The celebrity gallery - Bill Gates

Bill Gates Time of birth:
28.10.1955 22:00:00
Time zone: -8
(forced Black Mercury)
William Henry Gates III (Bill Gates) (28.10.1955) – an American entrepreneur and social activist, a philanthropist, one of the founders and former major shareholder of Microsoft. He was the head of the company until June 2008. After leaving the position he remained non-executive chairman of the board of directors. He is also a co-chairman of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway, a CEO of Casade Investment.

Interesting facts

The Aggressive Policy (The Black Mercury, The White Mars)
Understanding the success of the enterprise, the top management of Microsoft is striving to take a larger piece all the time, and it is manifested in their aggressive marketing policy. Microsoft started a war with the manufacturer of an Internet browser Netscape in the mid-1990s because it decided that the whole world should use only its own browser, Internet Explorer, and therefore the latter was included in the next version of Windows. American antitrust authorities lost their patience and sued Microsoft in 1998, accusing the corporation in an unfair treatment of competitors and consumers. Gates, who left the position of CEO of Microsoft and became the head of the board of directors and the "chief software architect" (the name of the position he invented himself) was summoned for questioning by the judge, who was questioning him for 17 hours. The present people characterized Bill’s behavior as evasive and hostile, he was devious and maundering, finding fault with insignificant details (in particular, demanding clarification of such terms as "to compete", "to ask" and "we") and leading the conversations away from important matters. Answering to the most sensitive questions, Gates replied "I do not remember" so often that the judge himself started to grin. However the prosecutors stress that Gates "did not remember" mainly threats to the competitors and dishonest business moves. These may be easily confirmed by numerous emails Gates sent or received.

The Leadership (The White Mars, The Black Venus)
Gates has an exceptional charisma. His style, attitude to work and constant striving for perfection have been fundamental factors in success, although did not always add the popularity of his personality. Gates knows perfectly the character of the business, moreover, he knows his business not "in general", and he is an expert in all its fine points. He discusses quantum physics and genetic engineering with experts on equal terms. As one of his assistants said, "Bill is not afraid of intelligent people. He is afraid of fools". The boss’s temper determines the personnel policy of "Microsoft". People are hired with regard to their IQ and "intellectual horizons". Bill serves as a role model for it. Gates prefers to hire brilliant, though inexperienced "young brains" not overloaded with experience. They are called "Bill’s clones". Gates's approach to people is utilitarian. He can conduct long intellectual talks with someone, but "forgets" to ask, if a person has a family or children. The latter doesn’t care him.

The Writer (The White Mars, The White Jupiter)
Gates was writing his book "The Road Ahead" for several years. It cannot be fully called an autobiography, although readers will be able to learn a lot of interesting things about Bill’s life. The author reveals his perspective on the basics of the computer science, where his gift was manifested brilliantly, despite he left Harvard. Gates writes understandably, thus the readers who are not close to IT sphere will understand what he says and what he tries to convey. An important message from the author – one should not aim at inevitable success at once. Only hard work, proper goal setting and constant movement to achieve them will allow to reap the fruits of success.

The Workaholic (The Black Moon)
Gates is a real workaholic, who does not imagine the life without his brainchild, the Microsoft company, which in many ways has become a part of him. It is very difficult for him to break down the usual working rhythm and the environment, thus he often neglects the rest, considering it "an evidence of weakness". He says that sometimes he really works until 4 a.m., but in general, the media exaggerate it. Trying to prove that his work is just the daily grind, Gates described his typical day: "I mostly work until midnight with a break for lunch in the company with someone from the staff. Then I go home and read a book or magazine "The Economist" for about an hour. I usually come back to the office at nine o'clock of the next day". Gates acts as if his life is absolutely natural and he truly believes that the mass media gives too much importance to his "obsession" and "relentless". Bill also is not afraid to ask for help or advice. He says: "I consult with my father, with Warren (Buffett), with my wife... I am surrounded by a lot of people who know me and know where my judgments are not very strong, when I am too passionate about something or forget to think about something. They help me to fill in the white spots. I think it is good to give a credit of trust to your nearest and dearest. You can always ask a narrow circle of people for advice concerning the key things".

The Luxury lover (The Black Venus, The Black Moon)
The house, where the billionaire Bill Gates lives is packed with the most modern electronics and cost, according to some sources, $ 125 million. It is situated on the shores of Lake Washington and has an area of ​​40 thousand square feet. It consists of three linked pavilions made of glass and pine wood. There is a garage for 30 cars on a hill. Bill’s first car, a museum "Mustang", is placed in a corner of the garage. The Olympic Mountains are seen from the reception hall. The central hall is a library (Gates bought some cultural values for it, the collection of works by Leonardo da Vinci "Codex Leicester" is among them). A huge dome with wooden inlays is hanged above the hall. A trampoline is placed next to the library. Gates likes to jump on it, believing that the trampoline, as well as a rocking chair, encourages the concentration of thought. There is also a swimming pool, a Japanese bath and a trout lake.

The Obsessed programmer (The Black Sun)
The mankind knows Bill Gates as the richest man in the world, who earned capital using his own mind. However, the success did not come to him at once. He had serious problems with grammar, social studies and other subjects, which he considered trivial at school. He explained that by the computer mania in his memoirs. He was programming all his spare time. Every week, Bill spent 20-30 hours in the computer lab. The difficulties overtook him at Harvard University - Gates was expelled when he was the second year student. Trouble brought further success. The future billionaire spent even more time to the programming. The Microsoft company was founded two years later. Two decades later, Bill Gates has earned more than $ 50 billion on it, having employed more than 78,000 people in 105 countries around the world. Bill Gates made history as the youngest billionaire, who reached it himself (his wealth on the stock market in the beginning of 1992 was estimated at $ 7.4 billion). In the early '90s, Gates said: "Ultimately, the PC will become a window to everything that interests people, and everything that we need to know".

The object of criticism (The White Saturn, The Jupiter White)
Bill Gates is not very popular among many people, especially among programmers. It is possible to find a wealth material about Gates on the pages of the Internet, and 90 percent of them are humiliating, abusive and revelatory. The civilized world, accustomed to free choice, does not want to be imposed by any single standard. In addition, according to popular belief, Gates does not fully deserve what he has. He is certainly a talented programmer, but he is not a genius, he runs business unethically and has a harsh temper... And taking into account all of this, he still considers himself a benefactor of the mankind, though on closer examination many found a lot of doubtful points in his strategy of charity. However, it seems that this emotional "burden" does not bother Bill, and it requires a great inner strength too.