the epicenter of the global software industry." And Forbes magazine in April 1991 placed a photo of Gates on the cover and asked the question: "Can anyone stop him?"

In 1993, the number of registered users of Microsoft Windows is 25 million. Thus, Windows becomes the world's most popular operating system with a graphical interface. Microsoft also releases Windows NT, a line of operating systems designed for workstations and servers.

Two years later, Windows 95 was launched into production. The excitement that accompanied the sale of Windows 95 was so great that even people who did not have a computer stood in line for this operating system. In January 1996, 25 million copies of Windows 95 were sold.

In 1996-97, Microsoft introduced the next generations of Windows NT (4.0 and 5.0), which were significantly improved compared to the first version of this software.

In 1998, Windows 98 was born, which looks no different from Windows 95, except for improved internal features. Then comes Windows 2000, which is considered by many users to be Microsoft's best enterprise operating system.

Microsoft's ideology was and is a monopoly aimed at capturing "absolute power", and such things are not welcome in a modern democratic civil society, because everyone is equal in rights, and free competition is the engine of business and progress.

Unfortunately, against the backdrop of the success of their enterprise, Microsoft top management does not understand these simple truths and is constantly striving to capture a larger piece, which manifests itself in an aggressive marketing policy. In the mid-1990s, Microsoft went to war with Internet browser maker Netscape because it decided that the entire world should use its own browser, Internet Explorer, and included the latter in the next version of Windows.

Here the patience of the US antitrust authorities ended, which in 1998 filed a serious lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the corporation of dishonest treatment of competitors and consumers. Gates, who left the post of CEO of Microsoft and became the head of the board of directors and "chief software architect" (the title of the position he came up with himself), was then summoned for questioning by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who questioned him in total for about 17 hours.
Those present at the interrogation characterize Gates's behavior as evasive and unfriendly, he was cunning and tedious all the time, finding fault with insignificant trifles (in particular, demanding clarification of such terms as "compete", "ask" and "we") and denying conversations on the essence of the important topics. In response to the most sensitive questions, Gates said “I don’t remember” so often that even the judge himself began to smirk. Although prosecutors note that everything that Gates "did not remember" (mainly threats against competitors and dishonest business moves), is easily confirmed by the many emails that Gates sent or received.

Microsoft's top management once promised to "extinguish" and "strangle" Netscape, but refused to repeat this before the court. The process started in 1998 ended only by 2002, the corporation was forced to pay fines and penalties and to change approaches to business. The corporation promised, but changed little in its ideology, the wave of lawsuits against Microsoft does not stop to this day.

Other achievements of Bill Gates

In 2001, a new Microsoft operating system, Windows XP, went on sale, which appealed to users and is by far the most massive operating system in the world. By the end of 2006, Windows XP sold 538 million copies.

In 2004, Gates became an Investor when he connected his financial interests with the famous Warren Buffett. They co-founded Berkshire Hathaway. It's a company that combines funds from Geico (car insurance), Benjamin Moore (paints) and Fruit of the Loom (textiles). At one time, Gates acquired a stake in Bothell, a biotech company. As well as his corporation is a kind of fund in which the whole world invests.

Six years after the advent of Windows XP, the next generation of Microsoft's operating system, Windows Vista, and a new version of the Microsoft Office 2007 office suite are on sale.

On March 2, 2005, the British Foreign Office announced that Gates would be made a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, for his contribution to UK business and his efforts to alleviate world poverty. This is an analogue of the knighthood, which can only be received by a citizen of the United Kingdom, giving the right to be called "sir".

In June 2007, 34 years after entering Harvard, Bill Gates will receive a diploma from this educational institution. The leadership of one of the most prestigious universities in the world decided to give Gates, who left his studies of his own free will in 1975, a diploma for special merits.

