Bill Gates is one of the richest and most successful people in the world, but his journey to the top has been anything but easy. From his early days as a high school dropout to his rise as the CEO of Microsoft, Gates’ life story shows that success does not come easily—but it can be achieved if you put your mind to it. Read on to learn more about Bill Gates’s history and how he managed to become one of the most famous billionaires in the world.
Childhood and High School
As a kid, Bill didn’t always take his schoolwork seriously. When he was 14 years old, he started working on computers at home and quickly became a prodigy. Then in 1973, when he was 16 years old, Microsoft was formed and their first product was a computer language for business programming. They sold their first program called Altair BASIC to MITS which manufactured minicomputers like Altair 8800. It wasn’t until 1975 that they released an improved version of BASIC with extra features that allowed it to be used on other machines. This led them to develop versions for CP/M and then MS-DOS, which would become very popular later on. In 1980, Microsoft moved from Albuquerque to Bellevue near Seattle where they are still located today. By 1983, IBM approached them about creating an operating system that could run on its new line of PCs (personal computers). This deal made them millions as IBM paid $50 million up front plus royalties per copy sold! Afterward, they created Windows 1.0 in 1985 but it wasn’t until Windows 3.0 came out in 1990 that things really took off with over 100 million copies being shipped by 1995!
College Drop Out
After two years at Harvard, Gates left in 1975 without graduating when he and his friend Paul Allen started Microsoft Corporation. One semester shy of a degree, Gates would go on to become one of three richest people in America. In 2011, he was listed as number five on Forbes’ list of billionaires with an estimated net worth of $58 billion. He has also been named the world’s most powerful person by Forbes magazine for 15 consecutive years.
Starting Microsoft
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1975, where he’d been studying Computer Science. He had $1,100 saved from his time working at Honeywell during high school, and convinced friend Paul Allen—another dropout from Washington State University—to join him in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There they started a company that would develop programming languages for various computing platforms.
Wealthiest Person on Earth
The wealthiest person on Earth is none other than Bill Gates, who has maintained his title as such since 2013. As of 2017, he has an estimated net worth $85.2 billion—though Forbes said it may be as high as $90 billion. To put that in perspective, Gates’ net worth was higher than Mexico’s gross domestic product for most of 2016. His wealth comes from Microsoft Corporation, which he co-founded with Paul Allen in 1975. He held the CEO position until 2000 and then took on a new role as chief software architect until 2008. Today, Gates serves as a technology advisor for Microsoft and its subsidiaries. In June 2017, he announced plans to step down from his role at Microsoft altogether within two years.
Philanthropy
After stepping down as Microsoft’s CEO in 2000, Bill has continued to work with the company he founded. He serves as Chairman and maintains an active role in product development and strategic planning. Through his private investment company, Cascade Investment, LLC, he is involved with technology and media companies. In 2006, Gates formed The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife Melinda—as a vehicle for their philanthropic endeavors. Since its inception, foundation assets have grown from $3 billion to over $36 billion today.
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