Bill Gates

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated over 26,000,000,000 dollars to all kind of charities all around the world; that is approximately 742,857,142 times more dollars than there are words in this sentence! Surely a great charity foundation that's able to donate so much must be run by an even greater man right? Correct, the man who runs the foundation is none other than, surprise, Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist who founded Microsoft. Bill Gates, in case you've been living under a rock for the past 30 years, is the creator of Microsoft.  This company has  probably made a least 5 parts in the device that you are reading on right now. Gates has also devoted himself to making life easier for people who have it much MUCH harder than him. One of his foundation's latest and most ambitious goals is to eradicate the polio virus, a task that will take a true leader and natural hero to complete. "A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles." (Christopher Reeve) As Mr. Reeve said, a true hero must be someone who will work hard towards their goals no matter what stands in their way. This is definitely one of the 3 keys to being a hero. Another one of the most prominent keys to heroism is to be a very giving person. Lastly but most certainly not least, is that a true hero must be a caring person to all and not show hatred towards others. Bill Gates definitely fits all of these criteria and then some, he is a very caring person towards all, he is a very giving person having donated a large portion of his wealth to charity, and he definitely fits the last category of being a man who works hard to accomplish his goals and for these reasons, Bill Gates is a hero.

Bill Gates is very hard working person who will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal.

There are multiple ways that Mr. Gates continues to better himself and achieve new things.  One of these is to educate himself on the thing they are trying to get rid of, polio.  "Since his involvement with the foundation, Mr Gates has become something of a 'walking encyclopaedia of medical knowledge', according to Warren E Buffett, the chief executive of financial services firm Berkshire Hathaway"(Cronin, Jon. "Bill Gates: Billionaire Philanthropist." BBC News. BBC, 25 Jan. 2005. Web. 03 Feb. 2016.). As stated previously, he has educated himself on all of the medical terms so he knows just what he is dealing with. This just shows his level of dedication to helping others in need when he knows that it will be hard. But he doesn't stop there, when the foundation had trouble reaching people in Pakistan, Mr. Gates has been quoted as saying, "'It's not going to stop us succeeding,' says Gates. 'It does force us to sit down with the Pakistan government to renew their commitments, see what they're going to do in security and make changes to protect the women who are doing God's work and getting out to these children and delivering the vaccine'"( Allison, David. "Bill Gates Interview." Interview with Bill Gates. Smithsonian Institution, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. Tweedie, Neil. "Bill Gates Interview: I Have No Use for Money. This Is God's Work." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.) This goes to show that he won't stop because he just had a little bump in the road and that he is dedicated to reaching everyone with his foundation and that above all else he is working very hard just to make sure they accomplish their goal. Bill Gates is obviously a very hard working individual who deserves to be known as a hero.

Bill Gates is also a very giving person just as he is a hard worker! In fact, he has been noted many times as saying he will giveaway the majority of his wealth to charity and humane efforts. Most notably in an interview with reporter Jon Cronin: "Gates explains: 'The vast majority of the wealth, over 95 per cent, goes to the foundation, which will spend all that money within 20 years after neither of us are around any more.'"( Allison, David. "Bill Gates Interview." Interview with Bill Gates. Smithsonian Institution, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. Tweedie, Neil. "Bill Gates Interview: I Have No Use for Money. This Is God's Work." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.). This shows that Gates gives almost all of his money away to charity and only keeps 5% of what he makes to himself and his family. 95% sounds like a lot right?  Well... Yes actually, if you do the math 95% of Bill gates amassed wealth is around 75,240,000,000 which written out is seventy five billion two hundred and 40 million dollars! Still not totally convinced of his huge giving nature? No worries there are plenty more examples of his giving nature including this next one: Melinda and I devote a lot of money and time to finding new and innovative ways to combat deadly diseases. But during a recent visit to Indonesia, I was asked to give something more-my blood. Given the cause, I happily complied. This shows that even though he donates a lot of money he doesn't stop there.  He will do whatever it takes to help the world! It also reveals that Bill truly is devoted to this cause and not just throwing money at it for the publicity. All in all, Bill Gates is a very generous man and there are copious amounts of evidence to back the statement up!

But, above all other criteria, Bill Gates really cares about other people. Although he shows this in everything he does,  sometimes a specific example is needed to show just how caring he can be. As mentioned in the last paragraph he gave blood when he was on a trip in indonesia he gave blood to help people. Well, he did this to help stop the spread of a horrifying disease called dengue. He summed up how devoted and caring he is towards others with this statement: "I learned that firsthand when I agreed to offer a cage of mosquitoes a taste of my own blood. Within just a few minutes my arm swelled up with dozen of bites. It was a small price to pay for an amazing project that has the potential to turn the tide against a terrible disease" (Bill Gates). This truly is a great example of how much Bill cares, because it's one thing to give blood but, it's a whole other thing to be giving the blood by letting hundreds of mosquitoes drain it straight from your arm. But his caring nature certainly does not stop there, he also has made huge sacrifices and has gone out of his way for others. A great example of this is when the foundation opened up an office in Beijing just so that they were able to focus on issues there and be able to see firsthand what they were dealing with and were able to come up with solutions locally (Bill Gates.). They did this not so that it was easier for them, but so it would be quicker to help the people who were in need and they were half a world away. This truly shows how caring and dedicated Mr. Gates is to making the world a better place not just for himself or a few people but for everyone around the world! Bill Gates truly cares for everyone around him rich or poor no matter skin color/religion/sexuality and for that reason he is a hero.

Bill Gates is a great man deserving of recognition more than just the man who reinvented the computer but as the man who struck it rich and gave it all away. He should be remembered as the world's most caring man or, the man who works hard till there is no work left. He is an inspiration to me because he started out as just an average kid in high school who was kind of awkward but, he worked hard towards his dreams and sure enough he was able to accomplish them and not just accomplish but he exceeded them and became the 2nd richest man in the world. But, even after he did all that and he was set for life, he then made a plan to give away 95% of all his fortune away to charities around the world and THAT is truly amazing and inspiring to me.

Works Cited

Cronin, Jon. "Bill Gates: Billionaire Philanthropist." BBC News. BBC, 25 Jan. 2005. Web. 03 Feb. 2016

"Bill Gates." American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography in Context. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

"Bill Gates." Business Leader Profiles for Students. Ed. Sheila Dow and Jaime E. Noce. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Biography in Context. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

"Bill Gates." Business Leader Profiles for Students. Ed. Sheila Dow and Jaime E. Noce. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Biography in Context. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

"William Henry Gates, III." Gale Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Biography in Context. Web. 3 Feb. 2016

Eleftheriou-Smith, Loulla-Mae. "Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg Top List of the World's 20 Most Generous People." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 13 Oct. 2015. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.