William Henry Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, USA on 19551October 28th.
His father William is a company lawyer and his mother Mary is a school teacher.
/kloc-at the age of 0/7, Gates sold his first computer programming work, a timetable system, and the buyer was his high school. The price is 4200 dollars.
Gates scored 1590 in the standardized SAT (American college entrance examination), and the highest score in this exam was 1600.
Gates told his university teacher that he became a millionaire at the age of 30, and by 3 1, he had become a billionaire. In other words, Gates knew that he would be rich in the future, but he didn't expect to be so rich.
While at Harvard, Gates helped write Altair BASIC, which became the first product of Microsoft (then called Microsoft).
He met his future wife Melinda French at the launch ceremony held by Microsoft in Manhattan in 1987, when Melinda was an employee of Microsoft. They got married on New Year's Day on 1994.
In 2005, Gates was awarded the Commander of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.
In March 2007, Forbes magazine named Bill Gates as the richest man in the world again, which was the third consecutive year. At present, his worth is $56 billion.
Gates recently announced that he would gradually quit his job at Microsoft and devote more time to charity.
At present, Carnegie Mellon University (a university in Pennsylvania, USA) has a building named after Gates-Gates Computer Science Building.
Gates is the latest owner of leonardo da vinci's 72-page manuscript The Leicester Code. This manuscript contains observations on the nature of water, astronomy, rocks and fossils. Gates publicly exhibits manuscripts in different cities around the world once a year.
Bill Gates spent his childhood in Seattle, Washington, USA. Seattle is the base of American Boeing Company. Nearly half of the employees in this city work in this company, so people also call Seattle Boeing City. It ranks alongside San Francisco and Los Angeles as one of the three major gateways on the west coast of the United States.
From 65438 to 0969, the Seattle Lakeside Middle School where Gates was located was the first school in the United States to offer computer courses. At that time, there was no PC, and the school only had one terminal, which was bought by raising a lot of money from the society and parents. The terminal is connected to a small electronic computer PDP- 10 owned by other units. It can only be used for a short time every day, and the cost per hour is also high. Like discovering the New World, Gates got into the computer room to operate the terminal whenever he had time, almost to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep. /kloc-at the age of 0/3, he independently wrote the first computer program, which can play the game of soft landing of the moon on the computer screen. July 20th this year happened to be the day when American astronauts Ames Lang and Aldrin took the lunar module, which represented the first time that humans set foot on the surface of the moon. Gates thought, I can't go to the moon by spaceship, so let me use the computer to realize my dream of going to the moon!
But it didn't last long. After only half a year, Hubin Middle School can no longer afford to pay the rent of the expensive PDP- 10 minicomputer. This incident made Gates feel as painful as losing the opportunity to go to school, because he was already fascinated by computers. So he and his classmates ran around and finally found an opportunity to help a computer company called CCC catch bugs and pay their computer operating expenses with the reward of pest control. What is a Bug? This is what people in the computer industry call software errors, which is synonymous with annoying bugs. Because once you have this bug, it will cause the computer to export the wrong result or crash. The Mariner rocket launched by the United States to Venus and the Leona rocket launched by France failed to launch because of a computer software bug, and lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Gates excitedly made an appointment with several computer enthusiasts among his classmates. At about 6 o'clock every night, CCC employees come to work there by bike after work. There are many teleprinting terminals and all kinds of computer software to learn, which is really like a duck to water. Gates was so obsessed with computer software that he stayed there almost all night, just as he was determined to make a name for himself when he was in elementary school. Every night, he writes down a computer bug that he and his partners found in the record book of CCC company. Through this period of catching bugs, Gates learned a lot of computer software and hardware knowledge and skills that books and schools could not learn, which laid a solid foundation for future research and development.
1970, when Gates 15 years old, his computer talent was well known. A company named Information Science approached Gates, hoping to provide computer time using PDP- 10 in exchange for the software technology of Gates and his classmate Paul. Because minors can't be paid according to American law, the company decided to pay them computer time worth 1 10,000 dollars and asked them to design salary management software for the company. This gave them enough computer time for a school year, and they couldn't help but be overjoyed. 197 1, Hubin Middle School asked Gates to help the school design a set of computer course scheduling software. At that time, the timetable was completely manual. Due to the large number of students and the complexity and diversity of courses, people often arrange courses unevenly, which leads to overcrowding of some courses. Gates successfully completed this arduous task, extending his precious time in using the computer.
