Gates Bill (Bill Gates). Bill Gates What education does Bill Gates have?

Bill Gates. Judging by the fact that this article has interested you, this name is familiar to you.

Bill Gates is the founder of the well-known software company Microsoft. Its motto is “a computer on every table and in every home.” And the fact that you are reading this article clearly demonstrates that it works.

There are many people who admire this man, but he also has plenty of critics. Bill Gates is certainly an extraordinary person. This means that giving it an unambiguous assessment is a very difficult task.

But this is not our goal today.

Those who want to succeed in life have a golden rule: “Learn from successful people.”

Following him, in this article we will try to figure out what personal qualities of Bill Gates helped him rise to the top of Olympus.

The legendary founder of Microsoft, one of the richest people on the planet, an extraordinary personality, an innovator, a knight of Great Britain and the father of three children.

His real name is William Henry Gates III.

He grew up in wonderful family: his father was a successful lawyer, his mother was a school teacher, she was on the board of a local university and was actively involved in charity work. Bill had two sisters. From childhood, parents were able to instill in their son the right family values. They great attention devoted to the process of raising their children. This largely laid the foundation for his entire future life. How often do we, in the hustle and bustle of everyday work, forget about our closest people – our children. We forget or are lazy to even just play with them. There is no talk at all about talking as equals.

Bill was lucky enough to appear in a family where the parents did not miss the opportunity to talk with their son on far from childish topics and created maximum conditions so that he could demonstrate all his abilities in real life.

At age 11, Bill memorized the Sermon on the Mount and won first place in a competition held by a local pastor, whose admiration knew no bounds.

The boy was able not only to remember the text, but also demonstrated a deep understanding of its content.
But don’t think that everything was going swimmingly in Bill’s life. He had conflicts with his mother.

Some subjects were not given to him. And at school he was considered the local clown. Americans have a kind of tradition: if you are financially wealthy and have problems, then you have a direct path to a psychologist. Bill's parents did not back down from her. The psychologist, after conducting several sessions, advised them “not to force Bill into traditional behavior or obedience.”

...Bil's unusual behavior as a child prompted his parents to take him to a psychologist, but the specialist advised him to leave the boy alone...

The parents decided to follow the specialist’s recommendations. They put the interests of the child at the forefront, rather than the socially accepted norms of child development and behavior. Bill moved to the new prestigious Lakeside School, where he received an excellent education.

First acquaintance with a computer

Bill's math teacher, in which he excelled, described him as a student who "saw a shortcut."

Here Gates first became acquainted with a computer. He later recalled, “Getting to work with a computer in the late sixties was something for Seattle!” None of this would have happened if the School Mothers' Club had not raised money to buy a computer, a real miracle of technology at that time. It was not at all like modern thin laptops. A whole room was needed to accommodate it. And the calculation speed was several times lower than its modern analogues. Bill, along with his friend Paul Allen, who later became his business partner, sat with this “iron monster” day and night. The fruits of this painstaking work were not long in coming.

Gates wrote his first program at the age of 13. It was a game of tic-tac-toe.

Then the parents showed a very reasonable approach to raising their gifted child. They did not create most favored nation treatment for him. Their main task was to encourage the ability to independently achieve their goals. After all, before you give a child something, you need to think about whether he really needs it.

Gates adopted the experience of his parents to raise his own children. According to the will he drew up, almost all the money he earned will be transferred to charitable foundations. The children will receive 10 million dollars (a very modest amount for such a rich person) and, most importantly, an excellent education.

Bill believes that children of any parents, even billionaires, should achieve everything themselves.

Gates has great respect for any work and encourages all young people to do the same. He says, “Frying burgers at McDonald's is not beneath you. Your great-grandfathers would have called any job, even this kind of job, a good chance.”

Nothing in life comes easy. Success and money must be earned, earned.

The love of work that his parents instilled in Bill from childhood greatly helped him achieve his goals. On this occasion, he once said: “A dollar can’t fly between an ass and a sofa.” Nothing to add here.

Already at the age of 15, Gates, together with Allen, created the first commercially successful project. It was a traffic control program. They earned $20,000. The Bonneville Dam power distribution program, developed when Bill was just 17, has already brought in $30,000.

Studying at Harvard

In 1973, Gates entered Harvard, although he was not particularly interested in receiving a prestigious education. At that time, he didn’t really understand what he wanted from life, devoting a lot of time to playing poker.

