William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955), commonly known as Bill Gates, is an American businessman and a microcomputer pioneer. He, along with others, wrote the original Altair BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 (an early microcomputer). He, with Paul Allen, co-founded Microsoft Corporation, and is now its chairman and "Chief Software Architect." According to Forbes magazine, Gates is the wealthiest person in the world.
Life
His Beliefs
• Most of Bill’s personal beliefs revolve around working hard & trying your hardest to succeed.
• He believes that if you’re intelligent & know how to apply your intelligence you can accomplish anything.
• He thinks if you don’t work your hardest, you will never succeed.
• His belief in high intelligence and hard work is what put him where he is today, as well as being in the right place at the right time.
• He doesn’t believe in luck or any sort of God, just hard work and competitiveness.
• Bill Gates believes that fame tends to be very corrupting.
• If you’re intelligent & know how to apply your intelligence you can accomplish anything.
• If you don’t work your hardest, you will never succeed.
• Does not believe in luck & God.
• Earthly life is carbon based & computers are silicon based, so eventually we sequence human genome & replicate.
• Doesn’t address anyone by name, hand out praise or stroke on any egos.
• Doesn’t hide his cutthroat instincts.
• Success as flattening the competition, not creating excellence.
BIRTH AND FAMILY
William Henry Gates III, better known as Bill Gates was born on Oct 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington to William. H. Gates II a prominent attorney/ retired lawyer and Late Mary Gates (who passed away in 1994) a banker’s daughter who was the director of the First Interstate Bank. The couple was married in 1951. Their boy was called "Trey" (the name comes from the card term for three). The family was a financially well off upper middle class.
SIBLINGS
One of his sisters Kristane a.k.a. Kristi who’s a year older to him, now has the joy of being his tax accountant and the other one is Libby, who was born in 1964 and is nine years younger to him.
WIFE AND KIDS
Gates proposed to Melinda French in great style in 1993 by secretly diverting the chartered plane they were taking home from Palm Springs one Sunday night to land in Omaha, arranged to get a jewelry store owned by a friend opened and picked a ring. She was then a product manager at Microsoft and they got married on the 1st of Jan, 1994. (Melinda French no more works at Microsoft and is involved in Charity work). Two and a quarter years later, in 1996 they had a baby girl who they named Jennifer Katherine. A son Bory John Gates was born in 1999.
OTHERS FEELINGS FOR BILL
• He’s (Bill) a busy guy, so we don’t see him a lot but we spend holidays together"
(Bill’s dad William. H. Gates - about Family)
• We like to talk about how the fantasies we had as kids actually came true."
(Paul Allen, His (Bill’s) business partner & close friend says)
• I had never thought of people dying, there is a flicker of emotion. At the service I was supposed to speak, but I couldn’t get up. For 2 weeks I couldn’t do anything at all."
(Gates on the death of his closest friend Kent Evans )
• Bill lived down the hall from me at Harvard Sophomore year."
(Steve Ballmer, One of his friends)
• He is the smartest guy, I’ve ever met."
(Steve Ballmer, One of his friends)
• As a baby, he used to rock back and forth in his cradle himself."
(Bill’s Father William. H. Gates II about Bill’s rocking habit )
• Bill is not threatened by smart people , only stupid ones."
(Nathan Mythrvold (Co-author of "Road Ahead" & Microsoft’s Chief. Tech. officer")
• Gates is pretty relentless. He’s a Darwinian. He doesn’t look for WIN-WIN situations with others, but for ways to make others lose. Success is defined as flattering the competition, not creating excellence. The atmosphere at Microsoft was like a Machiavellian Poker game where you’d hide things even if it would blindside people you were supposed to be working with. In Bill’s eyes, his still a kid with a startup who’s afraid he’ll go out of business if he lets anyone compete."
(Rob Glaser, a former Microsoft executive about Bill)
• They think I’m through, they think I’m through."
(Gates likes repeating Michele Jorden’s mantra)
• The only paranoid survive"
(Intel’s CEO Andrew Grove used the book title about Bill)
• He was a helauva good programmer, but he’s an anxious human being."
(Bill’s Teacher)
HIS FRIENDS
A friend in need is friend indeed. Bill is lucky enough in making friends. His friends are great support to him. In true words he enjoyed fellowship with his following friends :
PAUL ALLEN
Idea printed Paul Allen his business partner and close friend for the rest of his life, is his friend from early Lakeside days.
