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Bill Gates Essay | Essay on Bill Gates for Students and Children in English

February 12, 2024 by sastry

Bill Gates Essay: Everyone wants to be in the shoes of the richest man in the world, whose wealth at one point of time was more than $100 billion!

He has been characterised as the quintessential example of a super-intelligent human being with immense power and wealth. Every minute, every second when you are on your PC, he guides you. Almost Every computer in the world comes with his software pre-installed! With this hint, surely, you can gauge the fact that we are talking about Microsoft and the brain behind it—Bill Gates. – The Billionaire with a ‘Big’ Heart

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Long and Short Essays on Bill Gates for Kids and Students in English

Given below are two essays in English for students and children about the topic of ‘Bill Gates’ in both long and short form. The first essay is a long essay on the Bill Gates of 400-500 words. This long essay about Bill Gates is suitable for students of class 7, 8, 9 and 10, and also for competitive exam aspirants. The second essay is a short essay on Bill Gates of 150-200 words. These are suitable for students and children in class 6 and below.

Long Essay on Bill Gates 500 Words in English

Below we have given a long essay on Bill Gates of 500 words is helpful for classes 7, 8, 9 and 10 and Competitive Exam Aspirants. This long essay on the topic is suitable for students of class 7 to class 10, and also for competitive exam aspirants.

“It’s fine to celebrate success, but it’s more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

His was not a ‘rags-to-riches’ story, but a ‘riches-to-riches’ one. The noteworthy thing is that his parents’ wealth didn’t make him complacent.

The American entrepreneur, philanthropist and the Chairman of Microsoft, was born on 28th October, 1955 into a wealthy Seattle family. His father was a prominent attorney and mother, a bank board member. A story goes that, at his birth, his father set-up a million-dollar fund for him. But, Gates denied it. But one thing that is for sure, is that he had the best of education, including 3 years at Harvard.

As a student, Gates excelled in elementary school, particularly in Mathematics and Sciences. At 13, he was enrolled in the Lakeside School, Seattle’s most exclusive preparatory school. When he was in the eighth grade, the school mothers used proceeds’ from Lakeside’s rummage sale to buy an ASR-33 teletype terminal and a block of computer time in a General Electric Computer. Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from Maths classes to pursue his interest. After the Mothers’ Club donation was exhausted, he and other students sought time on other systems, including DEC PDP minicomputer. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Centre Corporation, which banned the Lakeside students for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.

At the end of the ban, the Lakeside students offered to find bugs in CCC’s software in Exchange for free computer time. Gates went to CCC’s offices and studied source code for various programmes that ran on the system, not only in BASIC but FORTRAN, LISP and machine language as well. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1 970, then it went out of business. The following year, Information Sciences Inc. hired the Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them not only computer time but royalties as well. At the age of 14, Gates was dexterous enough to form a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on Intel 8.008 processor. That first year, he made $ 20,000, however, when his age was found out, business slowed down.

Since beginning, Bill Gates was on the lookout for opportunities. So, after reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8,800, Gates contacted MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), the creators of the new microcomputer. He informed them that he and others were working on a

BASIC interpreter for the platform. MITS President, Ed Roberts, agreed to meet them for a demo and when Gates demonstrated his work, it was a success.

Paul Allen, Gates’ intimate friend was hired into MITS, and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with Allen at MITS, dubbing their partnership ‘Micro-Soft’ in November, 1975. Within a year, the hyphen was dropped and on 26th November, 1976, the trade name “Microsoft” was registered. Microsoft became 1 independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems.

Short Essay on Bill Gates 200 Words in English

Below we have given a short essay on Bill Gates is for Classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. This short essay on the topic is suitable for students of class 6 and below.

In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft to make the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, IBM PC. Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating system. After adapting the operating system for PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS. As several companies reverse-engineered the IBM architecture and developed clones, Microsoft was quick to license DOS to other manufacturers, calling it MS-DOS. Keeping pace with time, in the early 1980s, Microsoft released ‘Windows’ as an addition and alternative to their DOS command line, and to compete with other systems in the market. By the early 1 990s, Windows had pushed other DOS-based systems out of the market. The release of Windows 3.0 in 1990 was a tremendous success, selling around 10 million copies in the first two years and cementing Microsoft’s dominance in operating systems’ sales. It gradually became the largest software company in the world.

