Essay About William Henry Gates Iii And Bill Gatess Life

Bill Gates
Bill Gates
On October 28, 1955, William Henry Gates III was born. He was born into a family with a rich history
in business, politics, and community service. His great-grandfather was a state legislator and mayor. His
grandfather was the vice president of a national bank, and his father was a successful lawyer. At a young
age his parents recognized his intelligence and decided to enroll him in Lakeside, a private school known
for its intense academic program. This decision had positive effects on Bill Gatess life. At Lakeside, Bill
Gates was first introduced to computers.
In the Spring of 1968, the Lakeside prep school decided that it should introduce students to the world of
computers. Computers were too large and expensive for the school to purchase its own. Instead, the
school had a fund raiser. A few thousand dollars were raised which the school figured would buy more
than enough time to last into the next school year. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and a few other Lakeside
students became attached to the computer. They would stay in the computer room all day and night,
writing programs, reading computer literature and anything else they could to learn about computing.
Bill Gates, Paul Allen and, two other students from Lakeside formed the Lakeside Programmers Group in
late 1968.
The Lakeside Programmers Group began searching for new chances to apply their computer skills in the
real world. Their first opportunity came early the next year when Information Sciences Inc. hired them to
program a payroll program. As a result of the business deal signed with Information Sciences Inc., the
group also had to become a legal business Gates and Allens next project involved starting another
company entirely on their own, Traf-O-Data. They produced a small computer which was used to help
measure traffic flow. From the project they grossed around $20,000. The Traf-O-Data company lasted
until Gates left for college. During Bill Gates junior year at Lakeside, the administration offered him a
job computerizing the schools scheduling system. Gates asked Allen to help with the project. He agreed
and the following summer, they wrote the program. In the fall of 1973, Bill Gates left home for Harvard
University. He had no idea what he wanted to study, so he enrolled as prelaw. Gates took the standard
freshman courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvards toughest math courses. After
locating the schools computer center, he lost himself in the world of computers once again. Gates would
spend many long nights in front of the schools computer and the next days asleep in class. Paul Allen
and Gates remained in close contact even with Bill away at school. They would discuss ideas for future
projects and the possibility of one day starting a business. At the end of Gatess first year at Harvard, the
two decided that Allen should move closer to him so that they may be able to follow up on some of their
ideas.Allen began to push Bill harder with the idea that they should open a software company. Within a
year, Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed.
In April, 1975, Gates and Allen founded the Microsoft Corporation in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Microsoft would sell its BASIC system to MITS, NCR and Intel. On January 1, 1979, Bill Gates moved