English: Bill Gates and Microsoft Windows Personal Essay

Submitted By janguiano0302
Words: 4092
Pages: 17

Bill Gates, the world's most generous person, says that as long as he helps eradicate deadly diseases like polio and malaria, he doesn't care if he's forgotten after his death. Not that there's any chance of that: Gates has already given more than $28 billion, but said in his fifth annual letter for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that the total amount invested is less important than precise measures of impact, like child mortality rates. Gates has been spreading his gospel to other billionaires near and far: he and good friend Warren Buffett recently added 12 non-Americans to their Giving Pledge, including the U.K.'s Richard Branson and India's Azim Premji, bumping the total to 105 high net worth individuals. He also partnered with Carlos Slim to build a new $25 million agricultural research center in Mexico. Gates' net worth increased $6 billion to $67 billion in the past year - with no help from the company he cofounded, Microsoft, in which he still has a 5% stock. Most of his fortune these days is spread across private equity, bonds, and stocks like hygiene tech firm Ecolab, Mexican TV broadcaster Televisa, and Latin America's largest beverage company FEMSA. In February, Gates said the only thing left on his bucket list was, "Don't die."

Why you should listen to him:
Bill Gates is founder and former CEO of Microsoft. A geek icon, tech visionary and business trailblazer, Gates' leadership -- fueled by his long-held dream that millions might realize their potential through great software -- made Microsoft a personal computing powerhouse and a trendsetter in the Internet dawn. Whether you're a suit, chef, quant, artist, media maven, nurse or gamer, you've probably used a Microsoft product today.

In summer of 2008, Gates left his day-to-day role with Microsoft to focus on philanthropy. Holding that all lives have equal value (no matter where they're being lived), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has now donated staggering sums to HIV/AIDS programs, libraries, agriculture research and disaster relief -- and offered vital guidance and creative funding to programs in global health and education. Gates believes his tech-centric strategy for giving will prove the killer app of planet Earth's next big upgrade.
In his second annual letter, released in late January 2010, Gates takes stock of his first full year with the Gates Foundation. Read Bill Gates' annual letter for 2010. And follow his ongoing thinking on his personal website, The Gates Notes.
"When Gates looks at the world, a world in which millions of preventable deaths occur each year, he sees an irrational, inefficient, broken system, an application that needs to be debugged. It shocks him -- his word -- that people don't see this, the same way it shocked him that nobody but he and [Paul] Allen saw the microchip for what it

Entrepreneur Bill Gates, born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, began to show an interest in computer programming at the age of 13. Through technological innovation, keen business strategy, and aggressive competitive tactics, he and his partner Paul Allen built the world's largest software business, Microsoft. In the process, Bill Gates became one of the richest men in the world.
CONTENTS
Synopsis
Early Life
Early Career
The Rise of Microsoft
The Invention of Microsoft Windows
Personal Life
Philanthropic Efforts
QUOTES
"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."
– Bill Gates
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Early Life
Born William Henry Gates III, on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. Gates began to show an interest in computer programming at the age of 13 at the Lakeside School. He pursued his passion through college. Striking out on his own with his friend and business partner Paul Allen, Gates found himself at the right place at the right time. Through technological innovation, keen business strategy, and aggressive competitive tactics he built the world's largest