bill Gates, born in 1955, is an American businessman and founder of the software company Microsoft, founded on April 4, 1975.
With an estimated fortune of US$93,300 billion in 2016, Bill Gates is now fully dedicated to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest philanthropic organization in the world.
Bill Gates Story
William Henry Gates III was born in 1955 in Seattle. His maternal grandfather was a banker and amassed a considerable fortune.
Her mother, Mary Maxwell Gates (1929-1994), was a professor at the University of Washington where she met her husband, William Gates, Sr. This was a law student who would be one of the most distinguished professionals in his field in Seattle.
The couple had three children and after the birth of the eldest, Mary Gates leaves her professional career to dedicate herself to the family.
Childhood and Training
William Gates, better known to friends as “Bill”, nicknamed William in English, since childhood developed a passion for reading and competition. She liked to excel in both sports games and studies and her family encouraged this aspect.
She attended a private school in Seattle, where she would become friends with Paul Allen (1953-2018) who would share her passion for computers. They spent hours tinkering with the teletype that was at school and invented programs for the device.
Upon finishing high school, Bill Gates goes to Harvard University and decides to study mathematics. However, his classmate, Paul Allen, calls him to develop software and so, they end up founding the company Microsoft, on April 4, 1975.
Bill Gates and the Creation of Microsoft
Bill Gates' mother, on the other hand, served on several boards of directors of educational entities at both the state and federal levels.
One of the IBM executives, John Opel (1925-2011) was also part of one of these councils, and it was with him that Mary Gates commented on her son's company.
Weeks later, John Opel visited the small company of Bill Gates and Paul Allen and hired them to develop software for the first personal computers that IBM was producing.
Windows Creation
Microsoft was responsible for developing the Windows operating system that is used in 90% of personal computers in the world.
This set of software was released to the market in 1985, after IBM discontinued the services of Microsoft to continue developing its programs.
Windows' success in the market has attracted the suspicion of the US Department of Justice to investigate illegal contract practices, below-competition pricing and market monopoly.
Bill Gates has always defended himself against these accusations by claiming that he was just offering the consumer a good product at the best price.
Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation
In 1994, Bill Gates marries Microsoft employee Melinda Ann French (1964). That same year, the couple founded the company's social institute, which will be called William H. Gates Foundation, from 1994 to 1999.
Later, it was renamed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and both contributed around 28 billion dollars to the institution.
The Foundation's objectives are:
- end social inequalities;
- empower women, especially in underdeveloped countries;
- reduce infectious diseases around the world;
- promote education at different levels.
To do this, they rely on the help of governments and the local community to which they allocate resources, so that the financial assistance can boost local development.
For their philanthropic work, the Gates couple has already been distinguished with several awards such as the Medal of Freedom, in the United States, in 2016, or the Legion of Honor, in France, in 2017.
Bill Gates Phrases
- My children will have computers, yes, but first they will have books. Without books, without reading, our children will be unable to write - including their own story.
- Success is a perverse teacher. It seduces smart people and makes them think they'll never fall.
- Try once, twice, three times and if possible try the fourth, fifth and as many times as necessary. Just don't give up on your first attempts, persistence is a friend of achievement. If you want to get where most people don't, do what most people don't.
- Knowledge became the main factor of production and generation of wealth.
read more:
- History and Evolution of Computers
- Digital inclusion
- Internet history
- Third Industrial Revolution
- Informational Capitalism