In early January 2008, at the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show, the head of Microsoft Corporation announced (this statement was called the main event of CES-2008!) That in July he was leaving Microsoft. Gates said that he intends to come to grips with the management of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a charitable foundation created in 2000 with his wife, whose main goal is to support projects in the field of education and healthcare. With the money of this fund, the development of an AIDS vaccine is being carried out, programs of assistance, including medical assistance, to developing countries and their starving populations are being created, a lot of resources are spent on educational and scientific initiatives.

Gates' critics, however, point out that in percentage terms, Gates spends much less on philanthropy than is common among wealthy people. In addition, part of his donations goes to buy computers for schools, and the money allocated includes the cost of buying Windows and Office, that is, sent back to Microsoft.

Since the end of June 2008, Gates has moved away from active management of Microsoft. He transferred his powers to CEO Steve Ballmer, while simultaneously expanding the area of ​​responsibility of Craig Mundy and Ray Ozzy. It is this "troika" that now determines the course of the company. Despite this, Bill Gates does not break with the company for good. He remains the chairman of the Board of Directors (but without executive powers), and also remains the largest (8.7% of Microsoft shares) shareholder of the corporation.

After resigning from Microsoft, Bill Gates founded the third company "bgC3" means Bill Gates Company Three (Bill Gates' Third Company). In the certificate of registration, bgC3 is positioned as a “research (scientific) center”. bgC3 is not a commercial company, it will not engage in venture capital investments. In accordance with regulations, bgC3 is engaged in the provision of scientific and technological services, works in the field of analytics and research, and also creates and develops software and hardware.

Despite the departure of Gates, Microsoft continues to develop new products. For example, on October 22, 2009, Windows 7 went on sale, which is the successor to Windows Vista, but at the same time has better functionality. As of March 2011, sales of the Windows 7 operating system in the world reached 300 million units!!!

Personal qualities of Bill Gates

One of the most important character traits of Bill Gates is the ability to recognize the talent and intelligence of another person. "I don't hire fools," he claims. Sometimes Gates himself conducts an interview with a candidate for a vacant position and, if necessary, personally calls and persuades the right person. Despite the fact that Bill Gates values ​​his time very much, he understands that the main thing in business is intellectual capital. His team is a team of the best minds, the strongest programmers. Highly professional specialists are the real wealth of Microsoft. In terms of management theory, Bill Gates is the first intellectual property capitalist.

The desire to be the first always and everywhere, to do anything better than others, is a quality that has been inherent in Bill Gates since childhood. And it has borne fruit - dominance in the world market of the computer industry! Needless to say, more than 80% of all personal computers have Microsoft software installed - this is an undeniable success. But Bill Gates seems to be indifferent to him too: “Success is a bad teacher. He makes smart people think they can't lose."

Pragmatism in literally everything and hard work is another feature of this person. Work, work and work again - such an attitude is the core of the brainchild of Bill Gates. He considers rest a sign of weakness, so he works many hours every day, because he is convinced that if you stand in one place, the value of what you have achieved very quickly comes to naught. . Where, where, and in the world of computers, this is most noticeable. No wonder they say that if you have mastered a new program, then it is already outdated. This is for us, ordinary users, but what about the creators?!

Family and hobbies of Bill Gates

Gates is known as a strong family man - in 1994 he married Melinda French, who became Melinda Gates, in 1996 they had a daughter, Jennifer, in 1999, a son, Rory, in 2002, a daughter, Phoebe. Bill first met Melinda in 1987 at some Microsoft press briefing in New York. She, as it turned out, had been working for his company for a long time. Melinda left the service, marrying the "master". They now live in a luxury home near Seattle (Microsoft is also headquartered in the Seattle suburb of Redmond) that pays about a million dollars a year in property taxes.

