Billgates as an successful entrepreneur

1. A PROJECT
ON
LIFE CYCLE
OF AN
ENTREPRENEUR
WITH REFERENCE
TO
BILL GATES

2. GHANSHYAMDAS SARAF COLLEGE
OF ARTS AND COMMERCE
A PROJECT OF
ENTREPRENEURSHIP &
MANAGEMENNT OF SMALL &
MEDIUM ENTERPRISE.
BILL GATES
SUBMITTED TO:-
PROF. ANGIRA
SUBMITTED BY:-
NAMES ROLL NO.
Sanjoli Bhageria 13
Rohit Deriya 25
Rebecca Fernandes 28
Juili Haryan 34
Pinky Pan 59
Kusum Parmar 60

3. BIIL GATES
CHAIR PERSON
OF
MICROSOFT

4. BIO-DATA OF BILL GATES
BORN: October 28, 1955 (age 56)
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
RESIDENCE: Medina, Washington, U.S.
EDUCATION: graduate(drop out)
NATIONALITY: AMERICAN
OCCUPATION: Chair Man of Microsoft
=>Chairman of Corbis
=>Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gate Foundation
=>Director of Berkshire Hathaway
=> CEO of Cascade Investment
Currant wealth: U.S $59 billion
Religion: Agnostic
HOBBY: BORD GAME&MONOPOLY GAME

5. About BillGates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an
American business magnate and philanthropist. Gates is the former chief
executive and current chairman of Microsoft, the world‘s largest personal-
computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen. He is
consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest
overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third; in 2011
he was the wealthiest American and the second wealthiest person. During his
career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software
architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder, with 6.4 percent of
the common stock. He has also authored and co-authored several books.
Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer
revolution. Gates has been criticized for his business tactics, which have been
considered anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld
by the courts. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of
philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable
organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, established in 2000.
Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000. He
remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In
June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work
at Microsoft to part-time work, and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software
architect, and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates's last
full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-
executive chairman.

6. Early life:-
Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary
Maxwell Gates. His ancestry includes English, German, and Scots-Irish. His
father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother served on the board of directors
for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way. Gates's maternal
grandfather was J. W. Maxwell, a national bank president. Gates has one elder
sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of
his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because
his father had the "II" suffix. Early on in his life, Gates's parents had a law
career in mind for him. When Gates was young, his family regularly attended
a Congregational church.
At 13 he enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory
school. When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used
proceeds from Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model
33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE)
computer for the school's students. Gates took an interest in programming the
GE system in BASIC, and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest.
He wrote his first computer program on this machine: an implementation oftic-
tac-toe that allowed users to play games against the computer. Gates was
fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code
perfectly. When he reflected back on that moment, he said, "There was just
something neat about the machine." After the Mothers Club donation was
exhausted, he and other students sought time on systems
including DEC PDPminicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-
10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC), which banned four
Lakeside students—Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans—for the
summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain
free computer time.
At the end of the ban, the four students offered to find bugs in CCC's software
in exchange for computer time. Rather than use the system via Teletype, Gates

7. went to CCC's offices and studiedsource code for various programs that ran on
the system, including programs in FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language.
The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970, when the company went out
of business. The following year, Information Sciences, Inc. hired the four
Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them
computer time and royalties. After his administrators became aware of his
programming abilities, Gates wrote the school's computer program to schedule
students in classes. He modified the code so that he was placed in classes with
mostly female students. He later stated that "it was hard to tear myself away
from a machine at which I could so unambiguously demonstrate success." At
age 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic
counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. In early 1973, Bill Gates served as a
congressional page in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on
the SAT and enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973. While at
Harvard, he met Steve Ballmer, who later succeeded Gates as CEO of
Microsoft.
Family background of biil gates:-
Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, His father was to William H. Gates,
Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates is his mother of English, German, His family was
upper middle class; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the
board of directors for First Interstate Bank System and the United Way.
Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School.
There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers
at age 13. The Gates family atmosphere was warm and close, and all three
children were encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence. Bill
showed early signs of competitiveness when he coordinated family athletic
games at their summer house on Puget Sound. He also relished in playing board
games (Risk was his favorite) and excelled in Monopoly.
Bill had a very close relationship with his mother, Mary, who after a brief
career as a teacher devoted her time to helping raise the children and working

