William Henry Gates: Biography

Introduction

“I chose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it” by one of the richest men in the world. William Henry Gates III was born on Oct 28 1955, Seattle, Washington. He had an elder sister named Kristianne and a younger sister named Libby. His mother’s name is Mary Maxwell Gates and his father’s name was William Henry Gates II. His dad was a lawyer and his mom was a teacher.

Childhood

William Henry Gates III went to Lakeside Elementary School in Seattle, Washington. When he was in middle school a Seattle company gave the school some computers to let the kids use at free time. This is when he made a computer tic-tac-toe program that allows players to play against the computer. That's also when he met his future business partner Paul Allen. They both loved computers and exploring it. Then when William Henry Gates III went to Harvard University Paul went to Washington State University but they still kept in touch, William was hoping to become a lawyer like his dad.

Career

One day when Gates was in Harvard his friend called him and talked about the Altair company PC’s. William and Paul decided to write a BASIC software for their PC’s so Gates called up the company and told them they were making a software operating system for the PC’s. them. The company agreed and Paul and Henry worked hard for the next whole month and by the time they went to Mexico to run the software it worked just like they expected. In 1995 he left Harvard and with Paul Allen started a software company called Microsoft.

The company was doing well until Bill decided to change the operating system of Microsoft from MS-DOS to Windows. In the beginning, most people complained that the Microsoft operating system wasn’t as good as the Apple version but Bill explained to everyone that Windows could run on different PC suited machines but the Apple operating system could only run on Apple machines. Microsoft had won the battle and was very soon installed on almost 90% of the worlds PC’s. Though he had won the battle he wasn’t satisfied so he made Windows Office Program like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. He as well made improved versions of Windows such as Windows 7 and 10. The company's stock was worth 550 million USD. Bill Gates owned 45 of the stock which was worth $234 million. The company continued to grow quickly. At one point Bill Gates stock was worth more than $100 billion. He was the richest man in the world.

Family and Gates Foundation

Seeing Bill succeed attracted a woman called Melinda French. She was born on Aug 15 1964. She was inspired his work. Then on Jan 1 1994 they both got married in Hawaii. They had 3 kids named Jennifer Katharine Gates who was born on 1996, Rory John Gates who was born on 1999, and Phoebe Adele Gates who was born Sep 14 2002. With his wife Bill made the William Henry Gates foundation to help the sick, poor and people with disabilities. Then Gates found out that it would be better to give some of his wealth to charity. Later on that year Bill and Melinda combined many family foundations in 2000 to make a $28 billion contribution to form the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In 2000 stepped down from day to day at Microsoft. He gave his part of Microsoft as CEO down to his college friend named Steve Ballmer who has been working in Microsoft since 1980. In the next few years the Gates Foundation kept him occupied for the next few years until in 2006 he announced that he was switching himself from full time work at Microsoft to spend more time on his foundation. His last day working at Microsoft was June 27 2008. AWARDSHe receives the Medal of Freedom with his wife from Barack Obama at Nov 22 2016. Gates also receives the Jefferson Award for greatest public service with his wife. He receives the Bower Award for business Leadership. He was given a honorary degree from Harvard University though dropped out of the university. He received the Silver Buffalo Award in 2010. In 2006 Bill Gates and his wife were awarded Aztec Eagle from the Mexican government. In 2015 Bill and Melinda both received India’s Third highest Civilian Honor from Padma Bhushan in 2015.

Conclusion

Now Bill Gates is 62 years old. He is one of the richest men in the world and donated most of his money to charities and foundations. The lessons I learned were to never give up because when Bill changed the operating system of Microsoft from MS-DOS to Windows most people complained about it but he never gave up and is now installed in many PC’s. He is well known as one of the richest man in the world and the founder of Microsoft. He as well made the Gates Foundation to fight for many causes and people who are suffering from many diseases. Major obstacles Bill Gates had to overcome was school because be kept on getting bored and was always getting in trouble with the teachers and students but turned out to be a great man. He had made the world a better place for us by improving software technology to make it easier for anyone to use. All in all, Bill Gates was an amazing man who changed the world by mtdsbaking more advanced technology.