On November 19, 2015, the nonfiction writer and editor Daniel Smith published How to Think Like Bill Gates as a biography to the world-renowned William Henry Gate III (aka Bill Gates). As one of the world’s greatest innovators and entrepreneurs, Bill Gates became famous for his role in the establishment of the pervasive computer software company known as Microsoft. Throughout How to Think Like Bill Gates, Daniel Smith examines the key incentives, choices, and beliefs that made Bill Gates into one of the world’s top businessmen and philanthropists. Simultaneously, the book observes how Bill Gates enhanced his business insight, overcame several forms of competition, conquered adversity, and succeeded in the face of numerous challenges. During …show more content…
On October 28, 1955, William Henry Gates III was born as the middle child to William Gates (lawyer) and Mary Gates (teacher/businesswoman). Born into a nurturing and educated household, Bill Gates was raised in an introverted environment with the encouragement to seek out his interests. According to his family, Bill exhibited a highly extroverted and competitive personality, which was enhanced by “his natural grasp of logic and a seriously impressive memory” (Smith 2). Based on his academic background, Bill demonstrated great potential in the fields of science and mathematics, including several other interests such as drama, politics, and computer technology. With these personal and interpersonal factors in mind, Bill Gates should obvious traits that would help make him a …show more content…
For instance, in 1984, the company known as Apple released a more efficient operating program that threatened to make the Microsoft program outdated. In response, Gates publicized that Microsoft planned to release its own operating system called Windows. However, the creation of Windows faced much criticism and would be met with a lawsuit by Apple, which claimed Windows was a rip-off of the Macintosh operating system. Although Microsoft was found innocent, the company would continue to face more legal and competitive encounters. Due to the threat of these challenges, Bill Gates had to insure the company maintained a competitive advantage in the market, which involved striving to remain
By 1993 Microsoft's windows computer programming function became the most widely used operating system in the world. When Microsoft was still an idea, Bill Gates led Apple to believe he would help them succeed in creating the best computer programming systems in the nation, however, Gates left it unknown to Apple he planned to release his own software. Gates took notes and allowed Apple to release the software he helped them to create. Then shortly after, Microsoft introduced windows. Apple claimed Gates had stolen their ideas, as windows looked surprisingly similar to Apple's version. Gates claimed he used his own ideas because it was his own that made Apple's renowned software. As Microsoft was leading in the world, Apple threatened Microsofts position in the world of technological advances by introducing a new software program that could potentially take Microsoft's top spot in the market away from them. Gates quickly said that he had created a new software that was set to release also, although he had no idea of new software at the time and made the excuse to possibly buy himself a bit of time. About eight months later, Microsoft released the new software program, as bill gates had proclaimed, retaining the top spot in the market. Microsoft's expansion today has reached every technological realm possible. Occluded in the newest developments are
Being his life’s most world renowned accomplishment, Microsoft was the beginning factor in Bill Gate’s cultural impact, paving the way for greater technological advances an...
Inventing Microsoft Windows, a software used by more than 50% of the world population in desktops/laptops, Gates practically owns the field of computer software technology. In the United States v. Microsoft Corp. Supreme Court case of 2001, Gates’ company was accused of becoming a monopoly, engaging in practices forbidden by the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Another lawsuit was filed against Gates accusing him of monopolizing. Both of these cases were ultimately settled, allowing Microsoft to continue as it was. One could debate long and hard over whether Gates’ is the modern-age Rockefeller, controlling an entire industry. Many have tried, and failed, as seen in previous cases. Just as the other “captains of industry/robber barons” did, Gates’ saw an opportunity, took it, and completely exploited it. Whether doing so would be moral or immoral, is an entirely different argument.
Biography of Bill Gates. Narr. Harry Smith. PBS Channel 13 Special Presentation. Class Film. HSS 100-022. Spring Semester, February 8, 2002.