The house is crammed with various kinds of electronics. It is located on the shores of Lake Washington and has an area of ​​40,000 square feet. The cost of the house is $40 million. The “House of the Future” consists of three interconnected pavilions made of glass and pine wood. On the hill - a garage for 30 cars. In the corner of the garage stands the museum's Mustang, Bill's first car. The first pavilion is mainly for the entertainment of guests. The Reception Hall overlooks the Olympic Mountains across Lake Washington. A good three dozen monitors make up a flat screen that spans the entire wall of the hall.
The visitor to the "house of the future" receives an electronic pin encoded with his "preferences" - movies, pictures, music, television shows. The system "learns" your tastes and remembers them during your first visit to the house.

The central pavilion is a library (for it, Gates acquired a number of various cultural values, among which is the Codex Leicester collection of works by Leonardo da Vinci. Since 2003, it has been exhibited at the Seattle Museum of Art). Above the hall hangs a giant dome with wooden inlays. Next to the library is a trampoline. Gates loves to jump on it, believing that jumping on a trampoline, as well as swinging in a chair, contributes to the concentration of thought. The "House of the Future" has a swimming pool that smoothly turns into a Japanese bath. Sometimes at night, Gates comes here to relax with his wife, Melinda. There is also a trout lake nearby. When the construction of the house began, Gates settled on a severe architectural style. But, having married, he made concessions to the softer Melinda. First of all, concrete was sacrificed for her elegant taste. Architects and builders rebelled, but resigned. The hostess of the present reigned in the “house of the future”.

What programmer doesn't like to drive fast?! Gates is a jerk. First, he had a Porsche 911, which he drove through the deserts of New Mexico. Paul Allen even had to get him out of prison, where he ended up for a speed violation. Gates then bought a Porsche 930 Turbo, which he dubbed the "Rocket." Then came the Mercedes, the Jaguar Huv, the Porsche Carrera Cabriolet 964, and finally the -959, for which he paid $380,000, but which he could not bring into America: the car did not meet US environmental standards. . In her absence, Gates "satisfied" with the Ferrari 348, which he soon ruined while riding in the dunes. For all that, Gates never used seat belts.

Bill Gates reads a lot and also likes to play golf and bridge.

Bill Gates often visits schools and always shares his experience and vision of global problems in his speeches. Each time he finishes his speech, he talks about 11 things he thinks they won't teach in school. He talks about how a politically correct upbringing has created a generation of children who are out of touch with reality and unable to survive in a harsh world.

1. 1. Life is not fair - get used to it.
   2. Society does not care about your SELF-ESTIMATION at all. ACHIEVEMENTS are expected from you first of all.
   3. You WILL NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You don't become a chauffeur-driven VP until you've earned both.
   4. If you think that the teacher is too harsh on you, that's just flowers. Wait until you have a boss.
   5. Frying hamburgers - below your dignity? Your grandparents thought differently. For them, frying hamburgers was an opportunity to get hooked in this life.
   6. If something doesn't work out for you, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine, LEARN from your mistakes. Change your attitude towards failure.
   7. Parents were not always as boring as you now think. Maybe constant concern for you made them like that? They feed you, clothe you, constantly listen to how wonderful you are. So before you criticize your parents' generation, start with yourself.
   8. Perhaps in your school it is not correct to openly call a loser a loser and there are no losers left in your school, but not in life. In some schools it is no longer possible to repeat the year because you are given MANY attempts to PASS the exams, as it takes to transfer to another class. In life, everything is COMPLETELY different.
   9. Life is not divided into semesters. You won't have summer vacation and your employer won't help you FIND YOURSELF. You will have to do it yourself in your spare time.
   10. TV doesn't show REAL life. In real life, you won’t be able to sit in a cafe all day and chat with friends.
   11. More kindly with the "nerds". One of them might be your boss after graduation.

Books by Bill Gates

Few people know that Gates is also a writer. In 1995, Bill Gates wrote the book The Road Ahead, in which he outlined his views on the direction in which society is moving in connection with the development of information technology. The book was co-written with Nathan Myhrvold, Vice President of Microsoft, and journalist Peter Rinearson. For seven weeks, The Road to the Future was number one on the New York Times bestseller list. The book was published in the United States by Viking and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for a total of 18 weeks. The Road to the Future has been published in more than 20 countries. Over 400,000 copies have been sold in China alone.

