Bill is an ordinary guy.
He was born on 28 October 1955 and raised in simple surroundings in sopping wet Seattle. His father was a lawyer, his mother a schoolteacher.
Bill’s story is safe, conventional but before you think it, not boring. Yes, his high school chums may have felt him a little geeky when he programmed computers at just 13-years-old. But Bill was doing what he wanted, what he enjoyed.
And it was this maverick attitude that led Bill to ditch the stuffy, mock-English cloisters of Harvard. Driven by a belief and vision of how indispensable the computer was to become, Bill channelled all his energy into his baby, Microsoft.
It proved to be a wise decision.
Formed in 1975 it had revenues of $36.84bn in 2004 and employs over 55,000 people around the world. Bill’s not doing too badly for himself either, sitting on an estimated $48bn fortune.
The masterstroke that set Microsoft on its way came in 1980. The company struck a deal with IBM to develop the operating system for its new computer, but crucially, retained the right to license the system – called MS-DOS – to other manufacturers. When The generation of ‘IBM compatible’ home computers followed, Microsoft was assured a dominant position in the market – a legacy which has brought the IT behemoth before countless courts for alleged violations of anti-monopoly law.
Unimaginable wealth has given him plenty of scope for indulging in philanthropy and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation now has an endowment of $28bn. It is a testament to Gates that billionaire investor Warren Buffett chose to channel the bulk of his startling donation – at $37bn, the biggest ever – through the foundation.
Gates has announced that from 2008 he will relinquish day-to-day control of Microsoft, so he can immerse himself fully in his philanthropic vehicle. Derided over the years as a kind of bespectacled Mussolini of the IT world, perhaps now he will be seen as a computer-savvy Mother Teresa.
Bill’s pockets are bulging. But it’s his decision to change course and courageously pursue his passion that sets him apart from all others.
Well, that and $48bn.