He and Paul were always busy clanking away at the computer, whenever they could get a chance. During college both were looking out for new opportunities. Both the Microsoft Board. "We like to talk about how the fantasies we had as kids actually came true," Gates says.
Now facing their old classroom building at Lakeside is the modern brick Allen/Gates Science Centre.
KENT EVANS
His closest friend was killed in a mountain climbing accident when Gates was in the 11th grade in high school. Evan to relieve the pressures of programming had taken to mountain climbing. Till his death, Gates says, "I had never thought of people dying, there is a flicker of emotion. At the service, I was supposed to speak but I couldn’t get up. For 2 weeks I couldn’t do anything at all." After this he became even closer to Paul Allen.
STEVE BALLMER
He says, "Bill lived down the hall from me at Harvard Sophomore year." They took graduate level math’s, economic courses together, though Gates had an odd approach towards his classes. "He’s the smartest guy, I’ve ever met" says Ballmer. Ballmer nurtured the social side of Gates. He is Gates social god. Steve was someone smart and personal enough, with no technical background. He would listen to the developers and understand them, which benefited Bill a lot.
WARREN BUFFETT
The Omaha Nebraska investor whom Gates demoted to being merely the 2nd richest American seems an unlikely person to be among his closest pals; but they enjoy taking vacations together & Buffet likes to talk about Gates in interviews. Their relationship of course is not financial.
ANN WINBLAD
Another of Gates vacation companions is Ann Winblad, the software entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who he dated during the 1980’s. They met in 1984 at a computer conference and started going on "virtual dates" by driving to the same movie at the same time in different cities & discussing it on their cell phones. They broke up in 1987, but they still remain close friends. Even now, Gates has an arrangement with his wife that he & Winblad can keep one vacation tradition alive. When together, they share their thoughts about the world & themselves & marvel about how as two young over achievers, they began a great adventure on the fringes of a little known industry & it landed them at the centre of an amazing universe.
MAZUHIKO NISHI
Mazuhiko Nishi, is a close friend of Bill from Japan, who really taught him about the Japanese market.
His Love
CARS
Bill Gates loves fast cars. "On a rainy night he is bombing around in his dark blue Lexus." When Microsoft was based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in its early years, he had bought a Porsche 911 & used to race it in the desert. Paul Allen had to bail him out of jail after one midnight escapade. He got 3 speeding tickets, 2 from the same cop. Later, he bought a Porsche 930 Turbo, he called the "rocket", then a Mercedes, a Jaguar XI 6, a $ 60,000 Carrera Carbridit 964, a $ 380,000 Porsche 959 that ended up impounded in a customs shed because it couldn’t meet import emission standards, and a Ferrari 348 that became known as the "Dune Buggy" after he spun it into the sand. Despite this record Gates doesn’t wear a seat belt. It’s very interesting that even with all that money Bill drives himself to work in an average family car & he even flies coach. In the corner of his garage, its his parents red Mustang Convertible that he drove as a kid.
Cars he bought in sequence :
• Porsche 911, When Microsoft was based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• Porsche 930 Turbo – called it ‘Rocker’
• Mercedes
• A Jaguar XI 6
• $ 60,000 Carrera Cabriolet 964
• $ 380, 000 Porsche 954
• Ferrari 348 – known as ‘Dune Buggy’ after he spun it into sand.
HIS HOUSE
In 1986, Gates had built a four house vacation compound dubbed gate away for his family. Gates home of the future has been under construction for more than four years, and is not expected to be completed until this summer. Built into a bluff fronting Lake, Washington, it has 40,000 sq. ft. space and will cost about $40 millions looming against the night sky are 3 connected pavilions of glass and recycled sun glass for beams, looking a bit like a corporate conference centre masquerading as a resort. There is a 30-car garage carved into the hillside. The first pavilion is mainly for public entertaining. The ground floor reception hall is with its view of the Olympic Mountains across Lake Washington, adjusting 2 dozen 40 in Monitors that will form a flat-screen display covering an entire wall when you visit, you will get an electronic pin encoded with your preferences. As you wander towards any room, your favorite pictures will appear.
• Full Name William Henry Gates-III
• Known Name Bill Gates.
• Birth Name (Pet Name) Trey (the name comes from the card term for 3).
• Birth Place Seattle, Washington.
• Birth Date Oct. 28, 1955.
• Father’s Name William H. Gates-II.
• Father’s Profession A prominent attorney.
• Mother’s Name Late. Marry Gates.
• Parents Marriage Yr. 1951.
