Bill Gates's rise to prominence in the computer industry represents the quintessential American success story. Gates's ranking as the second richest person in the United States and his position as chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation are all the more remarkable given his middle-class upbringing and his educational status as a college drop-out. Through hard work, dedication, superior intellect, and self-sacrifice, Gates is well on the road to realizing his vision of bringing Microsoft products to every computer desktop in the world.
Born William Gates III in 1955 in Seattle, Washington, he was one of three children born to Mary (Maxwell) Gates and William Henry Gates Jr. Mary Gates was a former teacher and a member of the University of Washington Board of Regents and several corporate boards. William Henry Gates Jr. is a partner in a prominent law firm.
Bill Gates attended Lakeside School, a private institution known for its high academic standards. Gates became hooked on a Digital training computer terminal at the school's computer center and soon formed an alliance with three fellow computer buffs, including Paul Allen, future cofounder of Microsoft: "From the beginning, Gates saw the enormous potential of computers, and he even boasted to one of his teachers that he would be a millionaire one day" (Current, 1991, p. 238). Gates was 12-years-old at the time.
Gates and his pals soon branched out from developing computer programs for Lakeside School to offering their consulting services to private firms in the Seattle area. The young students wrote a 300-page manual entitled The Problem Report Book for the nearby Computer Center Corporation (CCC) by salvaging scraps of paper left by the company's programmers in their trash bins. The students soon found themselves on the company payroll. Gates's restless, inquisitive mind led to his discovery of methods to crash computer operating system...