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William
Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28th, 1955. Bills
father Bill Gates Jr. worked for a Seattle law firm and Bill's mother Mary,
taught school until they started their family. Bill's parents were married in
1951 and twa years later gave birth to their first child, Bill's older sister,
Kristanne. Two years after that Bill was born and in 1964, the third and final
Gates was born, her name is Libby. As a child Bill enjoyed rocking back and
forth. Today he still has a habit of rocking when he is thinking about something.
Bill was very bored at school and his parents knew it so they were always trying
to feed him more information to keep him busy. Bill's parents decided to put
him in a private school where he would be challenged more. The Lakeside private
school had just bought a new computer when Bill arrived and he was interested
in it. Within a week, he knew all about the computer at Lakeside. Learning the
BASIC programming language was easy for Bill and he was soon writing his own
programs.
Bill and Melinda's $97 million house |
Bill's love for computers and Maths brought him to a new place. He arranged with the owners that he would get free computer time. During this time Bill met Paul Allen, his business partner for the rest of his life. Together they sorted a small company called Traf-O-Data, they sold a small computer with their program that could count traffic for the city. This company wasn't a big success but it did earn the two boys some money as well as good business skills. Bill also wrote a program for his school which he changed a bit to put little Bill Gates in a class full of the prettiest girls in the school. Bill was known by his friends and his teachers as the smartest kid in school.
When he graduated from Lakeside, Bill went to Harvard University in 1973, one of the best universities in the country. Bill was also bored here so he spent most of his time programming, playing poker and seeing how little work he could do and still get As. He told his teachers that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 30 but Bill was a billionaire when he was 31. One of Bill's teachers said "He was a helluva good programmer, but he's an obnoxious person." The lifestyle Bill lived during his first year in Harvard made him ill for most of the summer of 1974. Bill soon left Harvard for business opportunities in programming which turned him into a multi-billionaire. Later he met Melinda French who he married and they now have a little daughter named Jennifer. It's very interesting that even with all that money Bill drives himself to work in an average family car and he even flies coach. A very interesting man and a very interesting childhood.
Knowing that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began making software for personal computers. Microsoft's mission has always been to develop software technology, and to make it easier, cheaper and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company has invested over $6.2 billion on research and development in the year 2005.
According to forbes magazine, Gates is the world's wealthiest person with a net worth of approximately $51 billion. Since gaining his fortune, he has donated huge amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs with the Bill & Meiinda Gates Foundation charity founded in 2000. While he is respected for his intelligence, foresight, and ambition, he is also frequently accused of using ruthless, using sometimes illegal business practices.