1975 came and everything changed. One day, Paul Allen showed his friend the latest issue of Popular Mechanics magazine with a photo of the first production Altair-8080 computer on the cover. This was their real chance to create a language for a machine that had no software. There were more than enough competitors and it was necessary to act quickly to be ahead of the rest.

Gates always knew how to sense the moment and understood that the best is the one who is one step ahead of his competitors.

Very useful quality for anyone successful person. The friends took a big risk by offering the customer a very short deadline for completing the work. In fact, the program was not ready yet.

And no one knew whether they would be able to carry out their plans. But the habit of working day and night served me well. The presentation of the finished program in BASIC was very successful. This was the beginning of their new life as one of the most successful developers in the IT software industry.

But was it only hard work that helped Gates achieve such amazing success in such a short term? Bill answers this question himself. He is endlessly in love with his work.

“I can reproduce the source code for the first microcomputer, written back in 1975. My heart belongs to BASIC."

“If you look into my brain, you will see that it is filled with programs, the magic of programs and belief in programs, and that will not change.”

When you have a goal in life, wings literally grow behind your back. Gates formulated his mission as creating a simple and affordable personal computer. He was able to infect a huge number of people with this idea. “It’s something I was obsessed with when I was a teenager, when I was 20, 30, I didn’t even get married until that age.”

Founding of Microsoft

In 1975, Gates dropped out of Harvard and founded Microsoft with Allen. But Bill understands the value of a good academic education. He once said: “The world is becoming more and more competitive every year, higher education is now as important as school education used to be.” He still received his diploma. In 2007, Gates graduated from Harvard and was recognized as the best student.

Bill did not immediately manage to make Microsoft a profitable company. But he continued to work hard, despite the initial setbacks. “Sometimes clients would come to us and we’d be so tired the day before that we’d just fall asleep right in front of them.”

Luck always smiles on those who believe in it and persistently pursue their goals.

It did not bypass Gates either. In the 80s, Microsoft entered into a contract with IBM and became a leader in the software market. Today it has representative offices in more than 100 countries. It is a gigantic empire employing almost 90,000 people.

Operating systems created under Gates' leadership are constantly criticized. There are even jokes on this topic: “What about Malevich?! Gates's painting "Blue Screen" evokes much stronger emotions than the notorious "Black Square".

But Bill Gates' dream is coming true. Today, almost every home has a personal computer. In yours too, by the way. After all, you are reading this article.

Of course, Gates would never have achieved such business success alone. He was helped by a team of highly qualified professionals. The ability to attract like-minded people and to be able to properly organize their work is another valuable quality of a true leader. Bill understands this and gives credit to the people at his company: “Release of a large project to the market always requires the joint efforts of hundreds of people.”

Bill Gates chose the path for himself and won the race with himself and the world around him.

Thirty year old billionaire

At the age of 31, Gates became a billionaire. According to Forbes magazine, he became the richest person on the planet between 1997 and 2007 and in 2009. At the end of November 2011, Gates's fortune totaled $59 billion. There was only one person on the planet richer than 59-year-old Gates at that time - Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Ell.

With his entire lifestyle, Bill refutes the popular belief that money spoils a person. He dresses very simply and loves fast food. He does not have the snobbery that is often inherent in very wealthy people.

“Spending money wisely is as difficult as making it,” Gates once said.

Bill's life philosophy is that a person should have a goal in life, the achievement of which will benefit not only him, but the entire society. And it's definitely not money. Together with his wife, he founded a foundation whose mission is to improve the healthcare system. The official motto of the foundation is “All lives have equal value.”

Gates was awarded a knighthood for his efforts in the fight against poverty. And in 2005, Times magazine recognized the Gates couple as people of the year.

About a faithful life partner...

Without a faithful life partner, it is very difficult to achieve what Bill Gates was able to achieve. But Bill was lucky, he found such a person. He became his wife, Melinda Gates. “The ideal for me has always been the relationship between my parents: they actively communicated all the time, did everything together. This was a real team. And I wanted there to be something just as magical in my life.”

Their wedding took place in 1994. They are raising three beautiful children - daughters Jennifer and Phoebe and son Rory. There is no doubt that Bill will be able to pass on his rich life experience to them and instill the right family values. Of course, they will become worthy members of our society.

Gates said: “Success is a bad teacher. He's dizzy. He's unreliable."

Thinking that once you reach the top of Olympus, you will remain there forever is a big mistake. Fortune is changeable. In 2008, Bill transferred his authority to manage Microsoft. Today he accepts active participation in other global projects - the launch of satellites that provide worldwide telecommunications, as well as the development of the world's largest source of visual information.