A portion of Gates popularity can be attributed to his wife Melinda. It is due to her philanthropic mindset, that Gates came out to participate in the ‘real’ world. It was their combined effort that made Warren Buffett channelise much of his fortune to their social welfare institute, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At the time of its inception, Gates ‘gifted’ $106 million. It provides scholarships to needy, and efforts are directed for the control of AIDS, polio, diphtheria, measles and yellow fever. It gives away at least 5% of its assets each year, in order to continue as a charitable organisation.

Gates has been continuing to drive the world with his genius. ‘Forbes’ magazine’s list of the ‘The World’s Billionaires’ has ranked him as the richest person in the world l since 1 995, and recent estimates put his net worth near $ 56 billion. But the Gates Foundation and his social work will make us remember him for more than just his business empire. He will inspire us to steadily move towards our higher goals, for he rightly said :

“If you are born poor, it’s not your mistake. But if you die poor, it’s your mistake.”

Bill Gates Essay Word Meanings for Simple Understanding

• Quintessential – of or pertaining to the most perfect embodiment of something
• Gauge – to appraise, estimate or judge
• Complacent – pleased, especially with oneself or one’s merits, disadvantages, situation, etc., often without awareness of some potential danger or defect, self-satisfied
• Philanthropist – a person who practices philanthropy
• Exclusive – fashionable, stylish, expensive
• Royalties – payments received by an owner of real property for allowing someone to use it.
• Rummage – miscellaneous articles
• Dexterous – having mental skill or adroitness, clever
• Telemetry – the wireless transmission and reception of measured quantities for the purpose of
• Remotely monitoring environmental conditions or equipment parameters
• Inception – beginning, start, commencement
• Seadily – regularly, continuously
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Bill Gates: Here's My Plan to Improve Our World -- And How You Can Help

But like anyone with a mild obsession, I think mine is entirely justified. Two out of every five people on Earth today owe their lives to the higher crop outputs that fertilizer has made possible. It helped fuel the Green Revolution, an explosion of agricultural productivity that lifted hundreds of millions of people around the world out of poverty.

These days I get to spend a lot of time trying to advance innovation that improves people's lives in the same way that fertilizer did. Let me reiterate this: A full 40 percent of Earth's population is alive today because, in 1909, a German chemist named Fritz Haber figured out how to make synthetic ammonia. Another example: Polio cases are down more than 99 percent in the past 25 years, not because the disease is going away on its own but because Albert Sabin and Jonas Salk invented polio vaccines and the world rolled out a massive effort to deliver them.

Thanks to inventions like these, life has steadily gotten better. It can be easy to conclude otherwise—as I write this essay, more than 100,000 people have died in a civil war in Syria, and big problems like climate change are bearing down on us with no simple solution in sight. But if you take the long view, by almost any measure of progress we are living in history's greatest era. Wars are becoming less frequent. Life expectancy has more than doubled in the past century. More children than ever are going to primary school. The world is better than it has ever been.

But it is still not as good as we wish. If we want to accelerate progress, we need to actively pursue the same kind of breakthroughs achieved by Haber, Sabin, and Salk. It's a simple fact: Innovation makes the world better—and more innovation equals faster progress. That belief drives the work my wife, Melinda, and I are doing through our foundation.

We went on a Safari to see wild animals but ended up getting our first sustained look at extreme poverty. We were shocked.

Of course, not all innovation is the same. We want to give our wealth back to society in a way that has the most impact, and so we look for opportunities to invest for the largest returns. That means tackling the world's biggest problems and funding the most likely solutions. That's an even greater challenge than it sounds. I don't have a magic formula for prioritizing the world's problems. You could make a good case for poverty, disease, hunger, war, poor education, bad governance, political instability, weak trade, or mistreatment of women. Melinda and I have focused on poverty and disease globally, and on education in the US. We picked those issues by starting with an idea we learned from our parents: Everyone's life has equal value. If you begin with that premise, you quickly see where the world acts as though some lives aren't worth as much as others. That's where you can make the greatest difference, where every dollar you spend is liable to have the greatest impact.

