Bill Gates’ Short Biography

Born in 1955, Bill Gates went from being a kid in Seattle, Washington to becoming the richest man in the world. You may be asking yourself, “How did this happen?” Well, it was a long process. Gates earned his money from being successful in his entrepreneurial business, Microsoft. This mission was not easy for him, but he was determined to change the world. Just like Michael Jordan in basketball, Bill Gates also experienced some failures in his life. But, he never gave up and kept putting forth his best effort. Bill Gates shows grit because he’s an entrepreneur who changed the world through his contributions to business, education, world health, and poverty reduction.

It all started when he first used a computer in high school. Gates was asked to solve some computer problems in the computer lab. Gates easily mastered that objective and he was able to solve problems on any computer. It got to the point where he mastered hacking computers and Gates eventually was banned from the computer lab. This didn’t stop him from working on a computer. Gates met a friend named Paul Allen and later met Paul Gilbert. Together, they worked on a project called the Traf-O-Data. This was the first system with a processor, known today as “Intel.” According to the book, Who is Bill Gates, “At Lakeside, Bill had discovered his life’s passion,” and his future in computers had begun (Demuth 18). He ended up dropping out of Harvard University at the end of his sophomore year to work on another project called the MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) Altair. This was when Gates and Allen introduced a company known today as Microsoft. Bill Gates had many accomplishments throughout his life. According to The Washington Post article, Gates believed that “innovation comes from collaboration. Great ideas don’t appear in isolation.” He and Allen founded Microsoft, which was a combination of “micro-computer” and “software.” By 1979, Microsoft was gaining around $2.5 million and Gates was only 23 years old. Between 1979 and 1981, the growth of Microsoft increased like never before with both employment and consumers. Gates later convinced IBM that Microsoft could meet their needs. This was when Gates bought a computer that was similar to IBM because they didn’t have the requirements. By 1983, Microsoft went global with offices in Great Britain and Japan; 30 percent of the computers in the world were running Microsoft’s software. This was a few years before Microsoft released Windows. Gates has accomplished many things and has many more accomplishments to come.

Bill Gates made many important contributions to world health through his philanthropy. He created a foundation with his wife, Melinda Gates, known today as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He started by donating $28 billion to his foundation. Gates tried to master all sorts of scientific knowledge on where to get money. He outlined goals for global health, such as cutting the number of annual deaths of children under five down to 2.5 million in the next 15 years. As stated in the Devex article, “The goal is to get medicines and vaccines out to everybody who needs them.” He also convinced some businesses to donate money to healthcare around the world. He helped get billions of dollars for vaccines around the world to fight malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis. He immersed himself in this area until it became successful. Gates also achieved a great deal in the area of education. He believes in collaboration for people to solve problems together. According to Gates, one of the biggest issues in public education is inequality. In the CNBC article, Gates stated, “Melinda and I made public education our top priority in the US because we wanted to do something about the disparity in achievement and post-secondary success for students of color and low-income students.” He is committed to understanding this and all issues in great depth. Gates learned technical information to solve problems. In 2018, Gates saw an opportunity with a new federal education law that would have repercussions in American classrooms. He wanted schools to have standards and put money towards education. Even though Gates’s influence is often invisible, his foundation is driving the conversation on how to reshape America’s struggling school systems. The Gates Foundation spent about $44 million focused on the 2015 law called the Every Student Succeeds Act. The law allows flexibility to create their own education system and in turn, will get federal money for following their own rules. Gates was influential in supporting Common Core academic standards. In terms of dollars, his foundations are the top funder of school reform in the US. Since 2001, his foundation contributed more than 6 billion dollars towards reshaping American schools. Bill Gates took a stand and was dedicated to helping poor people all over the world. According to Time Magazine, “Bill Gates points to two recent waves of poverty reduction—first in China and then in India—and discusses what it would take to achieve a third wave in Africa.” Bill Gates said in order to help Africa, people would have to invest in health and education. He wants to teach African farmers what kinds of crops would grow best there so they can make money and not be so poor. Gates wants to see Africans be able to sell goods rather than buy goods. He also wants Africans to be able to go to school, get a job, and be healthy throughout their lives. This means that they need education and healthcare. Gates has had many ups and downs during his lifetime.

Microsoft is still in business today and will likely be in business until the world ends. Not only that he founded Microsoft, but he also became the youngest human being to become a billionaire at the age of 31. This eventually led to him becoming the richest man on earth by age 39. However, not everything that he did was successful, he did have some failures along the way. When he was younger he was banned from the computer lab for hacking. When he was about to create Windows, a furious Steve Jobs called him about stealing his idea. Luckily, Gates proved him wrong. Gates’s biggest setback was when he was sued by the US Government. He was sued by the US Government because they said his company, Microsoft, was a monopoly. Bill Gates shows grit because he’s an entrepreneur who changed the world through his contributions to business, education, world health, and poverty reduction. His first experience using a computer was in high school. He mastered problem-solving and hacking (which he eventually got banned from the computer lab for.)

Cite this page