The desire and ability to always move forward is another invaluable quality of this person.

Who knows, perhaps the era is not far off when a person will be called homo informativus, “information man,” largely due to the accessibility and speed of information exchange that the young Bill Gates once dreamed of.

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• Personal qualities of Bill Gates
• Books by Bill Gates

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

Bill Gates' success story reminds 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. Gates' current net worth is about $57 billion. richest people world for 2011, published annually by Forbes magazine, Bill Gates took second place, with a fortune of $ 56 billion. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the biography of Bill Gates and learn the story of his success.

Success story, Biography of Bill Gates

Bill Gates' childhood and youth

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 member of the board of directors of First Interstate Bank.

Bill Gates studied at the most exclusive 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 that he considered trivial, and 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, school officials decided to buy computer time from General Electric. At that time, systems based on the DEC PDP-10 microarchitecture ruled the market.

This changed Bill's life. He and Allen became seriously interested, they even skipped classes to study all the available computer literature. At the same time, Bill wrote one of his first programs - a simple simulator that allowed you to play against a machine. The school management underestimated its students; the computer time purchased for the whole year was used up in a few weeks. Luckily, I got into Lakeside new student, whose father worked as the chief programmer at the Computer Center Corporation. New contract school allowed Gates and his comrades to continue their experiments.

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

Meanwhile, the company's business began to suffer from constant failures and weak security. Recalling the destructive activities of computer scientists from Lakeside, the SSS invited
them to identify defects and security gaps. In exchange, 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 errors, they studied every material they could get their hands on about automated calculations and improved their skills.

In 1969, Computer Center Corporation began to have difficulties again, and in 1970 it declared itself bankrupt. Lakeside students lost 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's father Allen worked at the University of Washington at that time and had access to the computer center. The young programmers got down to business - looking for where they could apply their knowledge. The job itself came to them already in 1971, when the Information Sciences company hired guys to write a program that would create payrolls. In addition to unlimited computer time, employers agreed to pay developers every time their software makes a profit.

Another Gates project in school years became a program for scheduling classes. The loophole built into it constantly reassigned Bill to the classes with the most beautiful girls. In the tenth grade, Bill no longer studied computer science, but taught it.

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

The parents were somewhat frightened by their son’s passion and by volitional decision suspended him from computer projects. For a whole year, Bill did not approach the subject of his passion; he read 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 working on. Gates received $30,000 for working on this project for a year.

The last year of study at Lakeside brought Gates and Allen a new part-time job - TRW was faced with a bug that Bill and Paul had found in the Computer Center Corporation 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 his programming skills. It was then that 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. He spent most of his time at Harvard playing pinball, bridge, and poker. How many stories do we know when a child prodigy, under the influence of circumstances or environment over the years he became the same as everyone else, but fortunately this rule did not work for Bill Gates. The focus on winning, the competitive spirit and the great desire to do better and more than others did not give him peace.

Gates's friend, Paul Allen, unexpectedly got a job at Honeywell in Boston, and he and Bill continued to spend all-night vigils writing programs. In 1974, Allen learned about the company's creation MITS personal computer Altair 8800. Gates plucked up courage and offered the company that created this computer new language programming BASIC. He, of course, lied that the language was designed specifically for Altair, however, the program worked literally the first time. This option suited the managers, who invited young people to work on writing programming languages.

In the same year, Bill Gates proposed creating a software development company and gave it the name Microsoft (the first version was spelled Micro-Soft). Despite the painstaking work of its employees, the company initially experienced certain difficulties in distributing its products. The company did not have sufficient funds to hire a good sales manager, so Bill Gates' mother performed this function.

Microsoft's first five 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 academic performance, but this fact did not greatly upset the would-be 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, since at that time he did not have developments to create an OS. Therefore, the head of Microsoft was forced to recommend that IBM turn to its competitor, Digital Research, for help, which would subsequently receive the task of developing the OS.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, making time work for itself, buys the “raw” 86-DOS operating system for $50,000 from Seattle Computer and invites OS creator Tim Patterson to work. Bill Gates' company significantly improved 86-DOS, and soon MS-DOS was released, which Microsoft offered as an OS for the IBM PC, thereby beating Digital Research. In September 1980, IBM entered into a comprehensive contract with Microsoft. This contract was destined to change the history of the personal computer industry. Both IBM and Microsoft were winners. The controversial question is who won more. Gates's main competitor, Digital Research, changed the direction of their business and no longer participated in the competition (you can see how events developed in biographical film"Pirates of Silicon Valley")

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

During this period it begins to develop rapidly. The company's first representative offices appear in Europe and the UK. In 1982, Gates convinced IBM management that MS-DOS needed to be sold under license to other computer manufacturers, thereby competing with Apple, which by that time was selling its computers based on its own OS.

