00:00 17.12.2012

There is probably no 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 analyzed for 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 most richest people planets.

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 programs. 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 for optimizing road traffic and reading street traffic for 20 thousand dollars. 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 of 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, the 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: computer mouse, MS-DOS text editor, and, of course, operating system Windows, 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 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 an operating room in 2001 Windows systems XP;

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 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 this 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 development innovative technologies. And also, together with Warren Buffett, created charitable organization GivingPledge, which encourages millionaires to give away 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.

Bill Gates is a famous entrepreneur, public figure and one of the founders of Microsoft. The authoritative publication Forbes named him the richest man in the world 16 times.

As of 2016, his capital exceeded $90 billion, while he regularly and seriously engages in charity work. Gates has his own fund, in which he has already invested more than $30 billion.

After that, Bill and Paul worked for some time at large companies Information Sciences and TRW. They were still writing programs, learning a lot of code software(BY).

Having reached the age of 18, Gates enters Harvard University, where he meets his future partner Steve Ballmer. After studying for 2 years, he was expelled for poor academic performance and frequent absenteeism.

Ultimately, Bill decided to devote himself to creating computer control programs, since only this work brought him pleasure and aroused real interest.

Microsoft Company

In 1975, Paul and Bill learned that Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems had begun selling new Altair 8800 computers. Without thinking twice, Gates decides to call its owner, Ed Roberts.

During the conversation, the guy confidently says that he and his friend are writing programs specifically for their PC, although this was absolutely untrue. However, he so confidently and boldly told Roberts about this that he believed Bill and even agreed to collaborate with the young programmers.

Delighted by this success, the friends began to come up with a name for their enterprise. At the very beginning they wanted to call him by their last names, but then changed their minds.

Then Gates and Allen paid attention to the name of the company with which they were to collaborate. As a result, they selected two words from it and then combined them. Thus, in 1976, a new brand called “Microsoft” appeared.

That same year, Bill Gates and Paul introduced licenses for the right to use their software. This allowed them to legally build their own operating systems into computers.

They were the first to start working according to this scheme. In the near future, this led to a significant increase in the organization's income.

Over time, the MITS company went bankrupt, but Microsoft managed to find new partners for further cooperation.

For example, Gates entered into a contract with the Apple corporation, which he owned. However, there were other companies that were happy to work with Microsoft.


Bill Gates and Steve Jobs

An interesting fact is that Bill Gates and Paul already at the very beginning of their joint collaboration discussed how their company would develop.

Allen worked on technical issues and owned only one-third of Microsoft shares. In turn, Gates was responsible for the development of the company and product advertising.

Their first serious project was the Microsoft Fortran operating system, developed in 1977. After that, they continued to successfully modernize their software, taking a leadership position in this area.

Soon, Bill Gates introduced a new MS-DOS system for Intel-based PCs. In 1985, the legendary Windows system was developed, which was radically different from other systems with its unique interface. Every year, Windows has been modernized, gaining unprecedented popularity.

Bill Gates' company developed so rapidly that already in 1986 its capital exceeded $1 billion. In 1998, Gates became the richest person on the planet.

Soon he publicly makes a sensational statement that he is leaving Microsoft. However, he remained responsible for the company's productivity strategy.

According to the billionaire himself, leaving business was associated with charity, to which he decided to pay maximum attention.

Other companies

In 1989, Bill Gates founded Corbis. Its main goal was to license any multimedia material, for example, photos and videos.

The idea was that in the future people would begin to be interested not in original paintings, but in their digital reproductions.

Today Corbis owns the rights to use images of works of art in many museums around the world.

One of Gates' hobbies can be called collecting rare works of the great (see).

In 2008, a new event took place in the biography of Bill Gates: he founded the company “bgC3”, engaged in research and analytical activities.

As mentioned earlier, Bill Gates is seriously involved in charity work.

He opened the world's largest Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which provides support to poor people.

First of all, the billionaire seeks to improve the healthcare system, as well as solve the problem of hunger in the Third World countries.

Personal life

When Bill turned 22, he met Melinda French, who worked in his company. In 1994, after 7 years of close friendship, they decided to get married.

In this marriage they had a son, Rory John, and two daughters, Phoebe Adele and Jennifer Katharine.


Bill Gates with his wife and children

In 2005, Gates and his wife were named People of the Year for their enormous contribution to charity. After this, Bill was awarded the title of Knight of the British Empire.