Many people believe that it is impossible to get to a status of that such as Bill Gates, the owner of Microsoft, however, Elon Musk has accomplished what many have thought to be near impossible. Knowing how one has become successful could help others become just as successful or somewhere close. Having spent over fifty hours with Elon Musk, Ashlee Vance has uncovered the qualities and life choice made by Elon Musk in his first ever biography, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Vance has the chance to examine one of the most successful businessmen in the world. She looked into his life growing up, his family, his childhood, and many more aspects that would transform him into what he is now. She got to know the inner
Being the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates had already made millions of dollars while also becoming more and more famous for his work with computers. So it came as no surprise when he took over his father’s previous foundation called the William gates Foundation and renaming it the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation in 1997. Quickly donations were made to many universities and colleges such as the University of Washington. They were awarded a donation of twelve million dollars. The Gates Foundation also contributed two million dollars to the Seattle Area YMCA, twenty million dollars to the Seattle Public Library, and one million dollars to the Tacoma Art Museum. The Gates also devised plans to improve public education as well as attacking global issues. Of course one knows that at one point in time technology was only available for the rich or in other words only the rich could obtain certain information or knowledge that the poor couldn’t. Bill and Malinda gates understood this so they created a second program called the Gates Library fou...
Microsoft’s mission of placing a “PC running Microsoft software on every desk and in every home” drove their overall strategy early on. Depending on the business segment within Microsoft, one would see in place very different business models as the strategy for each line of business could vary. In the operating system (OS) segment, Microsoft initially brought in an existing product and modified this (MS-DOS) to work with the Intel microprocessor, which were the “brains” of the IBM PC. Microsoft partnered with IBM to provide the operating system for the IBM PC. In addition to developing Windows, Microsoft during this period was working to write applications for the Apple OS.
And then there's Microsoft themselves. After Bill Gates handed over CEO to Steve Ballmer, all hell broke loose as humans raged about him. During the first twenty years of Microsoft, they were considered an evil monopolistic empire, destroying all competitors that came their way. Back then, if you wanted word processing software, you used Office. Want a computer o...
“His agreements with hardware manufacturers have often served to prevent the success of rival products even when they are already on the market and Microsoft versions have yet to be completed. In 1995, the development of Windows 95, a revolutionary operating system, drove hardware manufacturers to produce computers with more memory and more hard disk space. Microsoft thus effectively compelled the entire computer industry to follow its lead. Such practices involved Gates and Microsoft in legal struggles over alleged anticompetitive practices and copyright infringement throughout the 1990s”(McGuire 1). With their more advanced operating systems they had to have more advanced computers that can run them but the other companies couldn't update their operating system as fast.
Gates suggested that IBM “license it and charge a fee for the software” (Bill. Biography). Over the next three years, everything “exploded” and the stock price shot up. Gates and Allen incorporated Microsoft, with Gates as president and Chairman” (Bill. Biography). Microsoft was eventually “running thirty percent of the world’s software”. The IBM deal was possibly the biggest event in the history of Microsoft.
Hamm, S., & Greene, J. (2004, October 25). The man who could have been Bill Gates. In Business Week. Retrieved January 14, 2012, from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_43/b3905109_mz063.htm
While Bill Gates was at junior high a group of parents raise money to purchase the first computerized terminal in the school. When that happened he decided to take all his time to work on that system teaming with other students to learn about different operating systems. He excelled in his learning of systems and he started developing ideas to make business with companies in order to learn how they make their terminals. His mind for busi...
In the early 1980s the top competitor in this industry was IBM due to its open system and ease of being cloned. During this same time, Apple struggled to keep pace and changed its competitive strategy multiple times. From 1980 to 1993 Apple positioned itself in the computer industry as the company that provides easy to use desktops with superior software and hardware. Unlike its competitors, Apple did not use “open systems that other producers could clone; instead they practiced horizontal and vertical integration and used Apple’s own proprietary design” (Pearce, 2013). It is this strategy that held the company back. Open systems were popular within the industry and customers enjoyed the flexibility of the systems
So here I present you the path that gave us the Bill Gates we have today. Firstly, Bill Gates was fortunate enough to be born in a fine and educated family, where his parents were an educator and a lawyer. He had the privilege to all the essential necessities, such as clothing, food, and water sources which many other kids do not have. More than that, his family was wealthy enough to buy him toys and games and other things which would be far too extravagant to others. These small things created a stronger foundation for Bill Gates’
"Bill Gates is a modern business phenomenon: the greatest of the cyber-tycoons. His is not simply a story of technical brilliance and enormous wealth; it is one of remarkable business vision and an obsessive desire to win. It is also about a leadership style that is radically different to anything the business world has seen before."