I have known since my early thirties that I was going to give my wealth back to society. The success of Microsoft provided me with an enormous fortune, and I felt responsible for using it in a thoughtful way. I had read a lot about how governments underinvest in basic scientific research. I thought, that's a big mistake. If we don't give scientists the room to deepen our fundamental understanding of the world, we won't provide a basis for the next generation of innovations. I figured, therefore, that I could help the most by creating an institute where the best minds would come to do research.

There's no single lightbulb moment when I changed my mind about that, but I tend to trace it back to a trip Melinda and I took to Africa in 1993. We went on a safari to see wild animals but ended up getting our first sustained look at extreme poverty. I remember peering out a car window at a long line of women walking down the road with big jerricans of water on their heads. How far away do these women live? we wondered. Who's watching their children while they're away?

That was the beginning of our education in the problems of the world's poorest people. In 1996 my father sent us a New York Times article about the million children who were dying every year from rotavirus, a disease that doesn't kill kids in rich countries. A friend gave me a copy of a World Development Report from the World Bank that spelled out in detail the problems with childhood diseases.

Melinda and I were shocked that more wasn't being done. Although rich-world governments were quietly giving aid, few foundations were doing much. Corporations weren't working on vaccines or drugs for diseases that affected primarily the poor. Newspapers didn't write a lot about these children's deaths.

This realization led me to rethink some of my assumptions about how the world improves. I am a devout fan of capitalism. It is the best system ever devised for making self-interest serve the wider interest. This system is responsible for many of the great advances that have improved the lives of billions—from airplanes to air-conditioning to computers.

But capitalism alone can't address the needs of the very poor. This means market-driven innovation can actually widen the gap between rich and poor. I saw firsthand just how wide that gap was when I visited a slum in Durban, South Africa, in 2009. Seeing the open-pit latrine there was a humbling reminder of just how much I take modern plumbing for granted. Meanwhile, 2.5 billion people worldwide don't have access to proper sanitation, a problem that contributes to the deaths of 1.5 million children a year.

Governments don't do enough to drive innovation either. Although aid from the rich world saves a lot of lives, governments habitually underinvest in research and development, especially for the poor. For one thing, they're averse to risk, given the eagerness of political opponents to exploit failures, so they have a hard time giving money to a bunch of innovators with the knowledge that many of them will fail.

By the late 1990s, I had dropped the idea of starting an institute for basic research. Instead I began seeking out other areas where business and government underinvest. Together Melinda and I found a few areas that cried out for philanthropy—in particular for what I have called catalytic philanthropy.

I have been sharing my idea of catalytic philanthropy for a while now. It works a lot like the private markets: You invest for big returns. But there's a big difference. In philanthropy, the investor doesn't need to get any of the benefit. We take a double-pronged approach: (1) Narrow the gap so that advances for the rich world reach the poor world faster, and (2) turn more of the world's IQ toward devising solutions to problems that only people in the poor world face. Of course, this comes with its own challenges. You're working in a global economy worth tens of trillions of dollars, so any philanthropic effort is relatively small. If you want to have a big impact, you need a leverage point—a way to put in a dollar of funding or an hour of effort and benefit society by a hundred or a thousand times as much.

One way you can find that leverage point is to look for a problem that markets and governments aren't paying much attention to. That's what Melinda and I did when we saw how little notice global health got in the mid-1990s. Children were dying of measles for lack of a vaccine that cost less than 25 cents, which meant there was a big opportunity to save a lot of lives relatively cheaply. The same was true of malaria. When we made our first big grant for malaria research, it nearly doubled the amount of money spent on the disease worldwide—not because our grant was so big, but because malaria research was so underfunded.

But you don't necessarily need to find a problem that's been missed. You can also discover a strategy that has been overlooked. Take our foundation's work in education. Government spends huge sums on schools. The state of California alone budgets roughly $68 billion annually for K-12, more than 100 times what our foundation spends in the entire United States. How could we have an impact on an area where the government spends so much?