Bill Gates net worth

Many people are interested in the question of how much Bill Gates' net worth is estimated. So, as of 2016, Forbes estimated his fortune at $90 billion.

Thanks to such a colossal fortune, he is considered the richest person on the planet. Moreover, experts predict an increase in its capital in the future.

Bill Gates today

On this moment Bill Gates' family lives on the shores of Lake Washington. Their home, covering an area of ​​12,000 km², is equipped with a huge amount of electronics that control the entire mansion.

The businessman often gives lectures at various educational institutions, traveling around the world. He not only shares his experience, but also discusses with students global problems humanity.

Books by Bill Gates

Bill Gates has written two books about how he achieved success. Both books were translated into and became bestsellers.

Interestingly, all funds received from their sales were transferred to organizations whose activities are aimed at developing technology and education.

Surely Bill Gates will repeatedly surprise humanity with his new projects. Well, let's wait!

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Greetings! There won't be a long introduction today. I just want to once again write about a person I sincerely admire. I don’t think anyone needs to explain who Bill Gates is.

I once saw a funny comment under one of the articles dedicated to the founder of Microsoft. Something like “Lucky guy, he made so much money on his Windows. You don’t have to work at the post office all your life for pennies.” It was just luck! Neither add nor subtract.

So, Bill Gates: biography, Interesting Facts and advice from the richest man in the world.

Bill Gates was born 62 years ago in Seattle, America. The family was considered quite prosperous: the father was a lawyer, the mother was a school teacher and a member of the university board. As an adult, Bill Gates often emphasized that his parents always encouraged his desire to think and debate.

As a teenager, Bill, like many his age, began to demonstratively conflict with others: both at school and at home. The psychologist advised “not to force the child to obey and traditional behavior.”

Parents stopped “pressuring” and transferred Billy to the elite private school Lakeside - with an emphasis on mathematics. In the late 60s, the future founder of Microsoft first “met” the computer and fell in love with it at first sight. Antediluvian computers occupied entire rooms and were terribly “stupid.” But Bill and his school friend Paul Allen spent the whole weekend near these “monsters.” Sometimes staying up until the morning.

Where did the future billionaire start? As usual, with nonsense and nonsense. At the age of 13, Gates wrote his first program (a game of tic-tac-toe). But at 15 - a program for traffic control (and received $20,000 for it).

At age 17, the Bonneville Dam energy distribution program had already earned him $30,000.

The predictable admission to Harvard did not make Bill happy. He became interested in playing poker and did not know what to do with himself. But in 1975 everything changed dramatically.

Paul Allen brought Gates a magazine with a photo of the world's first computer for the mass market on the cover.

Computers WITHOUT SOFTWARE!

The competition for such a “tidbit” was crazy. And we had to act very, very quickly. The friends worked like crazy day and night. And not in vain - the first presentation in BASIC was quite successful.

In 1975, friends leave Harvard and create the legendary Microsoft. It doesn’t take long for a company to become mega-successful. Sometimes business founders were so tired that they fell asleep during a meeting with clients. And Microsoft's first five customers went bankrupt.

In 1979, friends received a lucrative offer from IBM. But Bill was forced to refuse and recommend a direct competitor, Digital Research. At that time, Microsoft did not have ready-made developments to create an operating system.

How did it happen that the order from IBM finally went to Bill Gates? While Digital Research was developing a new operating system, Microsoft bought the raw operating system from Seattle Computer and hired its creator, Tim Patterson.

After modification, MS-DOS was born, which Bill Gates proposed to IBM, one step ahead of its competitor Digital Research.

In September 1980, Microsoft and IBM finally reached a contract. A contract that changed the personal computing industry for decades.

How did Microsoft take over the software market?

Microsoft's history is impressive. In the 80s, the company grew at a crazy pace. Bill Gates opens branches in the UK and Europe. In 1982, he proposed to IBM management to sell MS-DOS to PC manufacturers under license.

What else has he created? In 1983, Microsoft offered consumers a mouse and a text editor for MS-DOS. In the same year, Bill Gates announced a universal OS for graphics applications.

In 1986, Microsoft shares were dumped on open market. On the very first day, their price increases from $22 to 28.

In the early 90s, Bill Gates' company already received 44% of the profits of the entire software market. In April 1991, Forbes magazine featured a photo of the Microsoft founder on its cover with the provocative caption: “Can anyone stop him?”

In 1993, Windows was officially recognized as the world's most popular GUI operating system. The number of its registered users exceeded 25 million. Each subsequent version of Windows (95, 98 and 2000) caused another surge of excitement. And it made Bill Gates several billion richer.

Today Microsoft is a giant corporation with about 100,000 employees and branches in 100 countries.

Since mid-2008, the richest man in the world has stepped away from active management of the company. But he still strives to be the first always and in everything.

Bill Gates Rules

You should only learn from those who have achieved success in life. Here are five tips from Bill Gates that he often shares in interviews and public appearances at colleges and universities.

  1. No one cares about your self-esteem. Society evaluates only specific achievements.
  2. Life is unfair - get used to it.
  3. If something doesn't work out for you, don't blame your parents. Change your attitude towards failure and learn from your mistakes. And stop whining. Before criticizing your parents, take an objective look at yourself.
  4. Movies and TV series don't show real life. In reality, you won't sit all day in a cafe and chat with friends, like in the TV series "Friends".
  5. Do you think that the teacher is too harsh towards you? Wait until you have a boss.

Back in 1995, Bill Gates was recognized as the richest man in the world. At that time, his fortune was estimated at almost $13 billion. Since then, Bill Gates has not left the top lines of the ranking of the world's “richest”.

He is still considered an expert on many issues. Bill Gates is asked about cryptocurrency, the future of the IT sector and oil prices. By the way, he also came up with original way note-taking. More precisely, he modified Cornell's method. Gates divides the sheet into several squares, in each of which he writes down thoughts connected by the same logic.

And also this one amazing person– husband and father of three, writer, philanthropist, co-chairman charitable foundation and member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway.

How much does he earn per minute? In 2015, Bill Gates received $3.25 billion. It turns out that every minute the legendary founder of Microsoft becomes $6,600 richer. At the current dollar exchange rate in Russia, this is almost 400,000 rubles. At the same time, Bill Gates is practically an ascetic in everyday life. And he often repeats that money is not the main thing for him...

(English) Bill Gates ), born William Henry Gates (born William Henry Gates, date of birth - October 28, 1955) - American entrepreneur, head of Microsoft Corporation, for a number of years - the richest person on the planet.

In the period from 1996 to 2007, in 2009 and 2015 - the richest person on the planet according to Forbes magazine. His fortune in May 2016 was estimated at $76.4 billion.

Together with Paul Allen, he founded Microsoft Corporation, where he worked until June 2008; after his departure, he remained chairman of the board of directors of the corporation.

Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates II, a corporate lawyer, and Mary Maxwell Gates, a board member of First Interstate Bank, Pacific Northwest Bell, and the national board of the United Way. . Gates' sister Kristi Anne was born in 1953.

Bill Gates attended Seattle's most exclusive school, where he was able to develop his programming skills on the school minicomputer. At school, Gates did not excel in grammar, civics, and other subjects he considered trivial, but he did achieve top marks in mathematics. By the end of elementary school, Bill Gates's bad behavior began to worry his parents and teachers so much that he was referred to a psychiatrist.

It was at school that 13-year-old Bill Gates and his bosom friend Paul Allen first built a crude computer terminal. They then created two programs for it. The first one transformed one mathematical system into another, and the second... I don’t dare explain what the second one did. I will only say that later, after reading the biography of Napoleon, Gates made it into a computer game "Risk", the goal of which was world domination.

Not being particularly academically successful, which was also a form of rebellion, he unexpectedly graduated from the 9th grade with straight A's (with straight A's). english letter"A"), without even looking at the textbooks, and entered the top ten best students in America on the aptitude test. In the tenth grade, Bill no longer studied computer science, but taught it. Then he created a program for studying for his class. This program also had a secret purpose. She “chose” for her creator the classes where “those other girls” studied.

During those years, Gates's closest friend was Kent Evans, the son of a minister. “We read Fortune magazine together and dreamed about how we would conquer the whole world,” Gates recalls. “I still remember his phone number.” Bill, Kent and Paul founded Lakeside Programmers Group and began serving local businesses. It was then, while still in school, that Paul Allen made the first of his attempts to “borrow” Gates and take the whole matter into his own hands. But soon Paul became convinced that he needed the inexhaustible and tireless Bill to create program codes. And Paul invited him. “Okay,” Gates said, “but only on one condition: I’ll be the boss.”

He was 15 years old when he wrote a program to regulate traffic and earned $20,000 from the project. And at 17, he received an offer to write a software package for the distribution of energy at the Bonneville Dam.

The Birth of Microsoft

Throughout his entire life, if Gates made any compromises, their indispensable condition was “I will be the boss.”

In 1973 he entered Harvard University, but was expelled after 2 years, since Gates has already begun to create software with all his might.


Kent Evans took up mountain climbing to take his mind off work. One of his campaigns ended tragically. Evans fell and died. This was the first tragedy in Gates' life. Before this, he admitted, he had never thought about death. Bill spent two weeks in a fog, doing nothing. Evans' death brought Gates even closer to Allen. Allen convinced him to become, as they later began to say, “Harvard’s most famous dropout.” Instead of a Harvard University diploma, the Microsoft company was born, which was initially written as “Micro-Soft.” (There was also an option, Allen & Gates Inc.) The new company began creating software for personal computers that were just becoming fashionable. The legend of the birth of Microsoft says: in December 1974, Allen, on his way to visit Gates at Harvard, stopped to buy magazines at a newsstand. What he found in one of them changed his and Gates' lives forever. On the cover of Popular Electronics magazine there was a photograph of the Altair-8080, and above it in large print was written: “The world's first microcomputer that can compete with commercial models.” With this issue of the magazine, Allen burst into Gates's dorm.

In December 1974, Bill Gates saw a $397 computer that his friend Allen said anyone could build. The only thing the machine lacked was software.

Both friends immediately realized what horizons were opening up before them. They realized that the home computer market was about to explode, and millions of people would need software.

A few days later, Gates contacted the Altair's manufacturer, MITS, and said that he and Allen had created a version of the Basic programming language that could be used in the Altair. Gates didn't tell the truth. By that time, the friends had not yet written a single line of code. Moreover, they did not yet have either Altair or its chip. MITS, unaware of this, responded that it was interested in Gates' proposal. And so the friends began urgent work on Basic. Gates worked on the code, Allen simulated the actions of the Altair 8800 (the first commercially successful personal computer) on a school PDP-10 computer. A month and a half later, the program was ready. Allen took her to MITS. And there he first touched Altair. A miracle happened - the friends program worked! The contract was concluded. This option suited the managers, who invited young people to work on writing programming languages. The couple left for New Mexico, where the history of Micro-soft began (the dash, as already mentioned, was removed later).

First five customers Microsoft went bankrupt, but the guys didn't despair and returned to Seattle in 1979. 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.

“The software market is born!” - Gates exclaimed. Microsoft was born with him.

While at Harvard, Gates became close with Steve Ballmer, who later became a member of Gates' brain trust, and when Gates decided to refocus on creativity, he handed the reins of Microsoft to Ballmer, making him the company's president and chief information officer (CIO). Gates called Ballmer in the 1980s, when Microsoft had grown so large that it needed a “non-technical” manager. Gates lured him away from Procter & Gamble. Friends often fought. Gates has always believed that conflict is good for business. In his opinion, “gentlemanship” takes away from the essence of the problem. Therefore, he allows his subordinates to challenge the decisions he makes. Microsoft calls this the “math camp mentality.”

Arrest

In 1979, Bill Gates was arrested for the second time (photo) for a traffic violation. This time Bill was without a license and drove through a red traffic light (according to other sources, he did not stop at the stop sign). He was also arrested for speeding in 1975 and in 1989 for driving while drunk.

IBM


Bill Gates purchased the QDOS system(Quick and Dirty Operating System) for $50,000, changed the name to MS-DOS and sold the license to IBM. The proceeds allowed Microsoft to operate for several years. The presentation of a new IBM computer with Microsoft software created a real sensation in the market. Many companies began to approach Microsoft for a license.

Microsoft continued to capture the global market with the release of applications Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Thanks to the Corbis company, part of the Microsoft corporation, Bill Gates received a huge photo file of Bettman and other photographers. Photos were used for electronic distribution.

In 1986, Microsoft was transformed into Joint-Stock Company open type. That same year, Bill Gates became a billionaire at the age of 31. The following year, Microsoft introduced the first version of Windows to the market, and already in 1993, total Windows sales per month exceeded one million. In 1995, Windows95 arrived and sold seven million copies in two weeks.