Microsoft then thought about creating an operating system based on the graphical interface that Apple already had at its disposal by that time. But first, Microsoft is testing the capabilities of the graphical interface on its Word programs and Excel, which were designed specifically for Apple Macintosh computers.

In 1983, Microsoft created the Mouse (mouse) to more conveniently enter data into a computer with a graphical interface. In the same year, the corporation introduced a text editor for MS-DOS. In addition, Bill Gates' company announces Windows - an extension of the operating system for MS-DOS in the form of a universal operating environment for graphical application programs.

In 1986, Microsoft shares went to open sale. During the day, their price on the exchange increases from 22 to 28 dollars. In March 1990, the company announced dividends on shares, and shareholders were able to receive one more share as a gift.

Microsoft by far dominates the industry - it owns 44 percent of the profits of the entire market software products. 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 the embodiment of a true innovative entrepreneur. He says: “Gates is to programming what Edison is to light bulb: part innovator, part entrepreneur, part trader, but always a genius.” Playboy, to all its praises for Gates, added a story in 1991 in which Microsoft is mentioned as the savior of the programming industry. “DOS's role as a unified component on most PCs has helped solidify the United States' position as the epicenter of the global software industry.” And Forbes magazine in April 1991 put a photo of Gates on the cover and asked the question: “Can anyone stop him?”

In 1993, the number of registered Microsoft Windows users was 25 million. Thus, Windows becomes the world's most popular GUI operating system. Microsoft also produces 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 is no different in appearance from Windows 95, with the exception of improved internal functions. Then Windows 2000 comes out, this program, according to many users, is Microsoft's best corporate OS.

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

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

This is where the patience of the antitrust authorities of the American authorities ran out, which in 1998 brought a serious lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the corporation of dishonest treatment of competitors and consumers. Gates, who had left his post as CEO of Microsoft to become chairman of the board of directors and "chief software architect" (a job title he came up with himself), was then summoned for questioning before Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who questioned him for a total of about 17 hours.
People present at the interrogation characterize Gates’s behavior as evasive and unfriendly; he was cunning and boring all the time, nitpicking about unimportant details (in particular, demanding clarification of terms such as “compete”, “ask” and “we”) and refusing to talk about the essence of important topics. In response to the most sensitive questions, Gates said “I don’t remember” so often that even the judge himself began to grin. Although prosecutors note that everything that Gates “did not remember” (mainly threats against competitors and dishonest business moves) is easily confirmed by the multitude of emails that Gates sent or received.

The top management of Microsoft at one time promised to “extinguish” and “strangle” Netscape, but before the court they refused to repeat this. The process, which began in 1998, ended only in 2002; the corporation was forced to pay fines and penalties and change its 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, Microsoft's new operating system, Windows XP, went on sale, which was popular with users and is today the most popular operating system in the world. By the end of 2006, the number of copies of Windows XP sold was 538 million.

In 2004, Gates became an Investor when he linked his financial interests with the famous Warren Buffett. They jointly founded Berkshire Hathaway. It is a company that combines funds from Geico (auto insurance), Benjamin Moore (paints) and Fruit of the Loom (textiles). At one time, Gates acquired a stake in Bothell, a biotechnology company. Just like his corporation is a kind of fund in which the whole world invests.

Six years after the introduction of Windows XP, the next generation of Microsoft OS goes on sale - Windows Vista And new version Microsoft Office 2007 office suite.

On 2 March 2005, the British Foreign Office announced that Gates would receive the title of Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, for his contributions to UK businesses and his efforts to reduce global poverty. This is an analogue of a 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 management of one of the most prestigious universities in the world decided to give those who left at will Gates received a diploma for his special services in 1975.

At the beginning of 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 he was leaving Microsoft in July. Gates said that he intends to get closely involved in managing 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 health care. With the money from this fund, a vaccine against AIDS is being developed, assistance programs are being created, including medical assistance, for developing countries and their starving populations, and a lot of resources are spent on educational and scientific initiatives.