8. on civic affairs and with charities. She also served on several corporate boards,
among them First Interstate Bank in Seattle (founded by her grandfather),
MARRIAGE LIFE:-
How Bill and Melinda Met:
Bill and Melinda met in 1987 at a Microsoft press event in Manhattan, New
York.
Marriage Proposal:
Bill proposed marriage to Melinda in 1993 when he "secretly diverted a
chartered plane they were taking home from Palm Springs one Sunday night to
land in Omaha. Warren Buffett met them there, arranged to have a jewelry store
open, and helped them pick a ring."
Ages at Wedding: Bill, 38. Melinda,29.
Wedding Date:
Bill and Melinda were married on January 1, 1994 on the Hawaiian island of
Lanai. The island has no stoplights, has 47 miles of coastline, lots of white sand,
and is only 18 miles long and 13 miles wide.

9. BILL GATES AS A TECHNICAL LEADER
 New Source-Code :Gates went to Computer Center Corporation ‗CCC‘
and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system,
including programs in FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language.
 New Venture : At age 17, Gates formed a venture with ‗Allen‘ called
‗Traf-O-Data‘ to make traffic counters based on the ‗Intel 8008
processor‘.
 New Opportunity : the release of the ‗MITS Altair 8800‘ based on the
‗Intel 8080 CPU‘ facilitated them to go for new possibilities to open their
own computer software company.
 MITS Altair 8800 Computer with 8-inch (200 mm) floppy disk system
 Gates & MITS linkage : Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and
Telemetry Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to
inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for
the platform.
 Project Altair-BASIC : Paul Allen was hired into MITS, and Gates took
a leave of absence from Harvard Univ. to work with Allen at MITS in
Albuquerque in November 1975

10. MICROSOFT
After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated
the Altair 8800, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry
Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he
and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform. In reality,
Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they
merely wanted to gauge MITS's interest. MITS president Ed Robertsagreed to
meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an
Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter.
The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque was a success and
resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter asAltair BASIC. Paul
Allen was hired into MITS, and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to
work with Allen at MITS in Albuquerque in November 1975. They named their
partnership "Micro-Soft" and had their first office located in
Albuquerque. Within a year, the hyphen was dropped, and on November 26,
1976, the trade name "Microsoft" was registered with the Office of the
Secretary of the State of New Mexico. Gates never returned to Harvard to
complete his studies.
Microsoft's BASIC was popular with computer hobbyists, but Gates discovered
that a pre-market copy had leaked into the community and was being widely
copied and distributed. In February 1976, Gates wrote an Open Letter to
Hobbyists in the MITS newsletter saying that MITS could not continue to
produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software without payment. This
letter was unpopular with many computer hobbyists, but Gates persisted in his
belief that software developers should be able to demand payment. Microsoft
became independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop
programming language software for various systems. The company moved from
Albuquerque to its new home in Bellevue, Washington on January 1, 1979, after
the former rejected his loan application.
During Microsoft's early years, all employees had broad responsibility for the
company's business. Gates oversaw the business details, but continued to write
code as well. In the first five years, Gates personally reviewed every line of
code the company shipped, and often rewrote parts of it as he saw fit.
IBM partnership
IBM approached Microsoft in July 1980 regarding its upcoming personal
computer, the IBM PC.[5] The computer company first proposed that Microsoft
write the BASIC interpreter. When IBM's representatives mentioned that they
needed an operating system, Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI),
makers of the widely used CP/M operating system. IBM's discussions with

11. Digital Research went poorly, and they did not reach a licensing agreement.
IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing difficulties during a
subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable operating
system. A few weeks later Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating
system similar to CP/M that Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products(SCP)
had made for hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to
become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS.
After adapting the operating system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM
as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee of $50,000.
Gates did not offer to transfer the copyright on the operating system, because he
believed that other hardware vendors would clone IBM's system. They did, and
the sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry. Despite
IBM's name on the operating system the press quickly identified Microsoft as
being very influential on the new computer, with PC Magazineasking if Gates
were "The Man Behind The Machine?" He oversaw Microsoft's company
restructuring on June 25, 1981, which re-incorporated the company in
Washington state and made Gates President of Microsoft and the Chairman of
the Board.
Windows
Microsoft launched its first retail version of Microsoft Windows on November
20, 1985, and in August, the company struck a deal with IBM to develop a
separate operating system called OS/2. Although the two companies
successfully developed the first version of the new system, mounting creative
differences caused the partnership to deteriorate. It ended in 1991, when Gates
led Microsoft to develop a version of OS/2 independently from IBM.

