The world’s attitude towards the personal computer may have been completely different if not for one event: Bill Gates dropping out of Harvard. Gates came from a wealthy family in Seattle, Washington, but even at a young age, he knew how to take risks in order to follow his passion for computers. The developments that Microsoft has made, ranging from the earliest operating systems such as MS-DOS to the Microsoft Office Suite, have impacted the way that the personal computer operates. Microsoft products are used around the world, by various types of customers, ranging from CEOs to elementary school teachers and everyone in between. Both Gates and Microsoft have had a significant hand in establishing the way the world interacts with computers.
Keira Stevenson summarized Gates’ rising love for technology in her article. Even in elementary school, Gates could often be found cutting class to spend more time with the school’s large computer. Gates and childhood friend Paul Allen gained experience while playing around with their school’s computer. The two teens were later hired by a software company to seek out bugs in the company’s system (Stevenson). Gates intended on attending Harvard and following in the steps of his lawyer father. After two years at Harvard, Gates dropped out in order to start Microsoft alongside Allen. The two teens typically worked with the Altair 8800, which was one of the first inexpensive computers on the market that was available for home use
Bill Gates (William Henry Gates III) was “brought” to this world on October 28, 1955 in the “lands” of Seattle, Washington. He growed up in an upper-class family with his two sisters: Kristianne and Libby Gates. His father, William H. Gates Sr., was a shy and promising law student when he met his “future” wife, Mary Maxwell, who was an ongoing student as an athletic in the University of Washington. Mary, at the time, was actively involved in student affairs and leadership. His families atmosphere is very warm and close and all of the three children, including Bill himself, were all promoted to be competitive and academically intelligent by their parents. However, Bill showed early signs of “competitiveness” whenever he plans to play board games, such as Monopoly and Risk, with the family at their summer house located in Puget Sound. In his childhood, Bill had a very close relationship with his mother since she would often take
After Gates graduated high school, with a perfect 800 on the SAT, he went to Harvard law school in 1973 (“Gates, Bill” 2) (“Gates, William Henry, III” 1). In 1975 his friend Paul Allen came up to him while Bill was in college and showed him a Popular Mechanics article about a $350 microcomputer, Gates read this article and was convinced that he wanted to be in the computer industry (“Gates, William Henry, III” 1). As a sophomore in college he and Paul Allen made the computer language BASIC compatible to microcomputers, this took much skill and he was the first to do it (Leaders of info 2). He did this for a company called MITS (Leaders of info 2). This shows his motivation to do well in the world, and to be successful. With this new success in the BASIC software, he dropped out of Harvard and went to pursue his new career (“Gates, Bill 1). He went to Albuquerque, New Mexico with Paul and they both founded a new company called Microsoft to mass produce their new software (Leaders of Info 2).
Microsoft has developed into an inescapable force within the technological field. Coming from a delayed humble beginning, it has had to devote large sums of money to approach the levels of the founding technological companies. Today, Microsoft controls the market in computer software. How they have achieved this status is what some have come to question. Through “bundling” software programs, manipulating other computer companies, and packaging deals with personal computers, Microsoft has managed to eradicate nearly all competitors in the computer software market (Love, 1997). This near monopoly affects the entire spectrum of classes, including the consumer, other networking providers,
Gates dropped out of college to start a business with another student like him and then soon after launched as a billionaire. Malcolm Gladwell explains that it wasn’t as simple as that for Bill Gates. Gates and his friend, Paul Allen, had spent hours on programming until late hours at the University of Washington near his family home. What was an addiction to programming and 10,000 hours later for Allen and Gates, lead to being a successful launch of the well-known Microsoft program. Although Gates’ hard work paid off, he was fortunate to have access and opportunities to use computer technology when very few had the chance to come near a computer.
Bill Gates first took an interest in computer programming when he was 13 years old, while attending school. The school used funds from sales and donations and was able to purchase the students an ASR-33 Teletype terminal and computer time on a General Electric computer terminal. Bill, instantly intrigued, was able to get excused from his regular classes to work with the computer. Bill, then, gained his interest in computer programming. He was able to develop a program where the students could play the computer in a game of tic-tac-toe. This was the beginning of Bill Gates career (Bill Gates, 2011).