We looked for a new approach. To me one of the great tragedies of our education system is that teachers get so little help identifying and learning from those who are most effective. As we talked with instructors about what they needed, it became clear that a smart application of technology could make a big difference. Teachers should be able to watch videos of the best educators in action. And if they want, they should be able to record themselves in the classroom and then review the video with a coach. This was an approach that others had missed. So now we're working with teachers and several school districts around the country to set up systems that give teachers the feedback and support they deserve.

The goal in much of what we do is to provide seed funding for various ideas. Some will fail. We fill a function that government cannot—making a lot of risky bets with the expectation that at least a few of them will succeed. At that point, governments and other backers can help scale up the successful ones, a much more comfortable role for them.

We work to draw in not just governments but also businesses, because that's where most innovation comes from. I've heard some people describe the economy of the future as "post-corporatist and post-capitalist"—one in which large corporations crumble and all innovation happens from the bottom up. What nonsense. People who say things like that never have a convincing explanation for who will make drugs or low-cost carbon-free energy. Catalytic philanthropy doesn't replace businesses. It helps more of their innovations benefit the poor.

Look at what happened to agriculture in the 20th century. For decades, scientists worked to develop hardier crops. But those advances mostly benefited the rich world, leaving the poor behind. Then in the middle of the century, the Rockefeller and Ford foundations stepped in. They funded Norman Borlaug's research on new strains of high-yielding wheat, which sparked the Green Revolution. (As Borlaug said, fertilizer was the fuel that powered the forward thrust of the Green Revolution, but these new crops were the catalysts that sparked it.) No private company had any interest in funding Borlaug. There was no profit in it. But today all the people who have escaped poverty represent a huge market opportunity—and now companies are flocking to serve them.

Or take a more recent example: the advent of Big Data. It's indisputable that the availability of massive amounts of information will revolutionize US health care, manufac­turing, retail, and more. But it can also benefit the poorest 2 billion. Right now researchers are using satellite images to study soil health and help poor farmers plan their harvests more efficiently. We need a lot more of this kind of innovation. Otherwise, Big Data will be a big wasted opportunity to reduce inequity.

People often ask me, "What can I do? How can I help?"

Rich-world governments need to maintain or even increase foreign aid, which has saved millions of lives and helped many more people lift themselves out of poverty. It helps when policymakers hear from voters, especially in tough economic times, when they're looking for ways to cut budgets. I hope people let their representatives know that aid works and that they care about saving lives. Bono's group ONE.org is a great channel for getting your voice heard.

Companies—especially those in the technology sector—can dedicate a percentage of their top innovators' time to issues that could help people who've been left out of the global economy or deprived of opportunity here in the US. If you write great code or are an expert in genomics or know how to develop new seeds, I'd encourage you to learn more about the problems of the poorest and see how you can help.

At heart I'm an optimist. Technology is helping us overcome our biggest challenges. Just as important, it's also bringing the world closer together. Today we can sit at our desks and see people thousands of miles away in real time. I think this helps explain the growing interest young people today have in global health and poverty. It's getting harder and harder for those of us in the rich world to ignore poverty and suffering, even if it's happening half a planet away.

Technology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings. In the end, that combination—the advances of science together with our emerging global conscience—may be the most powerful tool we have for improving the world.

Think Globally, Act Massively

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation focuses on catalytic philanthropy—invest­ments that can yield massive returns. That means finding areas where governments and private businesses aren’t innovating. Here are some of the founda­tion’s major activities over the past 15 years.

Pledged $750 million to help set up the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immuniza­tion (now the GAVI Alliance), supported by leading members of the world health community and experts in international childhood diseases.

Gave $50 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Launched the Gates Millennium Scholars program to provide 1,000 low-income and minority students a year with scholarships and support for select advanced degrees at any college or university.

Officially established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with a focus on health, education, and libraries.

Pledged $100 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculo­sis, and Malaria—the first of $1.4 billion in commitments to an organization that has helped save more than 9 million lives.

Announced the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative to fund research that promises to greatly advance work against diseases that disproportionately affect people in the developing world.

Created Agricultural Development, beginning with a $150 million joint investment with the Rockefeller Foundation, to establish the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which helps lift poor farmers out of poverty.

Launched the Measures of Effective Teaching Project with 3,000 participating teachers to create better feedback and development systems for educators.