Critics of Gates, however, point out that, in percentage terms, Gates spends much less on philanthropy than is customary among rich people. In addition, part of his donations is used to buy computers for schools, and the money allocated includes the cost of purchasing Windows and Office, that is, it is sent back to Microsoft.

Since the end of June 2008, Gates has stepped 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 Ozzie. It is this “troika” that now determines the company’s course. Despite this, Bill Gates does not break with the company for good. He remains 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” stands for Bill Gates Company Three. In the registration certificate, bgC3 is positioned as a “research (scientific) center.” bgC3 is not a commercial company and will not engage in venture capital investments. In accordance with regulatory documents, 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 Gates' departure, 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 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 an applicant 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 most important thing in business is intellectual capital. His team is a team of the best minds, the strongest programmers. Highly qualified specialists are the real wealth of Microsoft. In the language of management theory, Bill Gates is the first intellectual property capitalist.

The desire to be first always and everywhere, to do anything better than others - this quality has been inherent in Bill Gates since childhood. And it bore fruit - dominance in the global computer industry market! 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: “Success is a bad teacher. He makes smart people think they can't lose."

Pragmatism in literally everything and hard work are another characteristic of this person. Work, work and work again - this attitude is the core of the brainchild of Bill Gates. He considers rest a sign of weakness, so he works long 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 zero . Where, where, but in the world of computers this is most noticeable. It’s not for nothing that they say that if you have mastered a new program, it means that it is already outdated. This is for us, ordinary users, but what can we say about the creators?!

Bill Gates's family and hobbies

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, a son, Rory, in 1999, and a daughter, Phoebe, in 2002. Bill first met Melinda in 1987, at some Microsoft press briefing in New York. She, as it turned out, had been working in his company for a long time. Melinda left the service, marrying the “master”. Now they live in luxury home near Seattle (Microsoft headquarters is also located in the Seattle suburb of Redmond), where land and property taxes amount to about a million dollars a year.

The house is stuffed various kinds electronics. It is located on the shores of Lake Washington and has an area of ​​40 thousand square feet. The cost of the house is 40 million dollars. The “House of the Future” consists of three interconnected pavilions made of glass and pine wood. On the hill there is a garage for 30 cars. In the corner of the garage there is a museum “Mustang” - the first car of the boy Bill. The first pavilion is mainly for entertaining guests. The reception room overlooks the Olympic Mountains across Lake Washington. A good three dozen monitors make up a flat screen that covers the entire wall of the hall.
A visitor to the “house of the future” receives an electronic pin in which his “preferences” are encoded - movies, paintings, 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 which Gates acquired a number of various cultural assets, including the collection of works by Leonardo da Vinci “Codex Leicester”. Since 2003, it has been exhibited at the Seattle Art Museum). A giant dome with wooden inlays hangs over the hall. There is a trampoline next to the library. Gates loves to jump on it, believing that jumping on a trampoline, as well as rocking in a chair, helps to concentrate his thoughts. “House of the Future” has a swimming pool that smoothly turns into a Japanese bath. Some nights Gates comes here to relax with his wife Melinda. There is also a trout lake nearby. When construction began on the house, Gates settled on a harsh architectural style. But, having married, he made concessions to the softer Melinda. First of all, concrete was sacrificed to her elegant taste. Architects and builders rebelled, but resigned themselves. The mistress of the present reigned in the “house of the future.”

What programmer doesn't like driving fast?! Gates is a reckless driver. At first he had a Porsche 911, which he drove through the deserts of New Mexico. Paul Allen even had to rescue him from prison, where he was sent for a speeding violation. Gates then bought a Porsche 930 Turbo, which he dubbed “the rocket.” Then came the Mercedes, Jaguar Hove, Porsche Carrera Cabriolet 964, and finally the -959, for which he paid 380 thousand dollars, but which he could not import to America: the car did not meet US environmental standards . In her absence, Gates “made do” with a Ferrari 348, which he soon ruined while driving in the dunes. Despite all this, Gates never used seat belts.

Bill Gates reads a lot and also enjoys playing golf and bridge.