In 1996, when Microsoft refocused on the Internet, Gates made significant adjustments to the book. The second edition reflects the idea that the emergence of interactive networks is an important milestone in the history of human development. The second edition of the book, published in paperback, also became a bestseller.

In 1999, Bill Gates wrote Business @ the Speed ​​of Thought, a book that shows how information technology can solve business problems in a whole new way. This book, co-authored with Collins Hemingway, has been published in 25 languages ​​and is sold in more than 60 countries. Business at the Speed ​​of Thought was critically acclaimed and was featured on the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon.com bestseller lists. By the way, he was one of the first who offered the world the ideas of forming lean logistics. It is curious that Bill's book was published in 25 languages ​​of the world, that's how he became known even where his company's products were not even used.

It is also written and rewritten about the investor himself and the richer. There are at least a hundred publications in official sources that can be called reference books on the biography of this person. Perhaps Bill is not the only one who did not escape the compromising facts from his biography, described by various meticulous journalists, but it was he who went his own way with heroic fortitude, not paying attention to public clowns. "Janet Lowe. Bill Gates Speaks" - this book has become one of the most published in the last century. It evaluates the idea of ​​​​Bill's personality, as a personality that is bright and influencing the world in a scary concept. Almost diabolical escapades were found in his labor activity, and in Billet itself the rudiments of the idea of ​​the destruction of the world.

Not so long ago, a film was made about Bill Gates. It was titled "Bill Gates: How a Freak Changed the World". And as you might guess, it tells a story about the childhood, growing up and business path of Bill Gates - a man who will go down in history forever. There is another film, "Pirates of Silicon Valley", but it is dedicated not so much to Bill Gates, but to all those who stood at the origins of IT technologies: Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, etc.

Whatever people say about Gates, it is impossible not to recognize his influence. He is famous, he is famous, this world needs him more than the world needs him - that's for sure.

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William Henry Gates III (William Henry Gates III). Born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, USA. Better known as Bill Gates. American entrepreneur and social activist, philanthropist, co-founder (with Paul Allen) and former largest shareholder of Microsoft.

Until June 2008, he was the head of the company, after leaving his post, he remained in the position of its non-executive chairman of the board of directors. He is also co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In the period from 1996 to 2007, in 2009 and in 2015 - the richest man on the planet according to Forbes magazine. His fortune in March 2015, according to Forbes magazine, is estimated at $79.2 billion, an increase of $13.2 billion compared to September 2012. This made him the richest person in the United States 20 times in a row and the first in the world 16 times (the second was Carlos Slim Elu with his family, his fortune is estimated at $ 77.1 billion).

Bill Gates is one of the world's biggest philanthropists: between 1994 and 2010, he donated over $28 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In February 2010, Gates made an offer to all billionaires to donate half of their wealth for charitable activities.

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, the son of corporate attorney William Henry Gates II and board member of First Interstate Bank, Pacific Northwest Bell, and United Way National Council Mary Maxwell Gates. Gates has 2 sisters: the eldest is Christy and the youngest is Libby.

Gates attended Seattle's most privileged school, Lakeside, where he developed his programming skills on the school's minicomputer. At the age of thirteen, Bill wrote his first program - the game "Tic-Tac-Toe" in the BASIC programming language. In the eighth grade, in a programming class, he met tenth grader Paul Allen. With his friends, Gates was testing a PDP-10 computer from Digital Equipment Corporation, owned by Computer Center Corporation (CCC).

When the time allotted for Bill and his friend Paul to work in the CCC expired, they hacked into the program. For computer hacking, four students at the school - Rick Wayland, Kent Evans, Paul Allen and Bill Gates - were banned from working on computers throughout the summer. The initiator of the punishment was the Computer Center Corporation, whose computer was hacked by the students. At the end of the punishment, the students offered the company to find bugs in their software for the opportunity to work on the company's computers. The company agreed, and Gates and his comrades studied many software sources written in languages ​​such as FORTRAN, LISP, and machine code.