12. BILL GATES AS A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
Gates is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the world. He is able to run
a successful and a profitable entrepreneurship for many years and even today,
we cannot survive in this competitive world without it.
Vision and dedication are the key factors of being a successful entrepreneur and
these skills were present in Bill Gates from the beginning. He has got the skills
to identify the most suitable employee for recruitment.
The success of Microsoft is the true example of the entrepreneurial skills of Bill
Gates.The success story of Bill Gates is highly motivating for all the upcoming
entrepreneurs.
His hard work, dedication and self-confidence helped him to earn everything he
has. He is a simple man and slightly conservative in regards of money although
he is one of the richest people of the world.
The youth can take inspirations from the life of Bill Gates. So it can be
concluded that Bill Gates is one of the ideal personalities of the world who has
honestly contributed towards the world's success.
Achievements as a successful entrepreneur
The list of achievements of Bill Gates is so long that a book can be written
about it. Some of his achievements are mentioned below:
1. In 2005, Bill Gates knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to the
British economy. His title will be 'Knight Commander of the Order of the
British Empire.‘
2. Time Magazine included his name in '100 most influential people of 20th
century'. His name was continuously there from 2004 till 2006.
3. He has received doctorates from various universities and institutes like

13. Harvard University and The Royal Institute of Technology.
4. Bill Gates and his wife have done many generous works for the welfare of the
society. For this, they have received the award of 'Order of the Aztec Eagle' in
Mexico.
5. Sunday Times included his name in its Power List in 1999.
6. Forbes Magazine listed his name in 'The World's Richest People' from the
year 1995 to 2007.
7. Berkshire Hathaway, an investment company, approached him to be the
Director of the company.
In 2000 Gates resigns as CEO of Microsoft to spend more on software
architecture and less with running the company
CHARACTERISTICS OF BILL GATES
INTELLIGENT
He believes that if you are intelligent and know how to apply your intelligence,
you can achieve anything. From childhood Bill was ambitious, intelligent and
competitive. These qualities helped him to attain top position in the profession
he chose.
VISIONARY
Microsoft's vision is "A computer on every desk and Microsoft software on
every computer he will continue to stomp out the competition until he dies.
Every business and household must have a computer and must run Microsoft
software‖, was the basic guiding vision of Bill Gates.
PASSION
When as a student at the Harvard University, every single student would have
wanted to be part of the great institute and graduate to be successful, Bill Gates
decided to stop studying and pursue his dream of writing software‘s for every

14. computer in the world .He was just passionate about software, coding and
technology that incidentally also made him the richest man in the world
INNOVATION
Gates and Allen were assisted by a staff of six, which included four
programmers. In late 1977, Gates released a version of FORTRAN language for
microcomputers. In 1978, Gates and Allen introduced a version of COBOL.
Around this time, Microsoft emerged as the market leader in microcomputer
languages with sales exceeding $1 million. In 1979, Microsoft developed a new
version of BASIC... He had an early interest in software and began
programming computers at the age of thirteen. .
RISK BEARER
In his junior year, Gates dropped out of Harvard to devote his energies full-time
to Microsoft, a company he had started in 1975 with his boyhood friend Paul
Allen development of new products.
CONTINOUS LEARNER
―Microsoft is not about greed. It‘s about Innovation and Fairness.‖ – Bill
Gates‖Never stop learning was the Mantra of Bill Gates which he follow till
date. This empowers him to be a Great Leader of our times. He will always be
remembers as an Icon and even without his presence in Microsoft he would still
be regarded as a great inventor and a real genius in every regard of Business,
Technology and Entrepreneurship.
ACCEPTING THE CRITICISMS
Its fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of
failure.There will be people who would want to make fun of your efforts, pull
you down and so on. The stronger you stand the bolder you get the faster these
negatives wither.
When IBM pulled out of the contract for the operating system to be bundled
with the IBM Clone PCs, Bill Gates stayed on and started focusing on the
creating Windows amidst lots of hiccups that will hamper the company.

