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Eng. 102 Research Paper 11: The Gates Influence William Henry Gates III is certainly one of the best-known personalities of the last decade. In these days, his name is more than ever a synonym for technologic and economic achievement, built systematically and skillfully through the fourth generation of modern computers. Gates, as a young Washington State eighth-grader, first approached computers in the late '60s when he teamed up with his school friend Paul Allen for an unusual pastime: testing and crashing early computing devices of the early-BASIC era. As Gates' father recalls, his son and Paul Allen would literally spend days and nights at a nearby company, testing and debugging the company's new computer (Isaacson). In those days the young Gates was in constant disagreement with his mother Mary, and the computer was probably the best justifiable way to solve his problems. Mary was quite authoritative, and Gates didn't like that. Yet, she soon came to accept the fact he was stronger than her, and that there was no way she could tell him what to do because he was extremely determined. Whatever happened would have never stopped him from thinking that way. Walter Isaacson of Time describes Bill Gates by saying, "His success stems from his personality" and I agree completely with him. I like to think of Bill Gates as a leader rather than a follower because of the constant competitiveness that
originates from his Pink Floydian dark side. Despite the fact he was a shy person when he was a child, he apparently managed to shift his hidden potentials with skill and intelligence to make a winner of himself, almost a symbol of self-built achievement. He has always been a strong-willed person, and he has always known what he wanted because of his hard-driven personality. Gates is one of the most influential personalities of the last decades and "does not deserve moral credit for giving away his wealth, but for having produced it in the first place," comments Andrew Bernstein of Knight- Ridder/Tribune News Service. He had a tremendous, positive impact on American and world economies, and people should realize that this had a beneficial effect on everybody. He created Microsoft, a company that now employs 27,000 people in sixty countries and that literally changed the way people do business. Thanks to the introduction of Microsoft Office applications, he revolutionized people's life and contributed to the dramatic change in the way computers were used just a few years ago. According to Michael J. Miller of PC Magazine, "[Microsoft's] greatest success has been moving the entire PC industry from the character-oriented world of DOS to the graphical world of Windows." Up until a few years ago, the computer was a useful tool for businesses. Yet, the major problem was that it was useful only if you knew how to use it. By that time, since computers were strictly based on DOS and similar operating systems, only a relatively small elite was able to take advantage of that kind of technology. Notwithstanding, Microsoft and Gates envisioned a new way of using computers and gave birth to Windows with the
products and that their products are good. When Microsoft was a small company and IBM ruled the market, I would bet nobody had a feeling of sympathy for the tiny Microsoft. According to David Moschella of Computerworld, "The strategic errors of competitors have been a huge part of the Microsoft story." This is completely ridiculous! According to Moschella's opinion, Microsoft's success was primarily determined by mistakes of rival companies. It sounds as if Microsoft survived through the years because its competitors were plain stupid and were not able to keep their ideas secret. Through the years, Microsoft made its way into the business because the company had the smartest CEO and the best employees. Now, if Microsoft rivals can't keep up with Gates, somebody better find smarter people to employ (I don't see any other reasonable alternative). As far as money, Gates has frequently been criticized for his donations over the last years as well. Since the early '80s, after IBM's failure to retain exclusive rights on a product that Microsoft bought from a local company, Gates has been accumulating a huge fortune that is now valued over $107 billion, which means that he is the second richest man in the world (after the Sultan of Brunei). His first philanthropic gift was a modest $200 million check for computers in poor areas (Alter). The public and the press criticized the act, as Jonathan Alter of Newsweek notes, "as a self-interested--more Microsoft marketing." As far as I am concerned, Gates can do whatever he wants with his money. He can donate a few million dollars here and there and, if he wants, he can also burn his money. People shouldn't worry about what he does. After all, even if it's easy for him to
be generous with a $107 billions in his pockets, Gates has the right to spend his money anyway he likes it because he made the money, and he deserves it. I'm pretty sure that the majority of people that criticize Bill Gates are just envious and believe that money and success are granted to everybody. Unfortunately none of them understands the fact that success is not that easy and, if you want to succeed in life and be successful, you have to play the game, play hard, and play to win.
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