Microsoft's software became so widely used that the company came to the attention of the American antitrust committee, which several times tried to initiate a case to force the division of Bill Gates' monopoly.

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

In 1997, Bill Gates became the victim of a strange extortion scheme by Chicago resident Adam Quinn Pletcher. Bill testified at the subsequent trial. Pletcher was found guilty and sentenced in July 1998 to six years in prison.

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

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 (auto insurance), Benjamin Moore (paints), and Fruit of the Loom (textiles). Gates also serves on the board of Icos, a Bothell biotechnology company.

On March 2, 2005, the British Foreign Office announced that Bill Gates would receive the title of Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (this is an analogue of a knighthood, which can only be received by a citizen of the United Kingdom; the knighthood gives the right to be called "Sir", and the title of Knight Commander Most Excellent Order - adding the letters "KBE" after his name) for his contribution to British enterprise and his efforts to reduce world poverty.

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

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

On June 15, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intention to resign as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Microsoft effective July 2008. After leaving his post, he intends to devote himself entirely to managing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

June 27, 2008 was Bill Gates' last as Microsoft CEO. Despite this, he is not breaking with the company for good - Gates will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors (but without executive powers), will be involved in special projects, and will also remain the largest (8.7% of Microsoft shares) shareholder of the corporation.

At the end of October 2008, in the city of Kirkland (Washington State, USA), Bill Gates registered his third company called “bgC3”. Unverified sources claim that "bgC3" stands for Bill Gates Company Three. It was announced that this 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.

Gates is most likely an agnostic in his religious views. When asked by The Times magazine if he believed in God, Bill Gates replied: “I don’t have any facts about him.”

Books by Bill Gates

In 1995, Bill Gates wrote a book "Road to the Future"(English: 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 was refocused on Internet technologies, Gates made significant adjustments to the book.

In 1999, Bill Gates wrote a book "Business at the speed of thought"(Business @ the Speed ​​of Thought), which shows how information Technology can solve business problems in a completely new way. Of particular note is the fact that Bill Gates' ideas fit well with the concept of lean manufacturing. In the book, Bill Gates outlined the principles of information lean logistics that he developed, based on the experience of its use at Microsoft Corporation. The peculiarities of the book include the fact that the author was one of the first to propose applying the principles of this new direction in business management for all levels of government, modernization of the education system (pedagogical logistics) and healthcare. This book 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 featured on the New York Times, America Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon.com bestseller lists.

Personal life

At one of the Microsoft meetings in 1987, Bill met his employee Milena French, and on January 1, 1994, she became his wife. “Surprisingly, Milinda made me want to marry her. This is very strange, because it absolutely contradicted my rationalistic considerations about marriage,” Bill Gates would later say. The wedding took place in Lanai, Hawaii, and 130 guests were invited, including Poll Allen, Warren Buffett, Washington Post owner Katharine Graham and others. It is interesting that Bill took all possible measures to get rid of annoying journalists, in particular, all hotel rooms and all air tickets to the island were bought up.
After 2 years, the couple had a daughter, Jennifer Katharine Gates (born April 26, 1996), and later a son, Rory John Gates (born May 23, 1999) and a daughter, Phoebe Adele Gates. Gates born September 14, 2002).

Today, Melinda Gates is one of the most powerful women in the world. In 2012, Melinda openly defied the Vatican and vowed to dedicate her life to creating affordable contraception for women in the world's poorest countries. The Gates Foundation is ready to invest $140 million annually in this project.

House

Currently, Bill and his family live in their “house of the future”, so named because large quantity electronics that controls the estate. The house is located on the shores of Lake Washington in the suburbs of Medina and occupies about 12,000 square meters. This luxurious mansion is valued at $147,500,000 and has property taxes of over one million dollars a year.

This house is made for maximum comfort of the owners and their guests. Everyone in the house carries with them a chip, the parameters of which are adjusted according to the individual comfort parameters of the person. These are temperature, lighting, music and a number of other parameters. And no matter what room the guest enters, the house adapts to him, adjusting the temperature or dimming the light, in accordance with the preferences of the visitor, chosen by him in advance.. The touch floor allows you to track the location of a person with an accuracy of 15 centimeters.