15. OTHER KEY LESSONS-BILL GATES
―If you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be
moved to act.‖ – Bill Gates
This is one never mentioned secret of success. Action is the key word. When
logic never drives us its emotions. We must have take action. Bill Gates as a
small young boy never had anything to lose which he kept telling his good
friend Paul Allen. When he had several odds again him such as the American
Law and several cases against him, he still consistently took action by
developing more software which the people wanted. This made him a super star
overnight. ―Whether it‘s Google or Apple or free software, we‘ve got some
fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes‖ – Bill Gates Bill Gates took
up the responsibility of being the Chief Software Architect, Bill Gates was
nurturing Microsoft by building a broad range of products. This was not just
capitalizing on the knowledge but provide the best by understanding the need of
the people.
Bill Gates' Secrets of Success
Hard work: Bill Gates is a hard worker since the beginning of his life. In his
college days, he used to work all night long on his computer. When Microsoft
was started, Bill Gates used to sleep only for 6 hours in a day without skipping a
single day of office. For Bill Gates, hard work is one of the main keys of
success.
Entrepreneurship:
Entrepreneurship is an integral part and is present in Bill Gates from the
beginning. He knows how to manage his work, he always takes a keen interest
in learning, he learns from his own mistakes, he is a creative person and, most
of all, and he is focused towards his goals.
Confidence:

16. Bill Gates has always been a highly confident person. He was always confident
about his dream of becoming successful.Managerial Skills: The great
managerial skills of Bill Gates helped Microsoft to be a successful company. He
efficiently managed all the areas of the company which required his focus.A
Great Convincer: Bill Gates is gifted with great convincing skills. He has made
lots of successful deals in his career. The deal with IBM was one of them.
Technical Mind:
Bill Gates is born with a highly technical bent of mind. It is a gift of god to him.
Microsoft has earned lots of success through this technical mind.
He Had A Vision:
From day one, Gates dreamed of having a personal computer in every home, in
every business and in every school. Throughout his career, he never once
wavered from this dream. Focusing on software as the means to popularize the
PC, Gates built his empire around this central vision and steered clear of all
other distractions. And, the vision continues today. ―We are not even close to
finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be,‖ he says.
He Had a Solid Team:
―If we weren‘t still hiring great people and pushing ahead at full speed, it would
be easy to fall behind and become a mediocre company,‖ says Gates. From
Microsoft‘s inception, Gates prioritized his team, bringing in only trusted
friends to help him get the company started. As the company grew, he insisted
that they hire only the most capable young minds and strove to create a small
and creative environment for them to thrive in. Microsoft succeeded not only
because of Gates, but also because of the strong team that stood behind him.
He Took a Long-Term Approach:
―In the decade ahead I can predict that we will provide over twice the
productivity improvement that we provided in the ‗90s,‖ said Gates. This bold
statement captures Gates‘ philosophy behind his entire business. Never one to
chase after instant success or an immediate pay-off, Gates began coding
software with a view to the next fifty years. He has constantly tried to keep his
company at the forefront of new technological developments by funding new
research initiatives. Gates‘ long-term approach helped ensure Microsoft‘s
remarkable staying power.

17. He Learned From Failure:
In hindsight, Gates‘ early failures seem so miniscule that they are almost
laughable. But, as a struggling entrepreneur, he went through the same
frustration, confusion and despair that others in his situation also face. What
distinguishes Gates from the rest was his ability to rebound from his mistakes
and take whatever lessons he could from them. He then became even more
resolute and determined to see his vision realize.
Mangement sytle :
From Microsoft's founding in 1975 until 2006, Gates had primary responsibility
for the company's product strategy. He aggressively broadened the company's
range of products, and wherever Microsoft achieved a dominant position he
vigorously defended it. He gained a reputation for being distant to others; as
early as 1981 an industry executive complained in public that "Gates is
notorious for not being reachable by phone and for not returning phone
calls." Another executive recalled that after he showed Gates a videogame and
defeated him 35 of 37 times, when they met again a month later Gates "won or
tied every game. He had studied the game until he solved it. That is a
competitor."
As an executive, Gates met regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and
program managers. Firsthand accounts of these meetings describe him as
verbally combative, berating managers for perceived holes in their business
strategies or proposals that placed the company's long-term interests at risk.
He often interrupted presentations with such comments as, "That's the stupidest
thing I've ever heard!" and, "Why don't you just give up your options and join
the Peace Corps?"[15] The target of his outburst then had to defend the proposal
in detail until, hopefully, Gates was fully convinced. When subordinates
appeared to be procrastinating, he was known to remark sarcastically, "I'll do it
over the weekend."
Gates's role at Microsoft for most of its history was primarily a management
and executive role. However, he was an active software developer in the early
years, particularly on the company's programming language products. He has
not officially been on a development team since working on the TRS-80 Model
100, but wrote code as late as 1989 that shipped in the company's products. On
June 15, 2006, Gates announced that he would transition out of his day-to-day
role over the next two years to dedicate more time to philanthropy. He divided
his responsibilities between two successors, placing Ray Ozzie in charge of day-
to-day management and Craig Mundie in charge of long-term product strategy.