Bill Gates often visits schools and always shares his experience and vision at his speeches global problems. Every time he finishes a speech, he talks about 11 things that he believes will not be taught in school. He talks about how political correctness 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 at all about your SELF-ESTEEM. ACHIEVEMENTS are expected of you above all.
   3. You WILL NOT earn $60,000 a year right out of school. You don't become a VP with a personal driver until you earn enough to do both.
   4. If you think that the teacher is too harsh towards you, that's okay. Wait until you have a boss.
   5. Is frying hamburgers beneath your dignity? Your grandparents thought completely differently. For them, frying hamburgers was an opportunity to get a foothold in this life.
   6. If something didn'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 weren't always as boring as you think now. Maybe constant care for you made them like this? They feed you, clothe you, and constantly listen to you about 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 more losers left in your school, but not in life. In some schools it is no longer possible to repeat a year because you are given AS MANY attempts to PASS the exams as it takes to be promoted to another grade. In life everything is COMPLETELY different.
   9. Life is not divided into semesters. You won't have summer holidays and your employer won't help you FIND YOURSELF. You will have to do it yourself in your free time.
   10. They don't show REAL life on TV. In real life, you won't be able to sit in a cafe all day and chat with friends.
   11. Be kinder to the “nerds.” One of them might end up being your boss after you graduate.

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 by 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 spent a total of 18 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. "The Road to the Future" has been published in more than 20 countries. Over 400,000 copies were sold in China alone.

In 1996, when Microsoft was refocused on Internet technologies, Gates made significant adjustments to the book. The second edition reflected the idea that the emergence of interactive networks - 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 completely new way. This book, co-authored with Collins Hemingway, has been released in 25 languages ​​and is sold in more than 60 countries. Business at the Speed ​​of Thought received critical acclaim and was listed on the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon.com bestseller lists. By the way, he was one of the first to offer the world ideas for the formation of lean logistics. It is curious that Bill’s book was published in 25 languages ​​of the world, which is how he became known even in places where his company’s products were not even used.

Much has been written and rewritten about the investor and the rich man himself. 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 compromising facts from his biography, described by various meticulous journalists, but it was he who walked his own path with heroic fortitude, not paying attention to public clowns. "Janet Lowe. Bill Gates Speaks” - this book became one of the most published in the last century. It evaluates the idea of ​​Bill's personality as a bright individual who influences the world in a scary concept. In his labor activity They discovered almost diabolical escapades, and in Billet itself the beginnings of the idea of ​​​​destructing the world.

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

Whatever may be said about Gates, it is impossible not to acknowledge 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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00:00 17.12.2012

There is probably no person who has not heard or does not know who Bill Gates is. Name of this legendary person has already gone down in history, and his interviews and speeches are parsed into quotes. Bill Gates would continue to be the richest man in the world according to Forbes if he had not donated more than $25 billion to a charitable account. And the story of a billionaire is like a fairy tale, in which 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 predicted his career as a lawyer. However, the boy “didn’t have a good relationship” 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 - computer game, as well as with his school friend (and future co-founder of Microsoft Corporation) Paul Allen, even hacked the database of one of the companies. For such an offense they were punished - to spend the entire summer without a computer. However, after the punishment expired, the company ComputerCentreCorporation, whose database was hacked by schoolchildren, invited them to find errors in their software. In exchange, 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 the company went bankrupt in 1970, high school students were hired by Information Sciences to write payroll software. 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 an optimization program for 20 thousand dollars traffic and reading street traffic. Another project that Bill came up with while still in school was a scheduling program. Thus, in the 10th grade, Bill himself taught computer science and programming at school.

This passion for computers forced Bill's parents to remove him from the computer and even show him to a psychiatrist. During the 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 for which he earned $30,000.

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

Development Microsoft

In 1975, Bill Gates invited his friends to create a company that would 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 confident that their company would become 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 it was registered new brand"Microsoft". Within five years, the company becomes a corporation run by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Microsoft also owns such developments as: a computer mouse, a text editor MS-DOS and, of course, the Windows operating system, which continues to improve and develop. 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 a direct leader of Microsoft, he continues to have a significant influence on the development of new products and cooperation with other companies. For example, it was Bill Gates who expressed the idea of ​​​​buying Skype and proposed exchanging 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 works of Leonardo da Vinci, which is on display at the Museum of Art 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 of the WindowsXP operating system in 2001;

In 2004, he connected his interests with Warren Buffett, with whom he founded general company, which combines several funds.

In 2005, the UK announced that Bill would receive the title of Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his contribution to reducing global poverty and his participation in British projects.