1973, TRW company, an American defense engineering contractor, wants to develop a computer monitoring system for reservoir management, but it can't eliminate all kinds of computer bugs, and the progress is slow, so it will be punished for breach of contract. At this critical moment, TRW Company learned about Gates and Paul, two little computer geniuses, and asked them for help. The two boys agreed happily. This is a very professional and difficult job, and according to the regulations, middle school students can only get the low salary of work-study students. But Gates doesn't care. His main purpose is to improve and exercise his software design ability through this kind of work. Hubin Middle School is also very open-minded, allowing senior students to practice and work in enterprises after completing the prescribed courses. Thanks to the joining of Gates and Paul, TRW finally completed the project on time and avoided huge fines. Gates and Paul got specific guidance from a computer expert in the company, which improved their software skills.
In the early 1970s, the young Gates/Kloc-0 wrote a famous "Open Letter to Enthusiasts", which shocked the computer world. Gates declared that computer software will be a huge commercial market, and computer enthusiasts are not allowed to copy computer programs without the consent of the original author. At that time, the computer industry was influenced by hacker culture, and thought that creativity and knowledge should be enjoyed by * * *. Gates then left the campus, founded one of the most successful enterprises in the world-Microsoft, and gradually industrialized the software.
1975, Gates, who was only 19 years old, predicted: "We realize that the software era has arrived, and we have enough insight into the long-term potential of chips. What does this mean? I will not seize the opportunity, I will finish my Harvard studies, and the software industry will never wait for me. "
However, Gates' business practices are often criticized, one of which is the source of MS-DOS. At the end of 1970, IBM planned to enter the personal computer market. In 198 1 year, IBM PC was officially listed. IBM needs to find a suitable operating system based on Intel x86 series processors for its products. IBM found Microsoft after a brief negotiation with another company. Microsoft, on the other hand, found Seattle Computer Company without telling itself that it was negotiating with IBM, and bought the operating system they developed from the company at a price of $50,000 (Microsoft supporters said that there was an agreement between Microsoft and IBM at that time, which stipulated that Microsoft should not disclose the contents of the negotiations to the outside world). Microsoft later authorized IBM to use the operating system (renamed PC-DOS). Microsoft also negotiated with other computer manufacturers to install the modified MS-DOS system on each new computer. Afterwards, Seattle Computer Company accused Microsoft of buying the company's products at a very low price without telling the facts, but the two sides finally reached an out-of-court settlement. In the late 1960s, a series of cases accused by the American government of Microsoft monopoly once again damaged Gates' reputation.
In the mid-1980s, Gates was optimistic about the future of CD-ROM as a data storage medium, so he actively promoted CD-ROM. But just last year, he announced that he would eliminate DVDs.
1983, when Apple introduced its new product Lisa, it applied the mouse to the user interface, which was a revolution in the personal computer industry. Gates immediately realized the importance of a friendly graphical interface.
1990, Microsoft introduced WINDOWS 3.0.
1995, Microsoft introduced the Windows 95 operating system, which is a truly epoch-making software. Let users get rid of tedious and boring DOS commands, thus making personal computers extremely simple and easy to use.
The Way Forward was published on 1995, and it topped the The New York Times bestseller list for seven weeks in a row. Some predictions in the book have come true.
Gates was also accused of business misconduct. Gates has been accused many times that under his leadership, many of Microsoft's business activities violated American laws (anti-monopoly law). And subject to many lawsuits, facing the danger of being split. Interestingly, at the end of the 20th century, two Bills (Bill Clinton and Bill Gates) encountered lawsuits and troubles almost at the same time.
1998, Microsoft launched the popular Windows 98, which consolidated its dominance in the computer software industry.
From 65438 to 0999, Gates wrote the book Future Speed, which showed people how computer technology can solve business problems in a brand-new way. This book is published in 25 languages in more than 60 countries. Future Speed won wide acclaim and was listed as a best seller by The New York Times, USA-Today and The Amazon.com Wall Street Journal.
In 2000, Gates appointed Steve Ballmer, his long-time friend, as the CEO of Microsoft, and he himself was the "chief software architect".
At the end of 200 1, Microsoft introduced Windows XP. Gates personally came to Times Square to promote Win XP.
On March 10, 2006, the 2006 Forbes Global Rich List was announced. Bill Gates of Microsoft became the richest man in the world for 12 years in a row, and his net worth increased from $46.5 billion to $50 billion.
On April 6th, 2006, China president Hu Jintao visited Microsoft Headquarters. Gates and steve ballmer met with Hu Jintao and led President Hu Jintao to visit Microsoft's "Home of the Future". At about 6:5438+08:30 pm, Hu Jintao attended a dinner hosted by Gates at home.
