50 billion dollars, that’s a lot of change. Ever wonder who has that much money? The answer is bill gates, the wealthiest man in America. Bill Gates got all his money from cofounding the most widely used software company in the world, Microsoft. Throughout his life Bill Gates has turned challenges into achievements, hardships into success which makes him a very interesting and admirable person.
As a child bill grew up like any normal boy, he was raised in a well off home in Seattle, Washington which gave him the opportunity to explore his interests (biographys.com). Though he explored other hobbies and interests he stuck with computers. His parents had a law career planned for him, but he was far more interested in computer science and began studying them in the 7th grade (notable bios). Bill attended a public school at first but his parents felt that he can do better at a private school, so his parents enrolled him in Lakeside School. At Lakeside Bill met Paul Allen a classmate who shared the same interests in technology. Sharing the same interests their friendship grew stronger. During their time together Bill and Allen realized the potential they have with computers and how they can be at the forefront of new technology. This shows how at a young age Bill knew what he wanted and began pursuing his dream.
Bills early experiences with computers began in the seventh grade when his schools mothers club bought a teletype for the students. Bill was entranced with it and spent as much time as he can working with it. Bill was so devoted to computers he even wrote a tic-tac toe program in BASIC computer language that allowed the user to play against the computer (biography.com). As time passed he became more and more interested in computers. While in high school Bill and Paul Allen helped as aids in the technology department and spent as much time as they can in it. During their time in high school Bill and Allen offered most of their time to the computer science teacher and even wrote a scheduling program for the school. Later bill began debugging programs for the computer corporations PDP-10, and helping computerize power grids for the Bonneville power administration (biography.com). While at the computer centers PDP-10 Bill was responsible for the first computer virus. The virus copied itself to other computers and ruined data. This resulted in the computers crashing and Bill being banned for a while. This shows Bills commitment to computers and his laying of groundwork for his future.
After high school Gates went to Harvard University in 1973 where he studied general courses for two years. After being punished for the virus Gates steered away from computers for a while until his friend Paul Allen showed him an advertisement for a 350 dollar microcomputer. Bill then came to the conclusion that he wanted to be at the forefront of computer software design and be the person to make the software for that computer (notable bios). Gates then dropped out of Harvard and devoted all of his time to Microsoft. Gaining popularity Gates and Allen in 1980 were offered a job from IBM called project Chess. This resulted in MS-DOS which was a success. Gates convinced other manufacturers to run MS-DOS as an industry standard (investingvalue). By 1990 Microsoft sold more than 100 million copies of MS-DOS which made them a leader in software. This shows how Gates made himself a success by never giving up.

In his life Bill Gates didn’t settle for less and chased his dreams and interests rather than others interests for him. This shows how as an individual anybody can become successful as long as they do what they love and never give up. People can look at Gates and work to be as successful as him which makes him a standard for success and a role model.