In June 2007, Harvard awarded Bill a diploma from the university. And he received it not for graduating, 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 previously worked for his company. They have three children. Bill loves to play bridge, reads a lot and loves to travel. His wife fully shares her husband's views. So, they created a charitable foundation together and travel to third world countries, helping them not only financially, but also psychologically. As the billionaire himself says, the measure of success of any businessman is lives saved and healthy children. He is sincerely surprised why the world is not trying to help African children in the fight against diseases that have not killed people in other countries 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 confident 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 against malaria and polio, which he intends to completely eradicate.

In addition, Bill invests huge sums in education and the development of innovative technologies. And also, together with Warren Buffett, he created the GivingPledge charity organization, which encourages millionaires to donate half of their wealth. 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 pretends to be God, that he does this in order to avoid paying taxes, and many doctors are outraged that he places great importance on 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 would like 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 would deprive him of the championship on Olympus of the richest people in the world. And he continues to do so. So who is of greater value to the world: the person who occupies all the top positions in the list of the richest and most influential people or the one who does not spare the billions he has earned for the future of the world, even at the expense of his own profits? One thing is for sure: the world will never get along without Bill Gates; the world needs him more than the world needs him.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates finally got my diploma higher education at Harvard University, which he left without graduating more than 30 years ago. Now the richest man on the planet will not be ashamed to appear in the company of certified specialists. Bill Gates, who dropped out of school to create his own company, which became a virtual monopolist in the software market, was sincerely glad that he was able to fulfill the promise he made to his father - to get a higher education.

Billionaire without higher education

When Gates entered Harvard University, he was already seriously involved in programming and managed to complete several successful projects in this area with his friends. However, Gates had no special preferences in choosing an education, so almost at random he chose the course of law. True, at the same time he enrolled in one of the most difficult mathematics programs at the university. However, Gates had little interest in learning, and when he discovered the computer center at the University, he began to pay even less attention to the main courses.

Gates barely made it to his second year. However, at this moment, Gates, along with Paul Allen, are seeking a large order from a company that intended to produce one of the first personal computers. Having handled the project brilliantly, Gates, who in 1974 predicted the rapid growth of the computer market, decides to leave university to start his own company and devote all my time to programming. Gates never received a higher education diploma, which did not prevent him from becoming the richest man in the world. In 2007, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $56 billion.

Diploma after 30 years

For the oldest and most prestigious institution of higher education in the United States - Harvard University, the absence of the name of Bill Gates in the list of graduates big loss, taking into account the current authority and status of the expelled student. So we can say that Giving Gates a diploma is a win-win deal.- Gates receives a diploma, which is now nothing more than a pleasant gift for him, and Harvard can boast of the richest businessman in the world among its graduates.

“We recognize the most famous member of the Harvard Class of 1977 who never received a diploma,” University President Stephen Hyman said at the ceremony. “Now is the perfect time for his alma mater to present him with a diploma.” Bill Gates was sincerely happy successful, albeit formal, completion of their education.

Gates thanked the rector and addressed his father, who was present at the ceremony. “For more than 30 years I have wanted to say this: “ Dad, I always told you that I would come back and get my diploma." said Gates, who turns 52 this year.

Gates will begin managing a $60 billion charitable foundation

At the ceremony, Bill Gates joked about the benefits that higher education would offer him in the future: "I'm going to change jobs next year, and it will be great to have a college degree on my resume." Valid in 2008 Gates plans to finally step away from the management of Microsoft Corporation, which he founded. and devote himself entirely to charity, which he has been involved in since 2000.

The Gates and Wife Foundation, the world's largest charitable organization, is dedicated to scientific and medical research, the fight against poverty, and also conducts large-scale programs humanitarian aid poorest countries in the world. In 2006 The fund's huge reserves, estimated at more than $29 billion, have doubled. The world's second richest man, Warren Buffett, announced that he has decided to transfer almost two-thirds of his money - $30 billion - to the Gates Foundation in several stages.

American entrepreneur, founder of Microsoft Corporation William (Bill) Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle (Washington, USA). His father was a lawyer, his mother a schoolteacher, a Washington State University board member and chairman charitable organization United Way International.

He received his secondary education at the privileged private school Seattle's Lakeside School.

Gates began to show interest in computer programming at the age of thirteen. In 1970, with his high school friend Paul Allen, he wrote his first traffic control software and started a distribution company called Traf-O-Data. Gates and Allen earned $20,000 from this project.

On the wave of success, friends were eager to open their own company, but Gates’s parents opposed this idea, hoping that their son would graduate from college and become a lawyer.