On June 5, 2006/KLOC-0, Gates announced that he would retire in July 2008, when he would resign as the chief software designer and no longer participate in the management affairs of Microsoft. When he announced the news, Gates seemed relatively calm, but it was hard to hide a little sad atmosphere, and some employees even burst into tears. After retirement, Gates will focus on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates will donate tens of billions of dollars to this charity foundation, and said that he will leave only a few million dollars to his three children. An employee of Microsoft said: "There is no doubt that his generosity has brought hundreds of thousands of people back to life." Soon after, Warren Buffett announced that he would donate $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provided that the Gates are still alive!
On June 30th, 2007, Windows Vista arrived as scheduled. Gates is now busy with his last big event as chief software designer. After July 2008, the most sacred position of Microsoft will be handed over to Ray Ozzie. After that, he will devote himself to his own foundation, but this does not mean that he will be indifferent to Microsoft-he said that after retiring, he will still pay attention to the development of Microsoft and put forward constructive opinions at an appropriate time.
private life
Bill Gates always feels like a "big boy who will never grow up". Many people know his life like the palm of their hand:19551kloc-0 was born in Seattle, USA on October 28th, studied in private lakeside middle school in Seattle, 1973 entered Harvard University, dropped out of junior year, founded Microsoft together with paul allen, launched DOS and WINDOWS, and became the richest man in the world. ......
However, people don't know much about Bill Gates' women. Three women left footprints in Gates' life: one was his first love, Ann Winbride, who was nine years older than him; the other was Mrs. melinda french, who gave birth to a pair of children for Bill; and the other was his mistress, stephanie Chuhull, who cost Bill $8 billion.
Luxury residence
According to Phoenix Satellite TV, it took Gates seven years, 60 million dollars and countless efforts to build this unique mansion from 1990, covering an area of about 20,000 hectares, with a total construction area of over 6 130 square meters (1854 square meters). According to the data of the Land Administration Bureau of Keene County in 2002, the total value of Gates' houses (land and buildings) is about1.1.30 billion US dollars; Taxes exceed one million dollars a year, which is 25 times the average annual income of American citizens.
Gates' home is a model of intelligence, and the shadow of high technology can be seen everywhere. The whole building is divided into 12 areas according to different functions, and the exits of the passages are equipped with mechanisms: when visitors pass through the exits, their personal information, including their fingerprints, will be generated and stored in the computer as visiting materials.
Every guest must wear a special brooch. Don't underestimate it. Without it, visitors will be recognized as intruders by the system, and computers will call the police through the network. Therefore, smart thieves will never patronize this house that represents top technology.
With such a powerful function, you can't see any cables in the house, because 53 kilometers of cables are all buried under the floor. The floor is not only decorative, but also a huge sensor: when someone walks into a room, the floor will adjust the brightness of the lights in the room, as well as the temperature and humidity of the air according to the intensity of sunlight.
The most intelligent part of Gates Mansion is the conference room, which can surf the Internet at any time and provide all the information he needs for 24 hours. Gates can hold a network video conference at any time to discuss Microsoft events with employees. At the same time, the computer in this room can automatically record the movement of the whole house through sensors all over the building.
Entering the reception hall, the most striking thing is the 40-square-inch rear projection TV on the wall, which is enough to hold a cocktail party for 150 people. Gates' commercial kitchen can provide catering services for more than 100 people. Of course, there is also a special restaurant for 24 people to enjoy fireplace dinner. On the way home, Gates can remotely explore everything in the home through the smart home system, including automatically adjusting the water temperature in the bathtub and instructing the kitchen staff to prepare dinner. The only intelligent mansion with traditional significance is a century-old tree, and the sensors in the house can automatically water the old tree in time according to its water demand.
A person who can never be ignored
Because of Microsoft's monopoly position in the industry, Gates is called "IT hero" and also nicknamed "Dark Prince". Silicon Valley called Gates "Satan in the software world", and the former director of word perfect even called him "Take you across the river and eat your fox". Throughout the 1980 s and 1990 s, he successfully crushed many competitors, and Gates became a name that people respected and hated. People are full of admiration for his wisdom, but full of criticism for his behavior. From 65438 to 0973, Gates was admitted to the Law Department of Harvard University and became friends with Microsoft CEO steve ballmer. In his junior year, Gates left Harvard and founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Allen to develop software for personal computers. In the following 3 1 year, with his keen insight and extraordinary business acumen, Gates made Microsoft a global leader in computer software, services and internet technology, and he himself became the richest man in the world. However, because it has refused to disclose the source code of the Windows series operating system, Microsoft has also fallen into the dilemma of monopoly litigation.
