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Table of Contents

Childhood ..............................................................................................................................1

Education and early work......................................................................................................2

Working for his company.......................................................................................................3

Conclusion.............................................................................................................................5
 Choi 1

Jinwoo Choi

Mrs. Panks

English 7th period

12 May 2010

Bill Gates

Think of wealthy, famous, and successful people, and how they may sometimes be

all the same: just rich for looks or talent. This man isn’t any ordinary businessman, or another

rich, good-looking celebrity, but this man’s hard work ever since high school has changed

how the world uses their time. Bill Gates is a man who used his extraordinary talent to help

the world and in reward, he became very wealthy. When many people use the computer

everyday, they probably don’t think about who invented the software or helped out with it.

Many people had to work and think very hard to invent such technology, and Bill Gates was

one of them. He is the co-founder of Microsoft, has become has become one of the wealthiest

men in the world, and is an active philanthropist.

Childhood

Bill Gates was born on October 28th, 1955 to William and Mary Gates in Seattle,

Washington. His dad was a well-known lawyer in Seattle and his mom was a teacher, a

university officer, and a member of United Way International (Evans). He was raised like any

other normal child, but his intelligence and abilities smartness got him to get his parents to

take him to Lakeside private prep school, where he began to manage computers. Along with

some friends, he formed a programming club at his school, in which many of the students

later worked for Microsoft (Evans).

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When Bill turned 13, he wrote he first software program at school that included a tic-tac-toe

game. Even Bill had a close friend, Paul Allen, and together they had fun with their interests

in computers. They would be very close friends and business partners for a long time, and in

the fall of 1971, they began their first company, TRAF-O-DATA (Le). In addition to friends,

in 1994, Gates was married to Melinda French Gates in Hawaii. Their first child, Jennifer

Katharine Gates, was born in 1996 (Evans).

Education and early work

After high school, Bill attended Harvard University, but ended up dropping out in

1974 in order to create Microsoft with his childhood friend, Paul Allen. As well as working

with Paul Allen, Gates also worked with Steve Ballmer, a friend from Harvard, on the Altair

computer (Evans). When Micro-soft opened in 1974, it quickly expanded into other countries

and in 1978, Micro-soft opened in Japan. A year later they changed their name to Microsoft,

the name we use today (Evans). When Microsoft was first made, it made many connections

with other companies; another reason how it became so successful. However, this was not

always friendly agreement. IBM and Microsoft had some arguments, and Apple sued them

about an operating system, but Microsoft won in court (Evans).

In 1975, along with Paul Allen, Gates wrote the first changeable software program,

Altair BASIC (Le). Microsoft kept growing and growing. In the same year, Microsoft earned

$16,005, but 25 years later, the company’s income for the year was 22.96 billion dollars, with

39,000 people employed in 60 different countries (Evans).

Bill Gates became wealthy because he took the information he had learned, and used it well.

According to Gates, those who succeed are the ones that constantly learn and

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have information flowing through their business (Gates 3-4). Another reason why Gates was

so successful was because he asked himself questions. These questions helped him
fix his problems, keep up with his competitors, satisfy his customers, and many more. This

made his business very successful and popular (Gates 4). As he quoted: “There will be a day,

not far distant, when you will be able to conduct business, study, explore the world and its

cultures, call up any great entertainment, make friends, attend neighborhood markets, and

show pictures to distant relatives-without leaving your desk or armchair. It will be more than

on objects you carry or an appliance you purchase. It will be your passport into a new,

mediated way of life.”-Bill Gates (The Road Ahead, 1995) (Le). Lastly, Gates became very

popular in the international community. Not only was he making a profit from the United

States, but his company was well-known worldwide, because he made his customers happy

(Gates).

Working for his company

Bill Gates sent out many versions of his software, which also made it popular. Some

examples are Windows 95 and Windows 98 (Evans). What Bill Gates has done great

influences our daily lives. Writing essays on the computer, email, social networking, and

online research would not have been possible without the work of Gates. He is truly an

inspiration for the future. Patrick Le also said: “Gates came of age in a time of innovation and

creative thinking. During that era, technology was still at the brink evolution; therefore no

hardware or software yet set the standard. Few knew about computers and most of them were

kids like Gates. Gates took advantage of his

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opportunity to fulfill his childhood joy of computer game play and became an expert

programmer.

Obviously, Gates couldn’t use all of his wealth for himself. He is donates a great portion of

his money to organizations for the poor. His own organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates

Foundation gives out large amounts of donations to the needy (Greene).The day before Gates
was married, his mother, Mary quoted: “From those who are given great resources, great

things are expected.” (Look to) This was one reason why Gates donates so much money to a

variety of organizations. In 2006, Gates said that he would, in 2008, work less with Microsoft

to help more with his foundations to the poor (Look to). The Bill and Melinda Foundation

said that they would donate $15 million to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. This

would help the continent’s agriculture (Greene).

Gates has sent over millions of dollars to help different issues in the world and organizations

that help certain countries. His donations have helped out on the following issues: AIDS,

animals, at risk/disadvantaged children, education, environment, family/parent support,

health, homelessness, human rights, hunger, and poverty. The organizations he has donated to

include: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Children’s Vaccine Program, Children with

AIDS, Earth Institute, Food Bank for New York City, GALVMed, Make A Child Smile

Appeal, MASSIVEGOOD, and The Lunchbox Fund. He has made life easier for many of the

poor and needy throughout the world.

In addition to his present donations, he has plans for the future. He is saving up money for

children in all parts of the world. For example, he is planning on spending $10

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billion for vaccines on children living in third-world countries. Also, for the past five years

since 2009, Bill and Melinda Gates have invested $4 billion into helping the United

States education system. They plan on sending even more donations, which is great news for

the school in the U.S. (Jeffrey).

Conclusion

Even though he was raised as any other child, Bill Gates has contributed to the world both

with technology and his huge salary. Gates helped the worldwide community by both using

his knowledge of technology to create a convenient software and product for the world, and
with his great profit he also gave it back society through donations. He has been working in

his organization ever since he has stepped down from his position in Microsoft (Look to). Bill

Gates has helped out much more donations than earning more money. His generosity has

influenced others to donate their sometimes hard-earned money, to those less fortunate.

Outline

I. Introduction

II. Education and work

A. High school

B. Early jobs and career

III. Formation of Microsoft

A. Fame

IV. Personal Life

V. Conclusion