This cooperation continued until 1970, until the company went bankrupt. The following year, Information Sciences, Inc. hired four students (including Bill and Paul) to write a payroll program. The program was needed in the Cobol language, in return the guys received free working time on the PDP-10. They called their company Lakeside Programming Group, but they could not complete the work.

At school, Gates did not excel in grammar, civics, and other subjects he considered trivial, but received top marks in math. By the end of elementary school, Gates' bad behavior began to worry his parents and teachers so much that he was referred to a psychiatrist.

At 17, Gates, Paul Allen, and Paul Gilbert founded Traf-O-Data. The name was coined by Gates from "jack-o'-lantern" - pumpkin lantern. The company's goal was to create meters to read traffic and generate reports for road engineers. The Traf-O-Data device was sold from 1972 to 1982. and as a result, $ 794.31 remained in the company's account.

December 25, 1972 (Christmas Day) Bud Pembroke, who hired Bill and Paul to work for Information Service Inc., invited them to work for TRW. A large software project was underway for the Bonneville Energy Authority using the PDP-10.

In 1973, Bill Gates entered Harvard University, where he met his future partner, Steve Ballmer. After 2 years, Gates was expelled and immediately began to create software.

In January 1975, Paul Allen read an article in Popular Electronics magazine about the new Altair 8800 personal computer. After reading the article, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) president Ed Roberts and told him that he and his friend are working on the software for this computer (although in fact Gates and Allen had nothing to do with the Altair 8800, but they emulated that processor).

The president of MITS invited Paul into his office and he demonstrated a working BASIC interpreter for their computer, and a few weeks later Paul and Bill were working at MITS. They thought of calling their company "Allen and Gates", but they thought it was more suitable for a law office, and then Paul suggested - Micro-Soft, from microprocessors and software. In the credits of the BASIC language interpreter, created by them on the order of MITS, the friends included the following line: "Micro-Soft BASIC: "Paul Allen wrote the supporting codes. Bill Gates wrote the executable codes. Monte Davidoff wrote a mathematical library".

In 1975, Bill was arrested for the first time, for speeding and driving without a driver's license, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After that, he began to swear with the policeman and he was put in a "bad" cell, where there were drunkards and it was not cleaned. Bill made the required one call to Paul Allen, who raised the last of his money to get Bill out. "Micro-Soft" was created specifically to develop programs for MITS, in Albuquerque. Within a year of working for MITS, the hyphen in Gates and Allen's company name disappeared, and on November 26, 1976, a new trademark "Microsoft" was registered with the New Mexico District Office. Paul got 36% of the company, Bill 64%, basically how Bill saw the contribution to the product.

In a joint business, Paul Allen was engaged in technical ideas and promising developments, negotiations, contracts and other business communication turned out to be closer to Gates. And yet, the friends solved the main issues together - sometimes, as Gates later admitted, the disputes continued for 6-8 hours in a row.

In the mid-1970s, the CP/M operating system was the most popular operating system for computers based on the Intel 8080 and Zilog Z80. In 1980, IBM began searching for a suitable operating system for the IBM PC. It was originally planned to use CP / M for it. Negotiations were held with Digital Research, owned by Gary Kildall and his wife. However, the deal did not take place, and IBM entered into an agreement with a small company Microsoft (whose mother, Bill Gates, was the chairman of the executive committee at United Way International, along with two very influential heads of the IBM computer market monster, John Opel and John Akers (John Opel, president since 1981, then John Akers, president since 1985).