There are also traditional signs of luxury. For example, when visiting the Gates family, you can swim in an 18-meter heated panoramic pool with an underwater music system. Work out in the 230-square-meter gym, relax with a book, or admire the stars in the library with its domed transparent roof. Guests can dine in the banquet hall, which seats 200 people.

Bill Gates is the richest man on the planet

In 2016, Bloomberg analysts calculated Bill Gates' net worth and were extremely surprised. According to recent expert estimates, his fortune has reached a record $90 billion.

Bill Gates is the richest man on the planet.

Some of Bill's quotes are addressed to people striving to achieve something more in life:

  1. Life is not fair - get used to it.
  2. Society doesn't 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 class. In life everything is COMPLETELY different.
  9. Life is not divided into semesters. You won't have summer holidays, and your employer will not help you FIND YOURSELF. You will have to do it yourself 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.

The Gates mansion is a miracle of automation. The house has a networked system that controls the temperature, lighting and music based on microchips worn by guests that tell computers exactly where they are in the mansion. As guests move through the home, each room they enter is tailored to their preferences.

Bill Gates is a computer genius who was at the forefront of creating the world's most popular Windows software from Microsoft. An entrepreneur whose name topped the list of the richest and most influential people on the planet for 20 years. A businessman who donates an impressive part of his fortune to charity.

Childhood and youth

Bill Gates was born in Seattle (Washington, USA) in the family of corporate lawyer William Henry Gates II, and Mary Maxwell Gates, who held senior positions on the board of directors of several major American companies. Bill was the second child in the family, he has two sisters - the older Christy and the younger Libby.

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Bill Gates as a child

When the boy went to school, his parents enrolled him in the most privileged educational institution in Seattle - Lakeside. Bill's favorite subject was programming, to which he devoted all his free time. As a teenager, the American wrote his first game in Basic. Although these were only “Tic Tac Toe”, for the boy they became the starting point in his future successes in his professional biography.

At a prestigious school in Seattle, the student began to develop programming skills on a mini-computer, but some subjects were difficult to improve. He considered the lessons in grammar and civics to be trivial in their way, but in mathematics the future billionaire had only the highest scores. IN primary school Bill showed no results at all, and his grades disappointed his parents so much that they turned to specialists for help. The father and mother were forced to refer their son to a psychiatrist.

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Young Bill Gates and his mother Mary

In high school, Bill met Paul Allen, who would later become his main business partner, but at school the guys had more fun hacking computer programs without thinking about the strategy for developing innovative ideas.

In 1970, together with a school friend, Bill wrote the first traffic control program and organized a company to distribute it, called Traf-O-Data. This project brought the authors $20 thousand. Such success made the programmers believe in their own abilities, defining the future strategy for implementing their own concepts for many years to come.

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Bill Gates in his youth

In 1971, Bill and Paul even worked for a professional company, Information Sciences. The guys wrote a program for maintaining payrolls, but did not have time to finish it, since the project was stopped. In addition, as schoolchildren, Gates and Allen worked for TRW, where they programmed part of the code for a project that employees of the Bonneville Power Administration planned to use.

In 1973, Bill Gates became a student at Harvard University. Of course, he was going to specialize in software, but the practical side of things attracted him. young man much more than the theory of science, so the unmotivated student missed a lot of classes. After studying only 2 courses, the aspiring programmer was expelled from the university.

Microsoft Company

In early 1975, Paul Allen learns that Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems is releasing a new generation of computers, the Altair 8800. Bill Gates gets bold and calls Ed Roberts, who headed this organization. Soon after the interview at MITS, the bosom friends become partners of the company.

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Paul Allen and Bill Gates

Initially, they planned the name “Allen and Gates,” but such names are not typical for the high-tech market. Then the guys looked at the name of the employing company, deciding on a specific phrase - Micro-Soft (Microprocessors and Software). Within a year, the hyphen disappeared from the brand name, and the Microsoft trademark was registered in November 1976.

In 1976, Gates also introduced the practice of selling licenses for his own software for direct use by computer manufacturers, allowing them to build new operating systems and programming languages ​​into PCs. Such innovation in marketing increased the organization's revenue.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs

MITS soon ceased to exist, but Microsoft was able to attract new customers. Apple Corporation, whose founder was Steve Jobs, and Commodore, as well as computer developer Radio shack, have become new partners of Microsoft.