Called on the global health community to declare this the Decade of Vaccines, with the goal of saving more than 20 million lives by 2020; pledged $10 billion to help develop and deliver vaccines.

Launched the Next Generation Learning Challenges to push innovation that promotes personalized student learning.

Hosted the GAVI Alliance pledging conference, which raised $4.3 billion from governments, philan­thropists, and the private sector to help immunize nearly 250 million of the world’s poorest children by 2015.

Offered a $42 million reward for the invention of a toilet that can provide safe, affordable sanitation to the developing world while processing the waste into reusable energy, fertilizer, and fresh water.

Joined 13 pharmaceutical companies, the US, UK, and UAE governments, the World Bank, and various global health organizations in a coordinated push to eliminate or control 10 neglected tropical diseases by the end of 2020.

Melinda Gates chaired the Landmark London Summit on Family Planning, which united global leaders to provide 120 million women in the world’s poorest countries with access to contraceptives by 2020.

Supported a six-year, $5.5 billion effort to eradicate polio by 2018.

Essay on Bill Gates

Students are often asked to write an essay on Bill Gates in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Bill Gates

Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. He developed an interest in computer programming at a young age.

In 1975, Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen. They developed software for personal computers, transforming the tech industry.

Philanthropy

After retiring from Microsoft, Gates focused on philanthropy. He and his wife, Melinda, established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which works on global issues.

Gates’ impact on technology and philanthropy is significant. His work continues to inspire many around the world.

250 Words Essay on Bill Gates

Early life and education, microsoft: the technology giant.

In 1975, Gates and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft, aiming to develop and sell BASIC interpreters. Gates’ vision of “a computer on every desk and in every home” was pioneering at a time when computers were bulky and expensive. Under his leadership, Microsoft introduced Windows, which became the dominant OS worldwide, solidifying Gates’ position as a titan of the tech industry.

Philanthropy: A Life Beyond Microsoft

In 2000, Gates stepped down as Microsoft CEO to focus on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world’s wealthiest charitable foundations. The foundation’s work in healthcare, education, and poverty alleviation has had global impacts, demonstrating Gates’ commitment to using his wealth for societal good.

Legacy and Influence

Gates’ influence extends beyond technology and philanthropy. He is a thought leader, advising on issues like climate change and public health. His book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” provides insightful solutions to one of the most pressing problems of our time.

In conclusion, Bill Gates’ journey from a computer enthusiast to a globally influential figure is a testament to his vision, leadership, and philanthropic spirit. His life offers invaluable lessons about innovation, resilience, and the power of technology to transform societies.

500 Words Essay on Bill Gates

Introduction.

Bill Gates, born William Henry Gates III, is a name that resonates profoundly within the realm of technology, philanthropy, and global health. As the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, he revolutionized the world of personal computing, creating a legacy that continues to influence the technological landscape.

The Birth of Microsoft

In 1975, Gates and Allen established Microsoft, a blend of “microcomputer” and “software.” Their first significant breakthrough came with the development of the MS-DOS operating system for IBM in 1981. This marked the beginning of Microsoft’s dominance in the personal computer operating system market.

Leadership and Innovation at Microsoft

As CEO, Gates led Microsoft through a series of innovations, including the launch of Windows in 1985, a graphical operating system shell that became a household name. Gates’ leadership style was characterized by his relentless pursuit of new ideas and his ability to inspire his team to turn visions into reality.

Philanthropic Endeavors

Global health advocacy.

Gates has been a vocal advocate for global health, investing billions in research and treatment for diseases like malaria and HIV. His foundation’s efforts have significantly contributed to the eradication of polio. Recently, Gates has been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, funding research, and vaccine distribution.

Gates’ influence extends beyond Microsoft and his philanthropic endeavors. His thoughts on technology, global health, and climate change shape public discourse and policy. His book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” offers practical solutions to the climate crisis, demonstrating his commitment to a sustainable future.

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This I Believe

Unleashing the power of creativity.

I've always been an optimist and I suppose that is rooted in my belief that the power of creativity and intelligence can make the world a better place.

