William Henry “Bill” Gates (b.1955) is an American computer entrepreneur and philanthropist. He founded Microsoft, Corbis, and Cascade Investments. He became the youngest multibillionaire in American history, and was the richest person in the world until 2017. Gates was CEO of Microsoft until 2000, then chief software architect until 2006. He stepped down as Microsoft’s chairperson in 2014.
Born in Seattle, Washington, attended Harvard, but dropped out at the age of twenty-one to start Microsoft. From another company he purchased a software system and adapted it to create MS-DOS operating system, which IBM licensed for their personal computers. The brisk adoption of IBM-type personal computers generated considerable royalties for Microsoft, which Gates shrewdly used to fund the development of such market-dominating software as Windows and Office that made Microsoft the leading software producer.
Gates married Melinda French in 1994. Their philanthropic undertaking, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is the wealthiest charitable foundation in the world. It focuses on education and global health, including initiatives to combat HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases, and malnutrition. In 2006, the Gates’ friend and mentor, investor Warren Buffett, announced that he would donate over 95% of his personal fortune to the Gates Foundation.
Bill Gates is the author The Future (1994) and The Road Ahead (1996.)
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Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
—Bill Gates
Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries — but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.
—Bill Gates
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.
—Bill Gates
Life is not fair; get used to it.
—Bill Gates
Often you just have to rely on your intuition.
—Bill Gates
If you give people tools, [and they use] their natural ability and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.
—Bill Gates
Topics: Ability
My job is about the most fun thing I do, but I have a broad set of interests, going places, reading things, doing things.
—Bill Gates
Topics: Jobs
Leaders need to provide strategy and direction and to give employees tools that enable them to gather information and insight from around the world. Leaders shouldn’t try to make every decision.
—Bill Gates
Topics: Leadership
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