Bill Gates

What’s the definition of a hero? Does he or she have to do a great thing for most humans? I don’t think so. I consider that a person or a group who can have the respected characteristics is a real hero. Everyone always has different kinds of heroes and mine is Bill Gates, one of Microsoft’s creators. Why do I think he is a hero? Did he have any attraction for me? Of course yes! Besides creating Microsoft, Bill Gates’ manner of the work is also worth praising. In the following, I’ll show to you the reasons why I respect him.

Bill Gates had a rich family background, but his grades weren’t very good during his youth except the math. At thirteen, he began to work with the computer and loved it crazily. Though he didn’t graduate from Harvard University, he started to create Microsoft with his best friend called Paul Allen by relying on his own efforts without his parents’ help. The characteristic I really appreciate is his perfect manner to his working instead of how much money he made. He had said the sentences in “Lessons from the Top”: “My work is the most interesting in the world, and I also go to work happily every day because there are always new challenges, new opportunities and new things to learn. If you can revel in the work, you won’t be bored with it.” So, he loved his preference and made it his opportunity, even his profession. That’s why he could work sixty-five hours in every week, not only out of the responsibility but with passion for his love.

In 2000, Bill Gates created a new position called Chief Software Architect and let Steve Ballmer be Chief Executive Officer. After retiring in 2008, Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, established Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation caring about the problems of the healthy and education for the famine victims in the third world, the children and the AIDS. He always donates 5% of his income to this foundation. Bill Gates has been the richest person in the world for many years, so you will understand how much money he has donated. This is also one of his greatest characteristics for me to respect.

Tell you an interesting thing about Bill Gates and Warren Edward Buffett. Both of them have the great brain, make plenty of money and are the greatest in business, even struggle for the fame of the richest, but in my eyes, they coincide. For example, though Bill Gates has the great wealth, he doesn’t want his children to have his inheritance, Buffett does, too. Buffett had said, "I want to give my kids enough so that they could feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.” I guess maybe Bill Gates also has the same means. On the other side, Buffett inputs himself into charity, too. He had donated around U.S. 370 billion dollars to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2007, and went to the China with Bill Gates to raise money coming from China's wealthy in 2010. Though the results weren’t very good, but I think it’s a chance to make Gates and Buffett know more about each other.

“You won’t make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone, until you earn both.” Bill Gates has a substantial and valuable life. He has the courage to pursue his dream and makes it stronger and stronger. Besides his successful career, he tries to help the people who need help in the world. His fame isn’t only how much money he made but what he does for the people who really need the help. His great courage and kindness are the wonderful characteristics that I want to learn. In my mind, he will be a hero in my mind forever and ever.