For as long as I can remember, I've loved learning new things and solving problems. So when I sat down at a computer for the first time in seventh grade, I was hooked. It was a clunky old Teletype machine and it could barely do anything compared to the computers we have today. But it changed my life.

When my friend Paul Allen and I started Microsoft 30 years ago, we had a vision of "a computer on every desk and in every home," which probably sounded a little too optimistic at a time when most computers were the size of refrigerators. But we believed that personal computers would change the world. And they have.

And after 30 years, I'm still as inspired by computers as I was back in seventh grade.

I believe that computers are the most incredible tool we can use to feed our curiosity and inventiveness — to help us solve problems that even the smartest people couldn't solve on their own.

Computers have transformed how we learn, giving kids everywhere a window into all of the world's knowledge. They're helping us build communities around the things we care about and to stay close to the people who are important to us, no matter where they are.

Like my friend Warren Buffett, I feel particularly lucky to do something every day that I love to do. He calls it "tap-dancing to work." My job at Microsoft is as challenging as ever, but what makes me "tap-dance to work" is when we show people something new, like a computer that can recognize your handwriting or your speech, or one that can store a lifetime's worth of photos, and they say, "I didn't know you could do that with a PC!"

But for all the cool things that a person can do with a PC, there are lots of other ways we can put our creativity and intelligence to work to improve our world. There are still far too many people in the world whose most basic needs go unmet. Every year, for example, millions of people die from diseases that are easy to prevent or treat in the developed world.

I believe that my own good fortune brings with it a responsibility to give back to the world. My wife, Melinda, and I have committed to improving health and education in a way that can help as many people as possible.

As a father, I believe that the death of a child in Africa is no less poignant or tragic than the death of a child anywhere else. And that it doesn't take much to make an immense difference in these children's lives.

I'm still very much an optimist, and I believe that progress on even the world's toughest problems is possible — and it's happening every day. We're seeing new drugs for deadly diseases, new diagnostic tools, and new attention paid to the health problems in the developing world.

I'm excited by the possibilities I see for medicine, for education and, of course, for technology. And I believe that through our natural inventiveness, creativity and willingness to solve tough problems, we're going to make some amazing achievements in all these areas in my lifetime.

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Gates: u.s. losing advantage in innovation race, gates tops list of world's richest people, children's health, gates, norway team for global vaccine donations, bill gates: creating small high schools, bill gates announces $200 million for research in poor nations, gates donates millions to fight malaria, more 'this i believe' essays, this i believe: a goal of service to humankind, historical archives, this i believe: an ideal of service to our fellow man, this i believe: the willingness to work for solutions, this i believe: science nourishes the mind and the soul.

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When was Bill Gates born?

How did bill gates become famous, where did bill gates go to college, what are bill gates’s major accomplishments.

Bill Gates (born October 28, 1955, Seattle , Washington , U.S.) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who cofounded Microsoft Corporation , the world’s largest personal-computer software company.

Gates wrote his first software program at the age of 13. In high school he helped form a group of programmers who computerized their school’s payroll system and founded Traf-O-Data, a company that sold traffic -counting systems to local governments. In 1975 Gates, then a sophomore at Harvard University , joined his hometown friend Paul G. Allen to develop software for the first microcomputers . They began by adapting BASIC , a popular programming language used on large computers, for use on microcomputers. With the success of this project, Gates left Harvard during his junior year and, with Allen, formed Microsoft. Gates’s sway over the infant microcomputer industry greatly increased when Microsoft licensed an operating system called MS-DOS to International Business Machines Corporation —then the world’s biggest computer supplier and industry pacesetter—for use on its first microcomputer, the IBM PC ( personal computer ). After the machine’s release in 1981, IBM quickly set the technical standard for the PC industry, and MS-DOS likewise pushed out competing operating systems. While Microsoft’s independence strained relations with IBM, Gates deftly manipulated the larger company so that it became permanently dependent on him for crucial software. Makers of IBM-compatible PCs, or clones, also turned to Microsoft for their basic software. By the start of the 1990s he had become the PC industry’s ultimate kingmaker.

