The man has seen it all. Right from being a school drop-out, a lone boy in a class fun of girls to the worlds richest man, life has shown him all its aspects. But, undeterred he went about with an aura and personality many successful men wouldn't even dream about, becoming one of the icons for today's entrepreneur. Yes he's none other than Bill Gates.
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1975 to start Microsoft Corp, and pursue a vision of a computer on every desk and in every home.Three decades into this vision which one may argue is reality now, Gates is set to step down from what is now the world's largest software company. What next? And the most likely answer seems to be being a philanthropist. It is believed that he would now work full-time at the charitable organisation-the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which is built by his vast fortune. Though he is steeping down, he remains the chairman and will work on special technology projects. He has 8.7% stake in the company with a worth of about $23 billion.
He tried his hand in programming right from the age of 13, creating a class scheduling system for his school. At Lakeside, he met Paul Allen, a student two years his senior and founded Microsoft, naming the company for its mission of providing microcomputer software. At Harvard, he also met his friend Steve Ballmer-the current CEO and talked him into leaving business school to join Microsoft.
His biggest break came in 1980, when he along with his collegues build the Operating System called MS-DOS for IBM Corp's new personal computer. He had a vision all along that software would be more important than the hardware and so he secured the rights to licence the operating system to others filling the industry with "IBM-compatible" machines dependent on Microsoft software. The rest as they say is history. Microsoft then went public in 1986 making Bill Gates the youngest self-made billionnaire at the age of 31.
Having seen all ups and downs in life, donating part of his income to the needy time and again, the man surely has lived a life up to the mark. His greatness also reflects in the fact that instead of relaxing away his retirement years, he had decided to work for society which is really commendable. Hats off to him. Truly every young entrepreneurs' dream career!
