William Henry "Bill" Gates (co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of

Microsoft Corporation, the world's leading provider of software for personal

computers). Born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington. His parents are of
English, German, and Scots-Irish descent.[13][14] His father was a prominent
lawyer, and his mother aided on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank
System.
Gates advanced from Lakeside School in 1973. He recorded 1590 out of 1600 on the
SAT and joined at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973. In Harvard, he met Steve
Ballmer, who later throve Gates as CEO of Microsoft.
Bill Gates is contemporary business distinctiveness; he accomplished his success
through his leadership style, remarkable vision, and obsessive desire to win. He has
originated and operated a revolutionary business that developed world notorious
software. Bill Gates is a task oriented and charismatic person. He drives himself
and others, but yet uses his personality to inspire others. His unadulterated genius
and headship qualities took software to a level that was supreme.

Facts about William Gates, better known as Bill Gates:

1. Queen Elizabeth gave him the award of 'Knight Commander of the Order of the
British Empire.
2. IBM contracted him for the development of their first Personal Computer.
3. He is the Co-Founder and the Chairperson of Microsoft.
4. He is the world's third richest person (As per the survey done in 2008).
5. He is an American Business Magnate.
7. Microsoft Windows is the world's most successful operating system. And the man
behind its success is Bill Gates.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BILL

Smart

He trusts that if you are bright and know how to smear your astuteness, you can
attain everything. Since childhood Bill was determined, gifted and competitive.
These makings helped him to achieve top position in the profession he selected.

VISIONARY
Microsoft's vision is "A computer on every desk and Microsoft software on every
computer. Each business and domiciliary must have a computer and must run a
Microsoft software, is the vision of B.G.
PASSION
as a student at the Harvard University, every student would have wanted to be part
of the great institute and graduate to be successful, Bill Gates decided to stop
studying and pursue his dream of writing softwares for every computer in the world
He stood just obsessive about software, coding and technology that parenthetically
also sampled him the richest man in the world
INNOVATION
Gates and Allen were assisted by a staff of six, which included four programmers. In
late 1977, Gates released a version of FORTRAN

Language for microcomputers. In 1978, Gates and Allen introduced aversion of

COBOL. Around this time, Microsoft emerged as the market leader in microcomputer
languages with sales exceeding $1 million. In1979, Microsoft developed a new
version of BASIC... He had an early interest in software and began programming
computers at the age of thirteen. .
RISK BEARER
In his junior year, Gates dropped out of Harvard to devote his energies full-time to
Microsoft, a company he had started in 1975 with his boyhood friend Paul Allen
development of new products.
CONTINOUS LEARNER
Microsoft is not about greed. Its about Innovation and Fairness. Bill
Gates Never stop learning was the Mantra of Bill Gates which he follow till date.
This empowers him to be a Great Leader of our times. He will always be remembers
as an Icon and even without his presence in Microsoft he would still be regarded as

a great inventor and a real genius in every regard of Business, Technology and
Entrepreneurship.
ACCEPTING THE CRITICISMS
Its fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.
There will be people who would want to make fun of your efforts, pull you down and
so on. The stronger you stand the bolder you get the faster these negatives wither.
When IBM pulled out of the contract for the operating system to be bundled with the
IBM Clone PCs, Bill Gates stayed on and started focusing on the creating Windows
amidst lots of hiccups that will hamper the company.

OTHER KEY LESSONS-BILL GATES

If you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be
moved to act. Bill Gates This is one never mentioned secret of success. Action is
the key word. When logic never drives us its emotions. We must have taken action.
Bill
Bill Gates' Secrets of Success
Hard work: Bill Gates is a hard worker since the beginning of his life. Inhis college
days, he used to work all night long on his computer. WhenMicrosoft was started,
Bill Gates used to sleep only for 6 hours in a daywithout skipping a single day of
office. For Bill Gates, hard work is oneof the main keys of success.
Entrepreneurship
:Entrepreneurship is an integral part and is present in Bill Gates from the beginning.
He knows how to manage his work, he always takes a keeninterest in learning, he
learns from his own mistakes, he is a creative person and, most of all, and he is
focused towards his goals.
Confidence
:Bill Gates has always been a highly confident person. He was alwaysconfident
about his dream of becoming successful.Managerial Skills: The great managerial
skills of Bill Gates helpedMicrosoft to be a successful company. He efficiently
managed all theareas of the company which required his focus.A Great Convincer:
Bill Gates is gifted with great convincing skills. Hehas made lots of successful deals
in his career. The deal with IBM wasone of them
Technical Mind