Largely on the strength of Microsoft’s success, Gates amassed a huge paper fortune as the company’s largest individual shareholder. He became a paper billionaire in 1986, and within a decade his net worth had reached into the tens of billions of dollars—making him by some estimates the world’s richest private individual. With few interests beyond software and the potential of information technology , Gates at first preferred to stay out of the public eye, handling civic and philanthropic affairs indirectly through one of his foundations. Nevertheless, as Microsoft’s power and reputation grew, and especially as it attracted the attention of the U.S. Justice Department ’s antitrust division, Gates, with some reluctance, became a more public figure. Rivals (particularly in competing companies in Silicon Valley ) portrayed him as driven, duplicitous, and determined to profit from virtually every electronic transaction in the world. His supporters, on the other hand, celebrated his uncanny business acumen, his flexibility, and his boundless appetite for finding new ways to make computers and electronics more useful through software.

All of these qualities were evident in Gates’s nimble response to the sudden public interest in the Internet . Beginning in 1995 and 1996, Gates feverishly refocused Microsoft on the development of consumer and enterprise software solutions for the Internet , developed the Windows CE operating system platform for networking noncomputer devices such as home televisions and personal digital assistants, created the Microsoft Network to compete with America Online and other Internet providers, and, through Gates’s company Corbis, acquired the huge Bettmann photo archives and other collections for use in electronic distribution.

In addition to his work at Microsoft, Gates was also known for his charitable work. With his then wife, Melinda , he launched the William H. Gates Foundation (renamed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 1999) in 1994 to fund global health programs as well as projects in the Pacific Northwest . During the latter part of the 1990s, the couple also funded North American libraries through the Gates Library Foundation (renamed Gates Learning Foundation in 1999) and raised money for minority study grants through the Gates Millennium Scholars program. In June 2006 Warren Buffett announced an ongoing gift to the foundation, which would allow its assets to total roughly $60 billion in the next 20 years. At the beginning of the 21st century, the foundation continued to focus on global health and global development, as well as community and education causes in the United States . After a short transition period, Gates relinquished day-to-day oversight of Microsoft in June 2008—although he remained chairman of the board—in order to devote more time to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In February 2014 he stepped down as chairman but continued to serve as a board member until 2020. During this time he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016). The documentary series Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates appeared in 2019. Two years later Gates and his wife divorced.

It remains to be seen whether Gates’s extraordinary success will guarantee him a lasting place in the pantheon of great Americans. At the very least, historians seem likely to view him as a business figure as important to computers as John D. Rockefeller was to oil. Gates himself displayed an acute awareness of the perils of prosperity in his 1995 best seller , The Road Ahead , where he observed, “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

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• School Education /

Essay On Bill Gates: The Founder of Microsoft

• Updated on  
• May 14, 2024

Today, we are all connected to technology in one way or another. But did you know how technology has evolved in the past few years? A young boy from Seattle, Washington, aged 13, wrote his first software program, which later gave birth to one of the most advanced computer programmes and software. Bill Gates was the co-founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, the world’s largest private computer software company. Today he is listed as the Forbes Richest Man in the World. Let’s learn more about this great man through an essay on Bill Gates.

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay On Bill Gates in 400 Words
• 2 Paragraph on Bill Gates
• 3 Quotes By Bill Gates
• 4 Books By Bill Gates

Essay On Bill Gates in 400 Words

Willian Henry Gates III, more commonly known as Bill Gates, is the CEO of Microsoft and is not only a co-founder of the well-known software company but also a noted author and philanthropist. He was born in 1955 in Seattle, Washington, United States. Gates was a brilliant student who enjoyed maths and reading from a young age. 

Aside from being a bright child, he has a strong interest in computers, which his parents have encouraged and supported. He attended Harvard College as a law student in 1973 but dropped out after two years to start his own software company. He later co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975. Microsoft envisioned “a computer in every desktop and every home.”

After years of hard work, this idea has become a reality. Following Microsoft’s success, he started and invested in several firms, including TerraPower, Gates Venture, BEN, Cascade Investment, and Breakthrough Energy. During the late 1990s, he was criticized for his uncompetitive business practices. Gates held various positions at Microsoft, including chairman and chief software architect. In 2000, Bill Gates and his then-wife Melinda founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charity foundation. 

In 2008, he changed his role at Microsoft to part-time, with a full-time focus on the Gates Foundation. He then stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2014 to support Satya Nadella, the newly appointed CEO. In 2020, he left his board position at Microsoft to focus on his philanthropic activities for global welfare, including climate change, global development, and education. He has made huge contributions to various charitable organizations and scientific research projects over the years. Since 1987, he has been on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires. According to a Forbes study in 2024, his net worth is $128.7 billion. He also wrote many books, including The Road Ahead and How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.

He has committed his life to building the world’s top software company, contributing a large portion of his income to social activities. This shows that, along with his financial wealth, Bill Gates has a great heart too.

Quick Read: Greatest Writers of All Times

Paragraph on Bill Gates

Quick Read: Trees Are Our Best Friend Essay

Quotes By Bill Gates

Here are some of the popular quotes by the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation.

• “Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point. Its utility is entirely in building an organisation and getting the resources out to the poorest in the world.”
• “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”
• “Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world … if you do so, you are insulting yourself.”
• “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
• “The belief that the world is getting worse, that we can’t solve extreme poverty and disease, isn’t just mistaken. It’s harmful.”
• “Patience is a key element of success.”
• “Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast, or a bridge player.”

Books By Bill Gates

• How To Avoid A Climate Disaster- 2021
• The Road Ahead-1995
• Business@The Speed of Thought- 1999
• How To Prevent the Next Pandemic- 2022
• Unleashing the Power of Creativity- 2006

Ans: Bill Gates is the CEO of Microsoft and a noted author and philanthropist. He was born in 1955 in Seattle, Washington, United States. Gates was a brilliant student who enjoyed maths and reading from a young age.  Aside from being a bright child, he has a strong interest in computers, which his parents have encouraged and supported. He attended Harvard College as a law student in 1973 but dropped out after two years to start his own software company. He is listed among the Richest Men in the world.

Ans: Bill Gates is famous for co-founding Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975. He also founded the ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’, the world’s largest private charity foundation, with his then-wife, Melinda Gates.

Ans: According to Forbes, Bill Gates’ net worth is $128.7 billion, making him the eighth richest person in the world.

Ans: Bill Gates was admitted to Harvard College as a law student in 1973 but dropped out after two years to start his own software company, Microsoft.

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Bhumika Sharma

A writer with a fresh perspective on thoughts, I have an year of experience in writing the blogs on various topics. Here, you will find my blogs for the students and education purpose.

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Guest Essay

Why Billionaires Like Bill Gates Can’t Fix the Problems They Helped Create

By Linsey McGoey

Dr. McGoey is a professor of sociology and director of the Center for Research in Economic Sociology and Innovation at the University of Essex. She is the author of “No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy.”

This essay has been updated to include a response from the University of Oxford.

Bill Gates hasn’t changed. His public image has. Mr. Gates’s personal behavior and his troubling comanagement of the Gates Foundation are being reported more openly. The question is why it took so long.

For years, the Gates Foundation has been steered by an unusually small board of trustees, made up of Bill, his estranged wife, Melinda, and the billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

The foundation was created in 2000, merging two charitable organizations that were established in 1994, the year Bill and Melinda married. The size of the foundation increased significantly in 2006, when Mr. Buffett announced he would give most of his Berkshire Hathaway fortune to the organization, saying that he trusted Bill and Melinda’s expertise to use the money for good.

A paradox emerged. The larger the foundation became, the less anyone seemed willing to ask tough questions about its secretive management structure or its penchant for giving money to lucrative pharmaceutical and credit card companies such as Mastercard, despite the fact that giving away billions to wealthy corporations set an unusual and troubling precedent in the philanthropic sector.

I first reported this pattern of showering money on private corporations while researching my 2015 book, “No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy.” The main argument of the book was that billionaires who make their fortunes through corporate practices that undercut workers and deepen inequality — like corporate tax avoidance , insufficient sick pay and the immoral gap in pay between executives and low-paid workers — are not the solution to problems they generate.

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Home / Essay Samples / Business / Bill Gates / Bill Gates: A Person To Admire

Bill Gates: A Person To Admire

• Category: Business , Information Science and Technology
• Topic: Bill Gates , Business Success , Microsoft Corporation

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