Biography of Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III

Born	October 28, 1955 (age 55) Seattle, Washington, USA
Residence	Medina, WA
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University (dropped out in 1975)
Occupation	Chairman of Microsoft (non-executive) Chairman of board of Corbis Co-Chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Director of Berkshire Hathaway CEO of Cascade Investment
Net worth	US$54 billion (2010)
Spouse	Melinda Gates (1994–present)
Children	3
Parents	William H. Gates, Sr. Mary Maxwell Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.

Investments

• Cascade Investments LLC, a private investment and holding company, incorporated in United States, is controlled by Bill Gates, and is headquartered in the city ofKirkland, WA.
• bgC3, a new think-tank company founded by Bill Gates.
• Corbis, a digital image licensing and rights services company.
• TerraPower, a nuclear reactor design company.

BILL GATES' SPEECH TO MT. WHITNEY HIGH SCHOOL in Visalia, California.

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nails on the head with this!

To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair -- get used to it !

Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplishsomething BEFORE you feel good about yourself. 

Rule 3 : You will not make $60,000 a year right out of high school.You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from    

               paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you                  

                 are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. 

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners  and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they  

         have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.