Microsoft did not have its own operating system for the Intel 8086 processors, so it licensed 86-DOS (QDOS) from Seattle Computer Products, which was a 16-bit clone of CP/M. Subsequently, Microsoft completely bought the rights to 86-DOS, after which, after working on it, it was fully adapted to IBM personal computers, earning $50,000. This is how the MS-DOS operating system appeared and the collaboration between Microsoft and IBM began.

In 1977, Gates was arrested a second time, for running a red light and, again, for driving without a driver's license.

In 1980, Microsoft signed a contract with IBM to develop MS-DOS for IBM. But Microsoft missed the deadline by handing over the source code for faster development to IBM in 1981. This crude system featured a demo game called "DONKEY.BAS" made by Bill Gates and Neil Konzen. "DONKEY.BAS" was a techno-demo of the PC-DOS system and the BASIC language, and is the forerunner of all IBM PC games. In this game you drive a racing car and you have to avoid donkeys. In 2012, this game was re-released for Windows Phone 7.5/8 (free to download), iOS (worth $0.99).

Next, Microsoft is working on an entirely new operating system, inspired by Xerox and Apple. Cooperation with IBM continued and on November 20, 1985, a new operating system, Microsoft Windows, appeared. Thus began the era of Windows - the operating system that glorified and made Gates the richest man.

In 1989, Gates founded the multimedia company Corbis, was arrested a third time, on charges of drunk driving.

In 1994, Gates acquired the Codex Leicester, a collection of works by Leonardo da Vinci. It has been on display at the Seattle Museum of Art since 2003.

In 1995, Bill Gates wrote the book The Road Ahead, in which he outlined his views on the direction in which society is moving in connection with the development of information technology. In 1996, when Microsoft refocused on the Internet, Gates made significant adjustments to the book.

In 1997, Gates spoke via video link in Boston at the Macworld Expo, where they talked about the development of MS Office, IE, Java products for the Macintosh, investing $ 150 million in Apple. The broadcast of Bill's performance was on the big screen and it was like Big Brother's performance in Apple's 1984 commercial.

In 1997, Gates was extorted by Chicago resident Adam Quinn Pletcher. Gates testified at the ensuing trial. Pletcher was found guilty and sentenced in July 1998 to six years in prison.

The following episode gives some idea of ​​Gates's religious views: when asked by The Times magazine if he believes in God, Gates replied: "I have no facts testifying to him."

Gates donated money to George W. Bush's 2004 presidential campaign, according to Forbes magazine. According to the Center for Responsible Politics, Gates donated at least $33,335 to more than 50 political campaigns during the 2004 election.

In 1999, Bill Gates wrote the book Business @ the Speed ​​of Thought, which shows how information technology can solve business problems in a whole new way. Of particular note is the fact that the ideas of Bill Gates are in good agreement with the concept of lean manufacturing.

This book has been published in 25 languages ​​and is sold in more than 60 countries around the world. "Business at the Speed ​​of Thought" received critical acclaim and was featured on the New York Times, America Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon.com bestseller lists.

On December 14, 2004, Bill Gates joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway, thus formalizing his relationship with Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate that includes Geico (car insurance), Benjamin Moore (paints) and Fruit of the Loom (textiles). Gates also sits on the board of Bothell's biotech company Icos.

On March 2, 2005, the British Foreign Office announced that Gates would be made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to British businesses and his efforts to alleviate world poverty.

At the end of 2005, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates were named People of the Year by the American magazine Time.

On January 7, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intention to step down as CEO of Microsoft Corporation in July 2008, switching his activities to charity.

On June 15, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intention to leave his permanent job at Microsoft from July 2008. After leaving his post, he intends to devote himself entirely to managing the charitable foundation the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

June 27, 2008 was the last for Bill Gates as head of Microsoft. Despite this, he does not break with the company for good - Gates will remain chairman of the Board of Directors (without executive powers), will be engaged in special projects, and will also remain the largest (8.7% of Microsoft shares) shareholder of the corporation. In 2008, Gates resigned as president of Microsoft Corporation, in 2010 he left the post of chief executive officer. Both positions were given to Steve Ballmer. In December 2011, he denied rumors about his possible return to the management of the company.

