Home Features Mastermind Videos About Advertise Blog Network Contact
   

Have A Suggestion?
Toronto Salsa Classes / Toronto Salsa Lessons Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
Have A Suggestion?

Featured Ebook


ebook Famous Entrepreneurs - Modern Empire Builders


Featured Ebook

More Evan Carmichael
Have A Suggestion?

Sales Lessons From Starbucks And Dell

Before Microsoft: The Upbringing of Bill Gates



  Articles
Before Microsoft: The Upbringing of Bill Gates
   

“It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure,” says Bill Gates. Failure is something Gates would see little of during his lifetime.

Born on October 28, 1955, William Henry Gates III demonstrated his intelligence and ambition at an early age. His family was a prominent one, with a history in business and politics that Gates would later take to new heights. With his father a lawyer, his grandfather the vice president of a national bank and his great grandfather a state legislator, success ran in the family. His mother was also the first woman Regent at the University of Washington. Gates spent his early years in Seattle, Washington with his two sisters and his parents.

The family’s affluence allowed Gates to be sent to the best private schools in his hometown. In elementary school, Gates displayed a superior knack for math and science. He continued to impress his parents and teachers at Lakeside School, one of the finest private schools in Seattle known for its academic rigor.

It was at Lakeside where Gates got his first exposure to computers. In 1968, the school held a fundraiser in order to be able to purchase computer time on a DEC PDP-10, which was owned by General Electric. Immediately, Gates became inseparable from the computer, often skipping classes and failing to hand in schoolwork in order to be in the computer room and explore the new machine. At the age of 13, Gates wrote his first computer program, a tic-tac-toe game. It was in this computer lab where Gates would meet his Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and many other of the first programmers that Microsoft would go on to hire.

After Gates and his friends had used up all the allowed computer time for the entire school in just a few weeks, Lakeside entered into an agreement with Computer Center Corporation (CCC) to continue providing computer time to its students. Though they were once banned from the system for their hacking activities, Gates and his comrades could not be stopped.

In 1968, Gates, Allen and two other Lakeside students formed the Lakeside Programmers Group to try and put their computer skills to good use. In return for unlimited computer time, CCC hired the group to find bugs within their own system. “It was when we got free time at C-cubed that we really got into computers,” recalls Gates. “I mean, then I became hardcore. It was day and night.”

By 1970, CCC had gone bankrupt. In order to continue honing their skills, Gates and his friends began using the computers at the University of Washington, where Allen’s dad worked. After successfully designing a payroll program for Information Sciences Inc., Gates and Allen decided to branch off on their own. Soon after, they created Traf-O-Data, an innovative program that measured traffic flow in Seattle, and were compensated with $20,000.

In 1973, Gates enrolled in the pre-law program at Harvard University, but as in high school, found himself skipping classes in order to spend time in the computer lab. He kept in close touch with Allen, who remained eager towards the idea of creating a software business with Gates. The following year, Allen showed Gates a picture in a magazine that would forever change both their lives.



Before Microsoft: The Upbringing of Bill Gates

Like this article? Share it with your friends
[Get Copyright Permissions] E-Mail | Print | Post | Republish | More  


Related Articles Related Articles
About Bill Gates
  Bill Gates is the co-founder of one of the world’s largest corporations, and is himself one of the wealthiest men in the world. Sure, you already knew that. But, just how much do you really know about Bill Gates? Di...
Bill Melinda Gates
  In 2005, Bill & Melinda Gates were named TIME magazine’s Persons of the Year. While it is often said that behind every great man is a great woman, Bill & Melinda Gates appear to act more by way of a genuine partners...
Lesson #1: Stick To Your Vision
  When Bill Gates was asked by Fortune to explain the astounding success of his brainchild, Microsoft, his immediate response was, “Our vision, which has not changed since the day the company was founded.”
Bill Gates Age
  Many may wonder at just how exactly the richest man in the world got his title, but when it comes to Bill Gates’ age, there is no mystery. Born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, Bill Gates’ age will be 52...
Bill Melinda Gates Foundation
  Microsoft may be the largest global software corporation, but it is another one of Gates’ institutions that is beginning to make headlines around the world. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is currently th...

Related Forum Posts Related Forum Posts
Re: Who inspired you to start? Re: Who inspired you to start?
Bill Gates falls to #3 richest in the world Bill Gates falls to #3 richest in the world
Another way to drive more forum visitors - Unique Titles Another way to drive more forum visitors - Unique Titles
Re: Bill Gates falls to #3 richest in the world Re: Bill Gates falls to #3 richest in the world
Learning from other people's mistakes (Books) Learning from other people's mistakes (Books)
Exceptional CEO's Exceptional CEO's
Re: In-House or Outsource? Re: In-House or Outsource?
Isadore Sharp Isadore Sharp

 
Famous Entrepreneur Video
Bill Gates Video - Biography / Interview / Documentary of Bill Gates on 20/20 in the early 1990's. Covers Microsoft Windows 3.1, Bill Gates' early life, his then current life, his then current marketing decisions, his then new house, and his wife.
Become An Author

Bill Gates Picture Bill Gates Newsletter
Get our free newsletter to learn more about Bill Gates and other famous entrepreneurs!

Email:
Name: