Motivational success story Of Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft

Bill Gates is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, philanthropist, and the co-founder of Microsoft. With an estimated net worth of $144 billion, he is one of the world’s wealthiest people. He is considered one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. His success story isn’t exactly a rags-to-riches one but is inspiring to people all around the world.

Early life

Bill Gates was born in Seattle on October 28, 1995. His father was a successful attorney, while his mother was a school teacher who became a member of the Board of Directors of the First Interstate Bank. In school, Gates was a bright student and performed well academically, especially in mathematics. At the early age of 13, Bill Gates developed a passion for computers and programming.

Gates met Paul Allen at his school, and they worked together to find bugs in a system belonging to Computer Center Corporation. In exchange for computer time and royalties, Gates and Allen, along with two students, wrote a program for Information Sciences. After this instance, Gates’ school became fully aware of his talent. And later, he built a program that scheduled students in classes. Gates and Allen continued to build software. At just the age of 15, Bill Gates sold software to optimize traffic for $20,000. A few years later, he developed other software and earned $30,000 from it. This was the start of Bill Gates’ journey to success and a billion-dollar wealth.

Establishing Microsoft

In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen co-founded a software company, and they named it Micro-Soft. Initially, the company delivered small software products to different firms. But unfortunately, the company did not have enough funds to hire a sales manager. Hence, Mary Maxwell, the mother of Bill Gates, performed this job. Not long after, the company faced a financial crisis due to the use of pirated software. However, the two owners did not give up and launched MS-BASIC. This helped them to make a profit of $50,000.

In 1979, IBM—an American multinational tech company, launched the world’s first personal computer. They offered Microsoft to develop a program for it. However, at the time, the company did not have the resources to create an operating software (OS). Thus, they recommended another company to IBM for building their OS.

A few months later, Microsoft bought an OS system called’ 86-DOS’. They started to redefine it on a large scale, resulting in the launch of ‘MS-DOS.’

Micro-Soft to Microsoft

Immediately after the launch, Microsoft offered IBM to use MS-DOS as the primary operating software for their first-ever personal computer. IBM promptly accepted the offer, and Microsoft surpassed their competition—the company Gates and Allen recommended to IBM.

In 1980, Microsoft and IBM signed the contract. Within a year, Micro-Soft became Microsoft Corporation. Subsequently, IBM launched their first-ever personal computer with MS-DOS and a few other Microsoft products such as MS-BASIC, MS-PASCAL, MS-COBOL, and others. Microsoft invented the first mouse for the personal computer and developed the Windows Operating System. The launch of Windows helped Gates to build the fortune he currently boasts. Accomplishments just kept pouring in for company, and they never looked back.

Windows NT was the first Windows OS to be launched. This followed a series of Windows launches over the next few years, including Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, XP, and Vista. Microsoft has been growing ever since. It also supports the great organization with one-place access to all company services through Microsoft Teams, which integrates all Microsoft apps such as doc, note, excel, ppt, etc.

Awards and Recognition

Bill Gates, for his great innovation, received many recognizations, such as the Innovator of the Year award in 2006, the same year, he was listed eighth in the list of “Heroes of our time.” His high contribution to British enterprise, employment, education, and the voluntary sector in the U.K awarded the title KBE or Knight Commander. Gates was among the 100 people who influenced the 20th century around 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Bill Gates’ incredible success

Since 1975, Microsoft has dominated the software market, and Windows software is used by almost everyone globally. They have consistently kept up with the pace of change and remain the number one software company globally. Apart from being a businessman, Bill Gates is also a well-known philanthropist. He co-founded The Giving Pledge—a foundation that encourages wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth towards philanthropic causes. Bill Gates has pledged to give away more than 80% of his wealth to charity upon death.

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We can learn many lessons from Gates’ story, such as determination,  building a great team, pursuing your dream, and giving back to society. If you believe in yourself and your goals, you can achieve anything. As Bill Gates once said, “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” Watch your steps and keep moving because that’s the only that matters.

Personal Life

It is known that Bill Gates is a very passionate reader. Gate also likes tennis and golf. He likes to plan his days on a minute by minute basis. He also loves to collect paintings, and had paid 30 million dollars for the original maritime painting “Lost on the Grand Banks.” In 2016 Gate revealed that he is color blind.

He married Melinda on January 1, 1994. They have 3 children, Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe. They live in an earth-sheltered mansion in Medina, Washington on the side of the hill. The couple had a divorce on August 2, 2021.

Recent Update:

In May 2022, Bill Gates tested positive for the Coronavirus. The multi-millionaire announced the news via his twitter handle. He shared that he had been experiencing mild symptoms, hence, he decided to take a test. The doctors advised him to isolate himself until he gets healthy. Bill Gates also informed that he has been fully vaccinated and boosted and showed gratefulness to the medical care. 

Also read: Rudyard Kipling | The success story of author of the Jungle Book