At the end of October 2008, in the city of Kirkland (Washington, USA), Bill Gates registered his third company called "bgC3". Unverified sources claim that "bgC3" stands for Bill Gates Company Three (Third Bill Gates Company). It was announced that it will be a research center, whose tasks will include the provision of scientific and technological services, work in the field of analytics and research, as well as the creation and development of software and hardware.

Since 2009, Bill Gates has been publishing on the official website of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "Bill Gates Annual Message", which talks about the achievements of his charitable organization, and also makes plans for the future.

Bill Gates Personal Life:

On January 1, 1994, Gates married Melinda French. They have three children - Jennifer Katharine (born 1996), Rory John (born 1999) and Phoebe Adele (born 2002).

About 50 years ago in 1968, a very young teenager, William Henry Gates, known as Bill Gates, was one of the first to realize the role of computers and computer programs in his life and the lives of people around the world.

The story of a man obsessed with the idea of ​​success begins on the West Coast of the United States in the city of Seattle. Born in 1955, Gates grew up in a wealthy family in one of the city's best neighborhoods. His father was a successful lawyer and his mother was a housewife.

Parents from early childhood engaged in the education of Bill, and tried to instill in him a competitive spirit. They wanted their son to strive to be the best in everything.

His father was a great example, he was one of the most influential and successful lawyers in the city. At 10, Bill's only goal was to be as successful as his father. Unlike his classmates who played baseball, Bill immersed himself in reading a 22-volume encyclopedia, studying every page.

His teachers said that his IQ was over 180 (above genius level), he had a photographic memory. He was very purposeful. His fate was sealed at Lakeside High School when he was 12 years old. It was here in 1967 that he entered the obscure world of computers and discovered what defined his life.

At the age of 12, Bill Gates foresaw the future, he believed that computers would change people's lives. Intuition told him that the revolution will be made by programs, not machines.

In 1968, he meets Paul Allen, who was 2 grades older, and become good friends who have a huge craving for computers. They developed the first program together, this program automatically compiled the school schedule. A lot of time was spent on development, and in the end they achieved their goal. The program was unique, far more flexible than any off-the-shelf product at the time. For this, the school director wrote them a bonus, at the age of 15, Bill received his first check for $ 500. From that day on, he believed that the development of computer programs could generate income.

By the age of 17, after graduating from school, Bill Gates set himself the goal of making a programming business, but not many believed in it. The parents thought it was nonsense and did not want to waste time discussing this idea. In their opinion, the son should become a lawyer like his father.

Immediately after school, Bill went to the other side of the country to Boston. He followed in his father's footsteps and entered the prestigious Harvard University. Soon the students were taken over by the demonic world of computers.

During his time at Harvard, he loved parties and poker nights. But in 1974, his life changed dramatically when he came across an article about a strange metal box ( for the first time, the Altair desktop computer was released for sale). The general public took no notice of him, but Bill Gates received a sign that his bold plan was becoming a reality.

Bill and his old school friend Paul Allen decided to develop a program for this computer. For a month they worked day and night. They used university computers, which broke all the rules, they were not given permission to use the equipment for such purposes. In addition, he took Paul Allen, who did not study at Harvard, to the computer center.

The Harvard administration found out about this and launched an investigation. Bill was given a light warning. But he wasn't bothered by the claims.

Soon the comrades managed to achieve their goal. They developed the program, and sold it to the developer "Altair" for $3,000.

In 1975, Bill and Paul, with the money received from the first contract, open their own company called "Microsoft".

• Micro- from the word microcomputer
• Soft- programs

Shortly after opening the company, Bill Gates drops out of school and prefers to deal only with his company. Parents asked to return to study at Harvard, but it was useless.

Back on the West Coast, the Microsoft duo settled into a small office (100m2) in a suburb of Seattle, on the 8th floor.

