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Bill Gates Biography: Family and Childhood

Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle-class family in Seattle and showed early signs of competitiveness. He had a close relationship with his mother and was a voracious reader as a child. Gates became fascinated with computers and programming at a young age. He enrolled at Harvard but dropped out within two years to pursue his business, Microsoft, with his partner Paul Allen. By 1979 Microsoft was grossing $2.5 million and Gates was leading the company as it grew rapidly through developing software for IBM in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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67 views2 pages

Bill Gates Biography: Family and Childhood

Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle-class family in Seattle and showed early signs of competitiveness. He had a close relationship with his mother and was a voracious reader as a child. Gates became fascinated with computers and programming at a young age. He enrolled at Harvard but dropped out within two years to pursue his business, Microsoft, with his partner Paul Allen. By 1979 Microsoft was grossing $2.5 million and Gates was leading the company as it grew rapidly through developing software for IBM in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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jorge
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BILL GATES BIOGRAPHY

Family and Childhood

Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle-class family with his older sister, Kristianne, and younger sister,
Libby. Their father, William H. Gates Sr., was a promising, if somewhat shy, law student when he met his
future wife, Mary Maxwell. She was an athletic, outgoing student at the University of Washington,
actively involved in student affairs and leadership. The Gates family atmosphere was warm and close,
and all three children were encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence. Bill showed early
signs of competitiveness when he coordinated family athletic games at their summer house on Puget
Sound. He also relished in playing board games (Risk was his favorite) and excelled at Monopoly.

Bill had a very close relationship with his mother, Mary, who after a brief career as a teacher devoted
her time to helping raise the children and working on civic affairs and with charities. She also served on
several corporate boards, including those of the First Interstate Bank in Seattle (founded by her
grandfather), the United Way and International Business Machines (IBM). She would often take Bill
along when she volunteered in schools and at community organizations.

Education

Bill was a voracious reader as a child, spending many hours poring over reference books such as the
encyclopedia. Around the age of 11 or 12, Bill's parents began to have concerns about his behavior. He
was doing well in school, but he seemed bored and withdrawn at times, and his parents worried he
might become a loner. Though they were strong believers in public education, when Bill turned 13, they
enrolled him at Seattle's exclusive preparatory Lakeside School. He blossomed in nearly all his subjects,
excelling in math and science, but also doing very well in drama and English.

While at Lakeside School, a Seattle computer company offered to provide computer time for the
students. The Mother's Club used proceeds from the school's rummage sale to purchase a teletype
terminal for students to use. Bill Gates became entranced with what a computer could do and spent
much of his free time working on the terminal. He wrote a tic-tac-toe program in BASIC computer
language that allowed users to play against the computer.

Dropping Out of College

Gates enrolled at Harvard University in the fall of 1973, originally thinking of a career in law. But his
freshman year saw him spend more of his time in the computer lab than in class. Gates did not really
have a study regimen. Instead, he could get by on a few hours of sleep, cram for a test, and pass with a
reasonable grade. Much to his parents' dismay, within two years Gates dropped out of college in 1975
to pursue his business, Microsoft, with partner Paul Allen.

Bill Gates and Microsof

In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen formed Micro-Soft, a blend of "micro-computer" and "software" (they
dropped the hyphen to Microsoft within a year). Although the company started out on shaky footing, by
1979 Microsoft was grossing approximately $2.5 million, and, at the age of 23, Gates placed himself as
the head of the company. With his acumen for software development and a keen business sense, he led
the company and worked as its spokesperson. Gates personally reviewed every line of code the
company shipped, often rewriting code himself when he saw it necessary.
BILL GATES BIOGRAPHY

Following the development of software for IBM, between 1979 and 1981 Microsoft's growth exploded.
Staff increased from 25 to 128, and revenue shot up from $2.5 million to $16 million. In mid-1981, Gates
and Allen incorporated Microsoft, and Gates was appointed president and chairman of the board. Allen
was named executive vice president.

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