In 1973, Bill Gates entered Harvard University. At university, he met Steve Ballmer, who would later become CEO of Microsoft. However, Gates was not interested in studying; he often skipped classes and worked on programming. Gates continued to communicate with Paul Allen, who entered the University of Washington, but after two years he dropped out and moved to Boston (Massachusetts), where he began working for the Honeywell Corporation. In the summer of 1974, Gates joined his friend.

In 1975, after reading an article in Popular Electronics magazine about the Altair 8800 computer created by MITS, Bill Gates and Paul Allen suggested that MITS write software for the computer in Basic. The results of the young programmers' work satisfied the customers, Paul Allen was hired, and Bill Gates, taking a sabbatical from Harvard, was actively involved in writing programs and organizing his own company, Micro-Soft. It was under this name that the company, which later became Microsoft, was registered in 1976.

In February 1976, Gates introduced the practice of selling licenses for his software directly to computer manufacturers, which allowed them to “build” these programs - operating systems and programming languages ​​- into computers.

This marketing innovation dramatically increased the firm's revenue. And although the MITS company soon ceased to exist, Microsoft was able to attract new customers - Apple and Commodore, which were quite firmly on their feet, as well as the Tandy company, which produced the popular Radio shack computers.

In 1979, Gates was expelled from Harvard. And already in 1980, Microsoft received an offer from IBM to create an operating system for the world's first personal computer. For these needs, Gates acquired the right to exclusively license and then own the 86-DOS operating system created by Seattle Computer Products (SCP), adapted it for IBM's needs and profitably sold it to IBM under the name PC-DOS. The release of the IBM PC and MS-DOS was widely announced in August 1981.

The agreement with IBM provided for payments for each copy of Microsoft software, which provided significant dividends thanks to the success of the IBM PC in the 1980s. The success of both products subsequently led to the fact that Intel architecture, IBM computers and Microsoft programs became de facto industry standards.

After Microsoft was restructured in 1981, Bill Gates took over as president and chairman of the company's board of directors. In November 1985 the first Microsoft version Windows. The system's original code name was Interface Manager, but the Windows variant was eventually chosen because it best described the on-screen computing "windows" that became the centerpiece of the new product.

In 1986, Microsoft shares began trading on the stock exchange. The price of shares grew at lightning speed, and within a few months, at the age of 31, Bill Gates became a billionaire for the first time. In 1988, Microsoft became the world's largest-selling computer software developer.

In 1993, total monthly sales of Windows exceeded one million copies. By 1995, when the company released its new operating system, Windows 95, complete with Internet access software Internet Explorer, approximately 85 percent of PCs worldwide were running Microsoft software.

As the head of Microsoft and the holder of the majority of its shares, Gates became the richest person in the world by 1998. At the end of 1999, Gates announced his decision to step down as head of the company and take up programming. Despite this, he remained in charge of Microsoft's manufacturing strategy until he stepped down from business development responsibilities in 2006, saying he wanted to devote his time to philanthropy.

Bill Gates was the non-executive chairman of the company's board of directors, but on February 4, 2014, he left this post. At the same time, the founder of Microsoft remains a member of the company's board of directors and is a consultant on the company's key projects.

For the 21st time in a row, Bill Gates, with a fortune of $81 billion, topped the annual list of the 400 richest people in the United States, published by the American magazine Forbes.

In September 2015, he topped the rankings for the 22nd time with a net worth of $76 billion, 13% of which comes from Microsoft shares and the rest from the billionaire's investments in numerous businesses across a variety of industries.

Bill Gates has been investing for many years through his investment company Cascade Investment. Nearly 50% of the funds managed by Cascade Investment are invested in Warren Buffett's holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. Gates' top five investments also include shares of Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Caterpillar (a manufacturer of equipment for the construction and mining industries) and the Canadian National Railway Company (a railway company).

He is the author of two bestsellers. Published in 1995, The Road Ahead spent seven weeks at number one on the newspaper's bestseller list. The New York Times. In 1999, Gates published Business the Speed ​​of Thought, which has been translated into 25 languages ​​and explores new ways to use computer technology to solve business problems. Proceeds from the sale of both books were donated to non-profit organizations dedicated to supporting the development of technology and education.

Bill Gates holds a knighthood British Empire(2005). In 2007, the administration of Harvard University, recognizing the merits of Bill Gates, presented its former student with a diploma.

Bill Gates is married to Melinda French Gates and they have three children: Jennifer Katharine, Rory John and Phoebe Adele.

In 2000, the couple founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundation to support health and education initiatives.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources