More Than Just a Businessman
Everyone knows who Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft is. However, Gates is more than just a businessman, he’s also a programmer, a computer scientist, a humanitarian, an inventor, a bridge player, an investor, an actor, a husband, a father and one of the world’s richest men.
Early Life
Bill Gates was born to a rich family on Friday October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington, USA. His father, William Henry Gates the Second, was a business lawyer and his mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, was a general manager of several companies and banks.
Early Love For Computers
In 1968 at the age of 13, Gates enrolled in the private Lakeside prep school in Seattle. It was there where he discovered his love for computer programming and with his childhood friend, Paul Allen; he wrote his first programme, which was a game of tic-tac-toe. From there, he and Allen founded a school club called the Lakeside Programmers Group. The club was small, but it would go on to have a big impact in the tech industry, as most of its members became head programmers for influential start-ups and companies.
University and Programming
In 1973, the 18-year-old Gates enrolled at Harvard University where he met with Steve Ballmer, the future CEO of Microsoft. However, Gates’ time at Harvard was short-lived as he soon dropped out to focus on honing his computer programming skills.
Founding Microsoft
Shortly after dropping out, Gates and Allen founded Microsoft on April 4, 1975. Microsoft’s earliest breakthrough was a programming language called the Microsoft BASIC, which was used, in a number of home computers such as the Commodore 64, the IBM PC and even the Apple II. In 1984, Microsoft created its own home computer system the MSX-DOS that was its own version of the DOS operating system. Then, on November 20, 1985 Microsoft released the first version of its Windows operating system the Windows 1.0. The operating system would prove to be successful, as it became a household name in most homes, schools and offices. Windows 98, XP and 8 were all very popular in the PC market and this popularity continues to this day with Windows 10. Since the 90s, Windows PCs have dominated the market and their place at the top of the pyramid is still intact.
Marriage and Domestic Life
In 1994, Bill married Melinda French and together they had three children: Jennifer Katherine, Phoebe Adele and Rory John. Jennifer Katherine would meet the man of her dreams in a horse-riding club. Her fiancé, Nayal Nasser is an Egyptian millionaire, equestrian and Stanford graduate.
Ninety-five Per cent of His Fortune
Like most parents, Gates could have spent all his money on his kids. But given his mass wealth he worried that that would have spoiled them. As such, he decided to spend most of his money on charity. In 2006, Gates donated 95 per cent of his wealth to fight disease and illiteracy in the global south. He also wanted to help poor children continue their education and as such, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated 9.26 billion dollars to help 55 million children around the world.
Viruses not Nuclear Warfare
Did Gates predict the coronavirus pandemic? In a 2015 Ted Talk, Gates hold a huge audience that when he was young, the catastrophes they were afraid of was nuclear warfare. But today, nuclear warfare is the least of his worries, what concerned him more was a viral outbreak.
Gates Predicts the Future
In that same Ted Talk, Gates said: “If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war, not missiles, but microbes.” Gates noted that many countries worked for years to reduce the risk of nuclear war, and needed to give similar attention to a massive mobilization against a killer virus.
“We’ve actually invested very little in a system to stop an epidemic,” he said, echoing warnings in recent years from infectious disease doctors. “We’re not ready for the next epidemic.”
Doing His Part
Bill Gates recently donated 50 million dollars to help find the cure for the coronavirus. Once this crisis ends, Gates will surely go down in history as one of the most important figures that helped the world in its global battle against the coronavirus.
