SALUTE TO A LEGEND-
This can well be described as a shutdown for a reboot. Yes, a man with his vision can never walk away to the twilight zone,that easily. Yes, I am talking about Bill Gates, who is goilg to step down from Microsoft Corp,bidding audieu to his regular work life in the company. Only a Bill gates can decide to give up a job at the prime executive age of 52 years!
Born on 28, October 1955 to a leading Lawyer- Active Social activist couple,, Bill was introduced to his future fetish in Lakeside Preparatory School,Seattle. Starting off with programming in Basic language, Bill is famed to have programmed a Class Scheduling system for his schoolat the age of 13. Teaming with his school senior,Paul Allen, Bill was “just goofing around with the Computer.” But he was sharp enough to realise the potential of the Computer to change human life for the better. May be his Mother’s philanthropist views egged him to think on those lines. As he wrote in his book, The Road Ahead, he “caught sight of the future and based my career on those lines.I turned out to be right.” Right in such an astounding way.Short of achieving his dream of a PC for every man in the world,he has revolutionised the Personal Computing world, beyond recognition. Even the famed precincts of Harvard Uni failed to hold back this genius. After dropping out of his Uni education,Bill set up Microsoft along with Allen. He also managed to wean away another, who shared his love for Mathematics and Humour, from the business school-Steve Balmer, the CEO of Microsoft!
What a combination the Gates-Balmer-Allen trio turned out to be! The first revolution was when they built the first major Operating system-MS-DOS- for IBM’s new personal computer. Bill’svision made him realise that, Software and nor Hardware would be more important in the PC world and secured rights to licence the OS to other manufacturers . The rest is history , or rather his story.
Microsoft became a Public corporate in 1986, catapulting Bill gates to the title of the youngest-ever, self-made Bilionaire, at the age of 31. His business acumen and visionary skills made Microsoft a house-hold name in all PC-savy homes. Naturally the wealth and challenge brought out the sharp entrepreneur in him,making him, an enemy of even the State. It was not just his business rivals but the Governments in his home country and European Union vied with each other in dragging him into litigations.
When he turned 50, he shocked the world by saying that in two years hence, he would leave the corporate world to take upcahrity work. It sounded more as a cliche. But he wore his heart on his sleeves by saying, ” With success, I have been given great wealth. And with great wealth comes great responsibility….to see that those resources are put to work in the best possible way to help those in need.” Words,that only a Bill gates can probably say with all sincerety.
Today he has kept that word. He has decided to give up the call of his mind for the sakeof the call of his heart. He will soon be spearheading a charity revolution for the needy through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an organisation he is heading saddled with a whopping $37.30 billion corpus. The funds have been contributed by Bill and his wife, Melinda and another like-minded and the world’s richestman, Warren Buffet.The foundation is slated to take up work relating to finding new vaccines and cures to dreaded diseaes and micro fiancning ventures in the developing world. Knowing Bill Gate’s eye for success, we can rest assured that this new venture will be equally succesful, much to the benefit of mankind.
He will continue to be the biggest shareholder of MS Corp and continue as its Chairman but he is pledged to test his tryst with his heart’s call. We can only wish this genius with a golden heart all success in his new venture as well. We can rest assured, this is not a shutdown for him but a Reboot for a better career.
My salutes to this legend.
Popularity: 16%
Leave a Reply