• Sisters One of his sister’s name is Kristane who is a year older to him & his tax accountant. Libby, born in 1964 who is nine years younger to him.
• Wife’s Name Melinda French.
• Wife’s Profession Charity Worker.
• Children A girl named Jennifer Katherine of 4 yrs. A boy named Bory John Gates of 1 yr.
• Marriage Date 1st Jan 1994.
• Habits He has rocking habit when he thinks about something. Even while eating, he seems to be switching his fork back and forth.
He believe for his success :
• Hard work & intelligence has put him where he is today.
• Being in right place in right time.
• He doesn’t believe in God & luck. Hard work & competitiveness is the only way of success.
The Microsoft Culture & how it runs
Gates has a rule that Microsoft, rather than incurring debt, must always have enough money in the bank to run for a year even with no revenues.
MATH CAMP MENTALITY
Bill brings to the company the idea that conflict can be a good thing. He knows its important to avoid that gentle civility that keeps you from getting to the heart of an issue quickly. He likes it when anyone, even a junior employee challenge him, and you know he respects you when he starts shouting back." Around Microsoft it’s known as the "Math camp" mentality : a lot of Cocky geeks willing to wave their fingers & yell with the cute conviction that all problems have a right answer. Among Gates favoritephrases is "That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard," & victim wear it as a badge of honor, bragging about it the way they do about getting a late night E-Mail from him. Gates turned his company around in just one year to disprove the maxim that a leader of one revolution will be left behind by the next. The phones in Gates office anywhere on the suburban Microsoft "camping" almost never seem to ring. Gates runs his company mainly through 3 methods : he bats out a hundred or more E-Mail messages a day & night, he meets every month or so with a top management group that is still informally known as the Boop (Bill & the office of the President); & most important, taking up 70% of his schedule by his own calculations, he holds 2 or 3 small review meetings a day with a procession of teams working on the company’s various products.The key for Microsoft has been that they’ve been hiring smart people. That’s why they win. They improve their products based on feedback, until they’re the best. They have retreats each year where they think about where the world is heading.
MICROSOFT’S CORPORATE CAMPUS
The suburban Microsoft "campus" is a cluster of 35 low rise buildings, lawns, white pines & courtyards that resemble those of a state polytechnic college. Bill Gates has always thought that an environment for product development should be a fun environment, a lot like a college campus. Things like people juggling or riding unicycles around, having barbecues stands around. These are the kind of things that happen in this corporate campus.
ROCKING HABIT OF THE GIANT WHO ROCKED THE WORLD
Bill Gates probably goes on to prove, the one who rocks in the cradle rules the world. "As a baby, he used to rock back and forth in his cradle himself", recalls Gates father. Now his vigorously rocks back and forth in a mannerism that has become so mimicked at Microsoft. Even while eating, he seems to be multitasking, ambidextrous, he switches his fork back and forth. As a child Bill enjoyed rocking back and forth, today he still has a habit of rocking when he is thinking about something.
ACTIVITIES THAT MADE HIM UNIQUE
Bill Gates is not a greedy man. Gates is quite the giving man when it comes to computers & the Internet. Last year sometime Bill Gates visited Chicago’s Einstein elementary school where he announced grants benefiting Chicago’s schools & museums where he donated a total of 11,0000 Dollars, a bunch of computers, and connected the Internet to a number of schools. Secondly Bill Gates donated 38 million Dollars for the building of a computer institute at Stanford University. Thirdly, Gates donates to Habitat for Humanity & plans to give away 95% of all his earnings when he is old & gray.
• On a rainy night, he is bombing around in his dark blue Lexus.
(Gates favorite phrase during work)
• That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
(Gates favorite phrase during work)
• Has less theology and all.
Just in terms of allocation of time resources religion is not very efficient.
(About his daughter to have a religion)
• I don’t think there’s anything unique about human intelligence. All the neurons in the brain that make up perceptions and emotions operate in a binary fashion. We can someday replicate that on a machine. Earthly life is carbon based and computers are silicon based, but that is not a major distinction. Eventually we’ll be able to sequence the human genome & replicate how nature did intelligence in a carbon-based system. The notion is bit frightening, but (he jokes) it would also be cheating. Its like reverse engineering someone else product in order to solve a challenge.
( about human intelligence)
• Bill is not threatened by smart people, only stupid ones.
(Nathan Mythrvold (Co-author of "Road Ahead" & Microsoft’s. Tech. officer)