:Bill Gates is born with a highly technical bent of mind. It is a gift of godto him.
Microsoft has earned lots of success through this technical mind.
He Had A Vision
:From day one, Gates dreamed of having a personal computer in everyhome, in
every business and in every school. Throughout his career, henever once wavered
from this dream. Focusing on software as the meansto popularize the PC, Gates
built his empire around this central vision andsteered clear of all other distractions.
And, the vision continues today.We are not even close to finishing the basic dream
of what the PC can be, he says.
He Had a Solid Team
:If we werent still hiring great people and pushing ahead at full speed, itwould be
easy to fall behind and become a mediocre company, saysGates. From Microsofts
inception, Gates prioritized his team, bringing inonly trusted friends to help him get
the company started. As the companygrew, he insisted that they hire only the most
capable young minds andstrove to create a small and creative environment for
them to thrive in.Microsoft succeeded not only because of Gates, but also because
of thestrong team that stood behind him.
He Took a Long-Term Approach
:In the decade ahead I can predict that we will provide over twice the productivity
improvement that we provided in the 90s, said Gates. This bold statement
captures Gates philosophy behind his entire business. Never one to chase after
instant success or an immediate pay-off, Gates began coding software with a view
to the next fifty years. He hasconstantly tried to keep his company at the forefront
of new technologicaldevelopments by funding new research initiatives. Gates longtermapproach helped ensure Microsofts remarkable staying power.
He Learned From Failure
In hindsight, Gates early failures seem so miniscule that they are almostlaughable.
But, as a struggling entrepreneur, he went through the samefrustration, confusion
and despair that others in his situation also face.What distinguishes Gates from the
rest was his ability to rebound fromhis mistakes and take whatever lessons he could
from them. He then became even more resolute and determined to see his vision
realize.
He Never Stopped Asking Questions
:I believe that through our natural inventiveness, creativity andwillingness to solve
tough problems, were going to make some amazingachievements, said Gates
speaking to the future possibilities for medicine, education and technology. When
Gates faced a dilemma, hedidnt stop and give up. He asked questions about what

could be done tosolve the problem. From his business activities to his
philanthropicefforts, Gates curiosity and desire to constantly be learning has been
oneof the key factors behind his success.If I'd had some set idea of a finish line,
don't you think I would havecrossed it years ago? asks Gates. Showing no signs of
slowing down,Gates continues to fuel his business, inspire his workers and make
hiscontribution to the global village.At Microsoft, there are lots of brilliant ideas but
the image is that theyall come from the top, says Gates. Im afraid thats not quite
right.While Gates has been the famous face of Microsoft for over thirty years,it took
the help of numerous other trusted individuals to help realize thecompanys
success.When Allen and Gates first met as students at Lakeside, they
instantlyformed a strong bond over their passion for computers. And, it was a bond
that would last for the rest of their lives. Knowing each othersstrengths and
weaknesses, interests and passions and having a strongsense of trust enabled these
two entrepreneurs to form one of the mostsuccessful working relationships of the
20th century.Gates, recognizing the importance of a solid and trustworthy team,
also brought on two former high school friends, Ric Weiland and MarcMcDonald, to
be part of the core Microsoft group. Gates knew that if Microsoft was going to get its
feet off the ground, it was going to take thehard work and sweat that he trusted few
others to put in. From day one,

he understood the importance of having a small team that could jointogether each
persons enthusiasm around a common goal.When Gates moved the operation to
Seattle in 1979, he had a staff of 16 people. As Microsoft grew, so too did the
number of employees that thecompany required. Gates continued to bring in
trusted friends of hiswhose characters he understood and who he knew he could
trust,including his friend from college, Steve Ballmer, who was thereafter incharge
of human resources. Steve and I were kind of driving the business and Paul and I
were driving the technology, recalls Gates. Our success has really been based on
partnerships from the very beginning.The move to Seattle proved to be a boon for
Microsoft in that it enabledthe company to have a much wider range of skilled
candidates to choosefrom. In the world of software a lot of the brilliant ideas of
Microsoftcome from a broad set of great people we've been able to hire,
saysGates. In one particularly key move, Ballmer hired Charles Simonyi, oneof the
original founders of the Xerox Palo Alto research lab, whoseknowledge about
graphical interfaces made a significant contribution toMicrosofts later graphical
applications. As their number of staff began increasing into the thousands,
thecompany typically focused on hiring people right out of school. Most of our
developers, we decided that we wanted them to come with clear minds, not
polluted by some other approach, to learn the way that weliked to develop software,
and to put the kind of energy into it that wethought was key, recalls
Gates.Microsoft continues to seek out only the best in order to help it stay aheadof
its increasingly fierce competition. They key for us, number one, hasalways been

hiring very smart people, says Gates. There is no way of getting around, that in
terms of IQ, youve got to be very elitist in picking people who deserve to write
software. Ninety-five percent of the peopleshouldnt write complex software. By
hiring the best and the brightest and carrying out work in small teamsthat stimulate
free and creative thinking, Microsoft has managed to retainits competitive edge for
over three decades.