Friends and business partners began to plan the development of an innovative structure for decades. Allen dealt primarily with technical issues, while Gates focused on developing public relations, contracts, and other business contacts. The result of Microsoft's work was the Microsoft Fortran operating system, which appeared in 1977. This OS can easily be considered the first full-fledged competitor to the standard CP/M system for Intel-based computers.

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In 1980, Microsoft achieves success by making a deal with a "shark" computer business- IBM Corporation. Gates and Allen offered a more attractive system for their new computer than Digital Research, with which IBM had previously collaborated. Not least important for achieving this goal was the friendly acquaintance of Gates’ mother with IBM executives John Opel and John Akers.

Soon Bill and Paul's company offered the computer market a new MS-DOS system, which for a long time will become the main OS for Intel-based personal computers. In 1985, Microsoft released Windows, which differed from all previous competitors in its graphic design. Thus began the Windows computer era, although the real breakthrough came only in 1993 after the appearance of the third version of this system - Windows 3.1.

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Bill Gates

In 1986, Microsoft Corporation entered the stock markets. The value of the shares grew rapidly, and within a few months Bill Gates became a billionaire. The company's position is gradually strengthening. By 1988, Microsoft was already the largest computer software developer in the world.

By 1998, Gates becomes the richest person in the world. Now financially able to focus his attention on programming, he announced that he was leaving the organization. Until 2006, Bill was still responsible for product strategy at Microsoft, but decided to step down from business development responsibilities, declaring that he wanted to devote his time to charity.

Career

In 1989, the businessman founded the Corbis company. The main task of this structure was the licensing of photographs, videos and other multimedia material for the media. Gates' idea was that in the future people would decorate their homes not with paintings, but with electronic reproductions of them.

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Businessman Bill Gates

Corbis owns the rights to reproduce images of works of art in museums around the world. The St. Petersburg Hermitage, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the London National Gallery constantly cooperate with the company of the American entrepreneur. Bill Gates personally acquired a collection of rare works by Leonardo da Vinci, which are now on display at the Seattle Art Museum.

In the fall of 2008, Gates registered new company bgC3 (Bill Gates Company Three). This acronym stands for Bill Gates' Third Company. The main tasks of the organization are research and analytical. It is a center providing scientific and technological services.

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Bill Gates and Melinda Gates

In addition, Bill Gates does a lot of charity work. He and his wife Melinda became the founders of the world's largest charitable foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which provides assistance to all those in need, regardless of nationality. The purpose of this enterprise is to support and improve the healthcare system, as well as overcome hunger in poor countries. From his own funds, Gates partially financed the Republican presidential campaign in 2004, spending more than $30 thousand.

The entrepreneur is passionate about the ideas of maintaining environmental safety on Earth. In collaboration with Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates created the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, whose work is to identify and attract private investment in the production of clean energy sources.

Books

Bill Gates has published two bestsellers. In these books, the entrepreneur decided to tell his own success story. In 1995, The Road Ahead was published, which was at one time on the bestseller list of the American newspaper The New York Times.

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Bill Gates with books

In 1999, Gates published the book Business the Speed ​​of Thought. The work has been translated into 25 languages. The author in his publications talks about ways to use computer technology to solve problems in business. Proceeds from the sale of both books were donated to non-profit organizations that support the development of technology and education.

The history of the origin and development of the computer industry was captured in the film “Pirates of Silicon Valley,” released in 1999. The drama was about the confrontation between Microsoft and Apple. Spectators and critics noted the great similarity between the leading actors and their characters. The image of Bill Gates in the frame was recreated by Anthony Michael Hall, Paul Allen was presented by Josh Hopkins.

Personal life

The personal life of an entrepreneur is connected with one woman. In 1987, at a work meeting in New York, Bill Gates met Microsoft employee Melinda French. They got married on January 1, 1994. After 2 years, the couple had a daughter, Jennifer Katharine, and later two more children - son Rory John and daughter Phoebe Adele.

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Bill Gates and his wife Melinda

For the amount of money that Bill and his wife spend annually on charity, Time magazine named them People of the Year in 2005. Their family photo was featured on the cover of the publication, which often publishes interviews and articles about the business and charity of the computer genius. In the same year, Bill received a Knight of the British Empire for his contribution to the UK's innovative enterprise and efforts to reduce global poverty.