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Bill Gates Age

Article Overview: 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 this year. A look back on his life reveals a picture of a man so determined to follow his passion that in hindsight, success appeared almost inevitable.

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 this year. A look back on his life reveals a picture of a man so determined to follow his passion that in hindsight, success appeared almost inevitable.

In 1968, at 13 years old, he was a student at Lakeside School, a private male institution that also happened to be Seattle’s most exclusive prep school. Tuition for Lakeside at the time was $5,000, even more than Harvard’s at $1,670. It was here where the young Gates would meet Paul Allen, with whom he would form a programming group and spend hours in front of the General Electric computer his school had recently purchased.

The next year, when he was a mere 14 years old, he, along with his friend Paul Allen, wrote a scheduling program for their school. The two budding young entrepreneurs were able to sell their program for $4,200, and were inspired to keep pursuing their interest. In 1972, as he approached just a young 17, he and Allen founded their very first company, Traf-O-Data, which produced small computers that were able to help measure and process traffic flows. The first year, the pair made $20,000 in business. However, when his youth was discovered, they lost a large portion of their business.

In 1973, Bill Gates’ age was 18. He enrolled in Harvard University to study pre-law, but soon found himself more interested in the new Altair 8800. He took a leave of absence from Harvard in order to work with Allen and Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), which had purchased the BASIC program that Gates and Allen had written for their Altair 880.

Finally, his youth no longer seemed to be an issue. He may have been young, but he had a talent that companies could not ignore. Together with Allen, the pair created a partnership called Micro-Soft. They were quickly approached by computer giant IBM to make the BASIC program for its soon-to-be released personal computer.

The company continued to grow throughout the late 1970s. However, it wasn’t until the early 1980s, when Gates was in his late 20s, that Microsoft would achieve success on a massive scale. That was when the company released “Windows”, which soon had effectively pushed other graphical user interfaces (GUIs) off the market. From then on, he worked hard to ensure that most personal computers were being pre-installed with Microsoft software.

Anyone who had refused to do business with Microsoft in its early days due to Bill Gates’ age was now paying the price. Indeed, by his 30s Bill Gates had become a multi-billionaire. He has topped the Forbes list of “The World’s Richest People” from 1995 to 2006, and was even once dubbed a “centibillionaire” when his net worth surpassed $100 billion.

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Article Tags: altair 880, bill gates, friend paul, general electric, harvard university, harvards, hindsight, large portion, leave of absence, micro instrumentation and telemetry systems, micro soft, paul allen, prep school, programming group, richest man in the world, scheduling program, school tuition, seattle washington, small computers, young entrepreneurs



Related Forum Posts
Re: Who inspired you to start? - Hi Evan, I was inspired by Mr. Bill Gates ever since I was a student learning Computers. But I was motivated for Internet as my Business, when I read his book "The Road Ahead" in 1995. It was in this book that Gates laid out his vision of an interconnected world built around the Internet. Based on the premise that life will be transformed by the convergence of inexpensive computing and inexpensive communications, Gates drew from his experience at the center of the personal computer revolution to give insights on the growth, evolution and impact of technology. I had always looked up to Bill Gates as my idol. When I read this book, it made me more focussed on Microsoft and Internet, The Internet was one of the upcoming things in this time. So I took over to the Internet as my primary business. Regards,
Re: Question of the Week: Who is your favorite entrepreneur of a - Great feedback Peter. I did a Facebook poll and Bill Gates was the #1 pick!
You don't need a degree to be an Entrepreneur - You don't need a dergree to be an entrepreneur, if in doubt please ask Bill Gates Micheal Dell Richard Branson and host of others ....................
Re: Citizen Journalism: There's no such thing - I agree with ideasuniversity and OmnivoreInk, Steve should appoint a successor now. He should follow the example of Bill Gates who had left Microsoft in the hand of his able men
Re: Question of the Week: Who is your favorite entrepreneur of a - This is a tough question but mine is Bill Gates. Not to age myself but I remember chatting with one of my professors in university talking about this "new" personal computer thing and how he thought it was going to revolutionize the world. He was right.


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