(Photo-Software Wars: /softwar.gif)
Buffett said of Gates: "If he sells hamburgers instead of software, he will also become the king of hamburgers in the world." The implication is that Gates made Microsoft, not the other way around. In fact, no business leader can always hide his own light in the enterprise like Gates. For Microsoft, Gates is not only a corporate executive, but also an extension of the Microsoft brand. Within Microsoft, all employees regard him as a hero. They believe that as long as Gates is here, the myth of Microsoft will not end. Employees are used to getting Gates' approval for everything, and the continuous organizational restructuring within Microsoft aims to reduce the number of documents in front of Gates. Perhaps it was because of this awareness that Gates decided to "decentralize". He hopes to erase the equal sign between "Microsoft" and "Gates" and make Microsoft a real brand instead of a symbol of personality cult. Therefore, he began a multi-year and gradual decentralization plan. Six years ago, he handed over the position of CEO to his partner and longtime friend Ballmer, and this time, he quit more thoroughly.
On June 15, 2006, around 4 pm EST, Microsoft officially announced that from July 2008, Bill Gates, the chairman of the company, would no longer be responsible for the daily management of the company, but would focus on the charity work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In order to ensure the smooth transfer of power, a two-year transition period was set up. Two years later, Gates will continue to serve as the chairman and consultant of Microsoft's key development projects and remain the largest shareholder of Microsoft. Gates also resigned as the company's chief software designer that day. Almost at the same time, Microsoft employees all over the world received emails from Gates. He said in the letter: "In the past 365,438+0 years, my body and mind have been dedicated to this best job in the world. I founded this company with the top and most enthusiastic colleagues in the world, which has given great strength to countless people all over the world. We are just at the beginning of the software era, and I am looking forward to seeing how much influence Microsoft can have ... In the next two years, I will fight side by side with you to realize these dreams. "
The news of Gates' retirement immediately attracted the attention of the media all over the world, and the mainstream western media such as Associated Press, AFP and BBC made excellent reports on this matter. Almost all American media agree that Gates' retirement means the end of an era, but it is undoubtedly the arrival of a new era for world philanthropy. Gates promised that he would donate most of his personal wealth to his foundation to finance health and education in poor countries, and his three children could only get millions of dollars from his father's wealth of 50 billion dollars.
Gates divided his contribution to human progress into two stages. As early as 1983, he founded a corporate culture activity called "United Road" in Microsoft to encourage employees to make voluntary contributions to society. Thirty years later, the number of participants increased from 476 at that time to 68,000, contributing 60,000 working hours worth $6 1 10,000 in 95 countries and regions around the world and providing software and services worth $273 million. 1997, Gates and his wife Melinda * * * jointly established the Gates Library Foundation to provide online services for readers in libraries all over the United States. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which was merged in 2000, is committed to providing medical and health services and AIDS research to poor countries and regions around the world, especially Africa. By the end of 2005, the Foundation had donated more than US$ 2,965,438 billion for the above research and support. Critics believe that the foundation was established only to respond to negative public comments on Microsoft's monopolistic behavior. However, we should also see that no matter what the motivation, the foundation has made great contributions to providing scholarships for poor students and AIDS prevention and treatment.
Gates is the most successful businessman, even in the face of legal and moral challenges, Microsoft still insists on monopoly. However, Gates is also the most generous philanthropist, who has returned almost all the benefits he pursued at all costs to the society. These two seemingly contradictory behaviors are actually due to his persistence in personality, and this controversial behavior will undoubtedly have a far-reaching social impact on countless young people who idolize him.
"You can love him, hate him, even hate him, but you can never ignore him-this is the charm of Bill Gates."
In 2004, the British Foreign Office announced that Bill Gates would be awarded the Commander of the British Empire (KBE) by the Queen of England in recognition of his outstanding contributions to British enterprise development, employment, education and voluntary undertakings. KBE is the highest honorary title that the Queen can award to foreign citizens.
Don't put your eggs in the same basket.
Warren Buffett once commented on Bill Gates: "If he sells hamburgers instead of software, he will also become the king of hamburgers in the world." The implication is that Microsoft didn't make Gates, but its business talent made him the richest man in the world.
For financial management, Gates naturally has his own set. Because of his confidence in the future of Microsoft, Gates still invests most of his wealth in the company's stock. Although he is no longer the CEO of Microsoft, as the chief architect of Microsoft, he still dominates the development direction and strategic planning of the company. But smart, he will also cash out some stocks and sell them at a good price. According to the stock market transaction records, Gates sold 6,543,800+shares of Microsoft in the open market last month, with a profit of nearly $27 million.
Of course, a smart person like Gates would never put his eggs in one basket. Long before the Internet bubble burst, the visionary Gates began to diversify his investments. Gates set up an investment company on 1995. It is understood that the portfolio value managed by the company is10 billion US dollars, a large part of which is invested in the bond market with stable income, mainly national debt.
Gates is optimistic about the digital and biotechnology industries that represent the new economy, but he does not exclude the traditional economy when investing, especially the heavy industry sector with stable performance. Gates once acquired a 7.8% stake in Newport News Shipbuilding Company through his own investment company, and later these shares almost doubled; His investment in the Canadian national railway company also brought him rich returns. In less than a year, his share price rose by about 1/3. In addition, Gates also likes to invest in public utility companies with strong market risk resistance. Gates' interest in scientific innovation also makes him take medicine and biotechnology industry as an important investment direction.
Be kind to every penny.
In fact, the extremely rich Gates and his wife live a simple life, and the only thing that can be called luxury is their $53 million mansion in the suburbs of Seattle. But according to people who have been to Gates' house, the furnishings in the mansion are quite simple, not as magnificent as most people think. Gates once said: "I want to spend every sum of money I earn very valuable, and I won't waste a penny."
In the past few years, Gates has donated a lot of his personal wealth to charity. According to statistics, Gates has so far donated nearly $29 billion to global charities, making him the most generous rich man in the world. At present, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation named after the Gates is the largest private charity organization in the world. Its fund scale is three times that of the old Ford Foundation and 10 times that of the Rockefeller Foundation. When celebrating his 50th birthday in London on June 5438+065438+1October last year, he told the reporters present that the huge wealth under his name was not only a great right but also a great obligation for him personally, and he was prepared to donate all this wealth to the society instead of leaving it to his children as a legacy.
The world's evaluation of Gates is mixed. Some people say that he is a successful entrepreneur, others say that he monopolizes the industry and bullies the weak; Some people say that he is "the most generous philanthropist", while others say that he is a hypocrite-his charity is only the most expensive public relations activity in history; Some people say that he is the richest man in the world. Some people say that he will only greedily cash in the stock market and squeeze money from Microsoft users ... but as Americans say, "Whether you love him or hate him, you can't ignore him-this is the charm of Bill Gates."
charitable
Gates' wealth exceeds $40 billion. So far, he has donated more than $25 billion. In his will, he announced that he would donate 98% to the Bill and Melinda Foundation named after him and his wife. The money will be used to research AIDS and malaria vaccines and provide assistance to poor countries in the world. Judging from the major charitable activities in recent years, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been very generous. For example, it donated US$ 565,438+US$ 200,000 to new york to build 67 middle schools for minority and low-income children. Donated $654.38+68 million to help African countries fight malaria; Donate $50 million to Botswana to help fight AIDS there. ...
The Gates family originally had two foundations. One is the "Gates Education Foundation" named after himself, which is mainly engaged in educational donations; The second is the Bill Gates Foundation named after his father, which is mainly engaged in health donation. In order to strengthen management and donate more effectively, in June 2000, the Gates family merged two foundations and established the Bill and Melinda Foundation. This foundation led by Bill Gates has now become the largest charitable foundation in the world, with a total fund of 24 billion US dollars, which is 10 times that of the famous Rockefeller Foundation and 3 times that of the Ford Foundation.
The Bill & Melinda Foundation mainly supports four areas: the first is to improve global health. Begin to study the treatment of AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, cancer and other diseases, especially donate money to developing countries such as Africa and Asia; The second is to increase investment in education. Create more middle schools for children from low-income families to reduce the phenomenon that they can't go to college because of economic problems; The third is to promote the development of the information industry. In particular, efforts should be made to expand the popularity of the Internet so that all people, regardless of race, gender, age or wealth, can access information technology; The fourth is to improve the status quo in the Pacific Northwest. That's Gates' hometown, so it's natural to take special care of it. The foundation provides various forms of donations to local communities and poor families.
Gates didn't particularly publicize his good deeds, only said that his enthusiasm for charity originated from the influence of his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Gates have said many times that they will leave only a few million dollars to their children after their death, and the rest will be donated to charity.