Gates entered Harvard University in 1973 and pursued his studies for the next year and a half. However, his life changed in January 1975 when Popular Mechanics carried a cover story on a $350 microcomputer, the Altair, made by a firm called MITS in New Mexico. When Allen showed him the story, Gates knew where he wanted to be: at the forefront of
Bill Gates is one of the most visionary leaders of our time. He created in his mind the idea of the greatness of computerized systems and that vision even though far at that time transformed in our present. He foresaw that computers will be an essential part not only in future business but in the lives of Americans. His efforts and strategic planning delivered him the opportunities to develop different operating systems including Windows. Windows Software has been an essential key in his financial success because this software took the market by storm providing customers the opportunity to multitask and leave behind the systems that were operated only on a command based entry. His revenues after the expansion of his company has made him been ranked by Forbes as the richest man on earth for the last thirteen years. During the years he served as chairman of Microsoft he established new ways to deal efficiently with human resources issues; like for the hiring process he stated in the past that he prefers intelligence over experience in an employee because they are easier to train and to adapt to the world of Microsoft.
On December 3, 2016, I watched the TED talk of the CEO and co-founder of Apple, Pixar, and NeXT, Steve Jobs. He explained that in order to live before you die, you have to follow your heart, trust that everything will work out, and live every day as if it’s your last. Specifically, he claimed that dropping out of college, getting fired from Apple, and being diagnosed with cancer opened him up to new opportunities and new ways of thinking. As he said, “it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backward ten years later.” Although some people believe that being successful relies on a college degree, and career longevity, Jobs insisted that dropping out of college to save his
Microsoft, a company founded by Bill Gates has, in the last couple of years seen a number of changes in its mode of operation. Traditionally Microsoft has been in the business of producing computer-based products exclusively (Byrnes, 2010). In the light of changing technology, globalisation and changing consumer tastes and preferences change has become in the tech-giant company. In the fast-paced world of technology, consumers are actively switching to the new touchscreen laptops and tablets, which are the replacement to conventional computers. These contemporary computers require operating systems and software that are entirely different from what was in use formerly. As means of keeping up this trend, and in order to address these new
Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and subsequently enrolled at Harvard College in the fall of 1973. While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, whom he later appointed as CEO of Microsoft. He also met computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou at Harvard, with whom he collaborated on a paper about algorithms. He did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard and spent a lot of time using the school 's computers. He remained in contact with Paul Allen, his school friend, joining him at Honeywell during the summer of 1974. The following year saw the release of the MITS Altair 8800 based on the Intel 8080 CPU, and Gates and Allen saw this as the opportunity to start their own computer software company. He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a company.
Gates’ passion for technology began at the age of 8, when he built his first computer program. This program allowed the player to compete in a game of tic tac toe
Mr. Gates’ also explains how Microsoft tackled the challenge of integrating the Internet to be compatible with various Microsoft products. The biggest dilemmas were determining what should be incorporated into the existing Microsoft products, what should be packaged as new products, and how should the Windows Operating System support the Internet. He gives frequent examples of how the other competing computer industry giants were able to succeed in the computer industry. A lot of success he points out was made through trial and error as well as learning from one’s mistakes. He talks about how Microsoft has learned from projects that have failed such as the Multiplan spreadsheet that went on to be developed into Microsoft Excel, and the Omega database that would become Microsoft Access. One suggestion that Mr. Gates makes in achieving company success is by
We have identified three areas of pressing concern that simultaneously represent growth opportunities. First, Microsoft must rededicate itself to building first-party software that fosters creativity and improves the lives of users. This continues Microsoft’s tradition of creating dominant, functional platforms across a variety of hardware and contexts, as it did with Windows in the PC-era. Second, by
Microsoft is one of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the world that licenses, manufactures, develops, and supports a wide range of products and services primarily related to computing through its various product divisions. Established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line. Microsoft is one of the largest software corporations in the world that has diversified in recent years into the video game industry with the Xbox, Xbox 360, and in recent years Xbox One, as well as consumer electronics and digital services market with Windows Phone OS and MSN. (Microsoft, 2015)
In the fall of 1973, Gates left for Harvard University and spent most of his time in the campus of computer center. A year after that, Paul Allen saw the first microcomputer on the cover of a magazine and bought the magazine and went immediately to show it to Gates and it was the Altair 8800 microcomputer, they realized the home PC business was about to explode and someone would need to provide software for the machines. Gates arranged for a meeting with the Altair manufacturers. He had called them to let them know he had a program written for them and after the appointment was made Gates and Allen stayed up for nights writing the program they had promised. It worked perfectly at the meeting, and everyone was impressed. They sold the program, and saw that this was something they could do for the rest of their life and within a year, Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed. Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," by combining the