18. Recognition
In 1987, Gates was listed as a billionaire in the pages of Forbes' 400 Richest
People in America issue, just days before his 32nd birthday. As the world's
youngest self-made billionaire, he was worth $1.25 billion, over $900 million
more than he'd been worth the year before, when he'd debuted on the list.
Time magazine named Gates one of the 100 people who most influenced the
20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005,
and 2006. Time also collectively named Gates, his wife Melinda and U2's lead
singer Bono as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts. In
2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".Gates was listed in
the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief
Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber
Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in theUpside Elite 100 in 1999 and
was included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in
media" in 2001.
In 1994, he was honoured as the twentieth Distinguished Fellow of the British
Computer Society. Gates has received honorary doctorates fromNyenrode
Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands, in 2000; the Royal Institute
of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2002; Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan,
in 2005; Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in April 2007; Harvard
University in June 2007; the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in January
2008, and Cambridge University in June 2009. He was also made an honorary
trustee of Peking University in 2007. Gates was also made an honorary Knight
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in
2005, in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower
fly,Eristalis gatesi, in his honor.
In November 2006, he and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec
Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and
education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un país de
lectores".In October 2009, it was announced that Gates will be awarded
the 2010 Bower Award for Business Leadership of The Franklin Institute for his
achievements in business and for his philanthropic work. In 2010 he was
honored with the Silver Buffalo Award by the Boy Scouts of America, its
highest award for adults, for his service to youth.
In 2011, Bill Gates was ranked as the fifth most powerful person in the world,
according to rankings by Forbes magazine.

19. BILL GATES AS AN AUTHOR
To date, Bill Gates has authored two books. The Road Ahead, written with
Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold and journalist Peter Rinearson, was
published in November 1995, and it summarized the implications of the
personal computing revolution and described a future profoundly changed by
the arrival of a global information superhighway. Business @ the Speed of
Thoughtwas published in 1999, and discusses how business and technology are
integrated, and shows how digital infrastructures and information networks can
help getting an edge on the competition.
Gates has appeared in a number of documentaries, including the 2010
documentary film Waiting for "Superman",and the BBC documentary
series The Virtual Revolution.
Gates was prominently featured in Pirates of Silicon Valley, a 1999 film which
chronicles the rise of Apple and Microsoft from the early 1970s to 1997. He
was portrayed by Anthony Michael Hall.
Other Publication:
• Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime by Bill Gates,
Mary Ann Mackin Hardcover - April 2009
• Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated
Fortunes by William H. Gates, Chuck Collins Hardcover - January 2003
• Bill Gates Speaks: Insight from the World's Greatest Entrepreneur by
Janet Lowe, Bill Gates Hardcover - October 1998
• Camino Al Futura - The Road Ahead
by Bill Gates Hardcover - February 1996
• MS-DOS Technical Reference Encyclopedia, Versions 1.0-3.2
by William H. Gates Hardcover - June 1986

20. BILL GATES AS A PHILANTHROPIST
Gates began to appreciate the expectations others had of him when public
opinion mounted suggesting that he could give more of his wealth to charity.
Gates studied the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, and in
1994 sold some of his Microsoft stock to create the William H. Gates
Foundation. In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations into
one to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the
largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world. The
foundation allows benefactors access to information regarding how its money is
being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome
Trust. The generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been
credited as a major influence. Gates and his father met with Rockefeller several
times, and modeled their giving in part on the Rockefeller family's philanthropic
focus, namely those global problems that are ignored by governments and other
organizations. As of 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates were the second-most
generous philanthropists in America, having given over $28 billion to
charity. They plan to eventually give 95% of their wealth to charity.
The foundation was at the same time criticized because it invests assets that it
has not yet distributed with the exclusive goal of maximizing return on
investment. As a result, its investments include companies that have been
charged with worsening poverty in the same developing countries where the
Foundation is attempting to relieve poverty. These include companies that
pollute heavily, and pharmaceutical companies that do not sell into the
developing world. In response to press criticism, the foundation announced in
2007 a review of its investments, to assess social responsibility. It subsequently
canceled the review and stood by its policy of investing for maximum return,
while using voting rights to influence company practices. The Gates
Millennium Scholars program has been criticized for its exclusion
ofCaucasian students.
Gates's wife urged people to learn a lesson from the philanthropic efforts of the
Salwen family, which had sold its home and given away half of its value, as
detailed in The Power of Half. Gates and his wife invited Joan Salwen to Seattle
to speak about what the family had done, and on December 9, 2010, Gates,
investor Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook's CEO) signed a
promise they called the "Gates-Buffet Giving Pledge", in which they promised
to donate to charity at least half of their wealth over the course of time.

21. SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE
A year later, Gates dropped out of Harvard, once it became clear that the
possibilities for Microsoft were bright.
The big break came in 1980 when an agreement was signed to provide the
operating system that became known as MS-DOS, for IBM's new personal
computer.
In a contractual masterstroke, Microsoft was allowed to license the operating
system to other manufacturers, spawning an industry of "IBM-compatible"
personal computers which depended on Microsoft's operating system.
That fuelled further growth, prompting the company to float in 1986, raising
$61m.
Now a multi-millionaire, Allen had already stepped back from the frontline. But
Gates continued to play the key role in the company's growth, with his vision
for networked computers proving central to Microsoft's success.
However, his judgment has not always appeared flawless.
While sales and profits rocketed in the early 1990s, he was seen to have
misjudged on a grand scale the possibilities and growth of the internet.

22. CONCLUSION
Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in a family having rich business,
political and community service background. His great-grandfather was a state
legislator and a mayor, his grandfather was vice president of national bank and
his father was a lawyer.
Personal Attributes
Bill strongly believes in hard work. He believes that if you are intelligent and
know how to apply your intelligence, you can achieve anything. From
childhood Bill was ambitious, intelligent and competitive. These qualities
helped him to attain top position in the profession he chose. In school, he had an
excellent record in mathematics and science. He used to be really bored in
school and his parents knew it, so they always tried to feed him with more
information to keep him busy. Bill's parents came to know about their son's
intelligence and decided to enroll him in a private school, known for its intense
academic environment. It was a very important decision in Bill's life, and it was
there that he was introduced to a computer. Bill Gates and his friends were very
much interested in the world of programming and formed "Programmers
Group" in late 1968. Being in this group, they found a new way to apply their
skills in university of Washington. In the next year, they got their first
opportunity in Information Sciences Inc. in which they were selected as
programmers. ISI (Information Sciences Inc.) agreed to give them royalties
whenever it made money from any of the group's program. As a result of the
business deal signed with Information Sciences Inc., the group also became a
legal business.
Bill and his close friend Allen started new company of their own, Traf-O-Data.
They developed a small computer to measure traffic flow. From this project
they earned around $20,000. The era of Traf-O-Data came to an end when Bill
left the college. In 1973, he left home for Harvard University. He didn't know
what to do, so he enrolled his name for pre-law. He took the standard freshman
courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvard's toughest
mathematics courses. He did well there, but he couldn't find it interesting. He
spent many long nights in front of the school's computer and the next day asleep
in class. After leaving school, he almost lost himself from the world of
computers. Bill and his friend Paul Allen remained in close contact even though
they were away from school. They would often discuss new ideas for future
projects and the possibility of starting a business one day. At the end of Bill's
first year, Allen came close to him so that they could follow some of their ideas.
That summer they got job in Honeywell. Allen kept on pushing Bill for opening
a new software company.

23. The Successful Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
Within a year, Bill dropped out from Harvard. Then he formed Microsoft. Bill is
a visionary person and works very hard to achieve his vision. His belief in high
intelligence and hard work has put him where he is today. He does not believe
in mere luck or God's grace, but just hard work and competitiveness. Microsoft
is good competition for other software companies and he will continue to stomp
out the competition until he dies. He likes to play the game of risk and world
domination. His beliefs are so powerful, which have helped him increase his
wealth and his monopoly in the industry.
Bill married Melinda French in 1994 and they have three children. It was with
Melinda's constant support that Bill accomplished his long-cherished dream of
starting a foundation aimed at helping the poor and the needy. Together they
started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and it has been endowed with
more than $35 billion. Some years ago, he visited Chicago's Einstein
Elementary School and announced grants benefiting Chicago's schools and
museums and donated a total of $110,000, a bunch of computers, and provided
Internet connectivity to number of schools. Secondly, Bill Gates donated 38
million dollars for the building of a computer institute at Stanford University.
Gates plans to give away 95% of all his earnings when he is old and grey.