William Henry (Bill) Gates

The owner of Microsoft is one of the most productive men in aiding the world to becoming a better place and the second richest man on Earth. Born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955, William H. Gates has become one of the most successful men in the world of business with his Microsoft products booming across the nation. He is one of the first to create BASIC language interpreters for computer operating systems and one of the first to innovate "user-friendly" computers. With his work advancing fruitfully in the name of business, he is one to become one of the most inspirational figures in modern society. This is not just because he has skill and charisma that he has made it so far and became a huge inspiration to individuals across the globe; exhibiting his innovative ideas, benevolence, and his will to overcome difficulties, Bill Gates serves as a huge inspiration to people all over the world.

At a young age, Gates' innovative creativity allowed him to open new doors to new ideas, serving as an inspiration to aspiring creators and hackers everywhere. Still a teenager, Bill had already experienced the wonders of debugging and hacking computer programs: "Soon Gates was hacking, or creating, game programs of his own. The first was a simple tic-tac-toe game. Then he wrote a lunar lander game, in which the player had to land a spaceship on the Moon before running out of fuel. By his mid-teens, Gates was as interested in making money as he was in computer programs. In 1971, as a high school junior at Lakeside, he formed a business with Allen, then a freshman at Washington State University in Pullman. Calling their venture Traf-O-Data, they helped Seattle-area cities control traffic by using a computer to analyze traffic patterns. This small company earned Gates and Allen $20,000 in fees for their services" (Thomas Carson). When still young, Bill Gates and his partner created a program that analyzes traffic data and patterns, which helped the community and earned them lots of money. His ingenious opened a gateway to more opportunities while allowing him to see what he is capable of with his creative ideas and dedication, and he would continue. He decided to further advance his studies in Harvard University, where he had developed a shortcut for interpreting a system's functions: "Gates was a sophomore at Harvard University and Allen was employed by Honeywell when they saw a mockup of the Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) Altair, the first personal computer, pictured on the cover of Popular Electronics. They decided to write a BASIC Interpreter for the Altair and demonstrate it to MITS, which was located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was the first computer language program written for a personal computer" (Scientists: Their Lives and Works). Bill and his partner took the time they had aside from their education to invent a system that interprets an already existing operating system device. Even in these early moments of Bill's aspiration to be a programmer, he is still leading-edge in the field of technology. Gates' early achievements validate that you're never too young to accomplish anything big in life.

Although this is true, Bill still had to face a few bumps in the road on the path to pursuing his dream, but those never stopped him. He was very determined to accomplish what he wanted. At the time he was a kid, his parents expected him to major in law since his father was an attorney: "William Henry Gates III was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, the second child and only son of William Henry Gates Jr., a prominent Seattle attorney, and Mary Maxwell Gates, a schoolteacher. Although his parents wanted him to go into law, Gates developed an early interest in computer science. He began studying computers in the seventh grade at Lakeside School in Seattle." Although his parents wanted him to be studying in the field of law, Bill did not let that get in the way of his captivation for technology. Despite the fact that the two people he looked up to for guidance and support wanted him to study something different, he had too much curiosity over computer science to let that stop him. He kept continuing his studies with computers up until the incident with Cybernet: "While working with the PDP-10, Gates was responsible for what was probably the first computer virus (a program that copies itself into other programs and ruins data). Discovering that the machine was hooked up to a national network of computers known as Cybernet, Gates invaded the network and installed a program on the main computer that sent itself to the rest of the computers on the network. Cybernet crashed. When Gates was found out, he was severely reprimanded and kept away from computers for his entire junior year at Lakeside. Without the lure of computers, Gates made plans for college and law school. The next year, however, he was back helping Allen write a class-scheduling program for the high school's computer." He accidentally sent the virus to the whole Cybernet and was kept away from computers for a year. He would have to put his early career on pause for just a while. Even if he miscalculated, he was still determined to return and try once again because he couldn't give up the job he loves.

Bill Gates also takes consideration for other's who are struggling just trying to find a bite to eat. After achieving the promotion of being the owner of Microsoft, he had decided to put his billions of dollars to better use: "Aside from his fame in the business world, Gates also has distinguished himself as a philanthropist. He and wife Melinda established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focused on helping to improve health care and education for children around the world. Pledges have included $1 billion over 20 years to fund college scholarships for about 1,000 minority students, $750 million over 5 years to help launch the Global Fund for Children's Vaccines, $50 million to help the World Health Organization's efforts to eradicate polio, and $3 million to help prevent the spread of AIDS among young people in South Africa." Being one of the richest men in the world, he couldn't keep all of the money to himself. Instead, he donates an abundant amount of it to these charities. Bill Gates takes these people under consideration and likes to lend a hand to help. Engaging in this activity promoted Bill Gates as a generous man. But, by doing so, he had to put aside his job to devote more of his time to commit to more foundations: "In June of 2006, Gates announced that he would begin to reduce his role in the day-to-day running of Microsoft. He stepped down as the company's chief software architect and announced that he would give up all of his managerial positions at the company in July of 2008. After that point, Gates continued to be Microsoft's chairman and a part-time technical adviser to the company, but he began devoting most of his time to directing the activities of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation." Bill is no longer as active as much as he used to be in the Microsoft Corporation because he took time out of his job to run a foundation of his own to help farmers and poor families all over the world. He is very considerate to put his life-long dream aside to aid in finding a solution for the world's crises.

Being one of the most successful men in his time, Bill Gates insists in assisting others get back on their feet. He is not one to give up when there's a roadblock in the way or a shut door closing the path. He opens the doors, and teaches us that we can too. Portraying creativity, consideration, and determination, Bill inspires us to open doors to new opportunities.