In 1977, Bill Gates served a short sentence for dangerous driving.

At 24, Bill Gates made a deal that turned him into the most powerful person in the computer industry, he signed a golden contract with IBM (the largest American corporation that employed 350,000 people worldwide) and promises the impossible. He assured IBM that he would create an operating system for their computers. This task was much more difficult than anything he had done before.

Bill Gates did not begin to create a system from scratch, but decided to buy an already developed one from his friend for 50 thousand dollars.

Gates had a great idea, he did not sell the operating system, and asked for a percentage of the profits from sales of computers. For each machine sold, Microsoft owed about $3. The only requirement, the contract was indefinite.

Personal computers were a huge success, they appeared on the shelves in the summer of 1981, and the first 50,000 pieces were sold out in 3 months. America discovered computers, they took over schools, houses, offices. Computers quickly sold out, and this made the young partners rich, and Microsoft a well-known company.

In 1983, Microsoft's turnover reached $100 million.

In 1984, TIME magazine called Gates' programs "Magic inside machines."

Well, Bill Gates has one obstacle left to conquer the world. The obstacle that threatened his success was a man named , he, like Gates was 27 years old, he also founded the Apple computer company, but unlike Gates, he produced computers. Steve Jobs created the pioneering Macintosh machine that threatened the position of Bill Gates. It was the first computer to which you can connect a mouse, icons and windows appeared on the screen, it was a revolution, now even a child could use a computer. All this became possible thanks to the new brains, the operating system developed by Apple. By all accounts, it was 10 years ahead of Bill Gates' operating system.

Bill Gates wanted to hack the mac system. He needed to develop the same avant-garde system as apple, under his own brand, and sell it to apple competitors. He supplied software to apple, the engineers had no reason to fear their supplier. Bill Gates took advantage of their carelessness and learned the secrets of the mac.

In 1985, Bill Gates releases a new Windows system and offers it to all Apple competitors. The PC began to catch up with the sales of the Mac, as it was half the price.

In 10 years, 95% of computers in the world were running windows operating system.

In 1995, the 40-year-old businessman reached his peak, his company knew no equal and dominated the computer industry.

The incredible success of Bill Gates shocked America, newspapers called him the master of the universe. He became the 95 richest man in the world. His personal fortune was estimated at $13 billion.

On October 10, 1998, Bill Gates appeared in court, the details of the process were covered by the entire world press. The US Department of Justice has launched a lawsuit against Microsoft. The accusation was one of the most serious in the US, abuse of monopoly power to win the battle for the Internet. He risked losing everything.

The prosecution was well prepared, evidence was found that Bill Gates and his colleagues were blackmailing computer manufacturers. During the trial, the Americans were shocked to see Bill Gates from a new perspective.

As a result, the credibility of Bill Gates was undermined. He was portrayed in the press as an evil dictator.

During the process, Microsoft shares fell 30%. Gates' own fortune was halved. The businessman has lost his legendary confidence. The process dragged on for 4 long years. In 2002, microsoft was found guilty. The court ruled on the division of the company into 2 parts, it was under state surveillance, it was forbidden to repeat the contested methods. In the end, the court went to a settlement agreement, and Microsoft managed to get away with it.

Bill Gates regretted the damage done to his image. He quickly set about fixing it.

Together with his wife, he begins to travel through the slums of the 3rd world. Now his goal was to eradicate poverty and disease. He has become a worldwide goodwill ambassador, participating in charity concerts and samets all over the world along with other celebrities. He created a fund to fight poverty, to which he donated a significant part of his huge fortune, more than $ 24 billion. He donates more to charity than the World Health Organization.

In 2005, TIME magazine named him Man of the Year.

In June 2008, Bill Gates stepped down from Microsoft management.

Today Bill and his wife travel all over the world helping the poor and disadvantaged. His foundation is the largest charitable organization in the world.

Sincerely, Alexander Fadeev!

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