American business magnate, computer programmer, entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, well known for his masterstroke establishing Microsoft Corporation, world largest PC software company.
Henry Bill Gates, born on October 28, 1995, in Seattle, Washington, was a son of William H.Gates Senior. His father was a retired lawyer and mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, a businesswoman. Gates showed early signs of competitiveness and did well in coordinated family athletic games at their summer house.
Early childhood and studies:
Gates accomplished his Lakeside School in Seattle, where he flourished an interest in computing along excelling in nearly all subjects. The mother’s club used proceeds from Lakeside School’s rummage sale to purchase a teletype terminal for students to use. Gates was fascinated with what a computer could do and spent his free time working on a terminal. He wrote a tic-tac-toe program in a BASIC computer language that granted user to play against the computer.
Gates enrolled at Harvard University in 1973, pursuing a career in law. He was dropped out of college to start Microsoft along with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Being a voracious reader in his childhood, he spent many hours poring over reference books encyclopedia. Gates spent most of his time in the computer lab rather than in class. He did not have a keen interest in the study, and he didn’t have a proper study regimen. He got a few hours of sleep, crammed a test and passed the exam with a reasonable grade.
Gates developed a payroll program for a computer company and founded Traf-O-Data, a company that sold traffic-counting systems in Seattle to local governments. Allen and Gates wanted to establish their own company, but Gates’ parents wanted him to be honoured with a degree and complete his studies for becoming a lawyer.
Allen performed his studies at Washington State University while Gates went to Harward, the pair stayed in touch for long. After two years of a college degree, Allen dropped out and moved to Boston, Massachusetts to work for Honeywell. In this time, he showed Gates, Altair 8800 mini-computer kit which was featured in Popular Electronics magazine. Both men were fascinated with possibilities of what this computer could bring out in the world of personal computing.
Altair was formed by a small company in Albuquerque in New Mexico known as Micro Instrumentation and telemetry system. Gates and Allen called the company and proclaimed that they were working on a BASIC software program that would make Altair computer run. However, in reality, they were not equipped with it. The MITS president asked boys for a demonstration, and soon they were hired for the company. They together found the company Microsoft and remained together until 1983 when Allen quit his job.
Foundation of Microsoft:
In 1979, Allen and Gates moved to Seattle when Micorosft hit the big time. Gates recognized that IBM was having trouble obtaining an operating system for its PC. Later, he brought an existing operating system for Small Seattle company for about $50,000 and developed MS-DOS and licensed it to IBM. After IBM PCs were released, there were many cloners in the market like Compaq that began producing similar compatible PCS and soon the market was full of clones.
Soon the MS-DOS became the standard operating system for industry and sale spiked from $7.5 million in 1980 to $16 million in 1981. Microsoft expanded into applications software and grew until 1984 when Apple introduced Macintosh computers. Mac sleek graphical user interface was faster compared to MS-DOS and threatened the Microsoft program obsolete.
Soon, Gates announced that Microsoft had developed its own GUI interface known as Windows. Gates took Microsoft public in 1986 to generate capital and IPO was roaring success, soon he raises about $61 million and becomes the wealthiest person in the country overnight.
Though the launch was not exactly the breakthrough as Gates predicted. Windows were slow and cumbersome, but constant efforts and dedication created a subsequent version which ran faster and froze less frequently. Till 1993, Windows sold about 1 million copies per month and estimated to run on nearly 85 per cent of the world’s computers.
Gone with pros and cons, Gates secured billions and success in the business till the date.
Through technological innovation, keen business strategy and dynamic business tactics have made Bill Gates the world’s richest men in the world.
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