What is Bill Gates net worth?
| Net Worth: | $110 Billion |
| Born: | October 28, 1955 |
| Country of Origin: | United States |
| Source of Wealth: | Business and Investments |
| Martial Status | Married |
Bill Gates is one of the most important names in the world today, mostly due to his status as a one time richest man in the world, and as well as the tremendous work and philanthropy he is known for.
Bill Gates net worth is definitely one of the hottest topics of discussion around the world, especially on social media platforms on a daily basis. This is a normal situation which most people are accustomed to.
While there a huge number of people who generally discuss Bill Gates net worth, his wealth, properties and businesses, are things many don’t know a lot about.
His inclusion among the list of top 20 richest people in the world is definitely not a fluke; his assets and financial capabilities have proven that he’s worthy of that list.
In this article, we will give readers an overview of Bill Gates net worth, early life, career, achievementsm and so many other thing you don’t know about him.
So come with us as we navigate the life of one of the richest man in the world!
Early Life
Bill Gates was born to his parents, William H. Gates and Mary Maxwell Gates on the 28th of October, 1955 in Seattle.
His father was a lawyer while his mother was a member of the First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way of America board of directors.
His siblings include Kristianne and Libby. Bill Gates and his family spent most of his early life in the Sand Point area of Seattle until a tornado wrecked their home when he was just seven years of age.
During his early days, it was obvious to Bill Gates that his parents wanted him to study law as a career. Bill along his family attended the church of Congregational Christian Churches.
As Gates would recall, his parents instilled a spirit of competition within the children, something that made them compete in anything they do together, even as little as swimming to the dock.
Bill Gates attended the Private Lakeside Prep school aged 13. It was during his time in this school that he completed his first software program.
Just like Warren Buffet, who at a very tender age started to develop an interest in business and investing, in no time, Gates became very interested in programming.
This was why he programmed the General Electric computer system in BASIC while being excused from maths class.
His first computer program on this system was a game that has the computer as the opposing player. This game groomed his interest to further continue in programming, as he was intrigued by how the system responded and processed codes perfectly.
Bill Gates and his three friends created the Lakeside Programmers club to allow students extra time on computer in exchange for money.
This is also the early beginning of Bill Gates net worth. A year later, one of his teachers in Lakeside enrolled him and a friend who goes by the name Evans, for the automation of the school’s class scheduling system.
Both students were offered free computer time and royalties in return for their services.
While nearing the conclusion of their junior year, Evans died in a mountain climbing accident; an incident which Bill Gates referred to as one of the saddest days of his life. This forced Bill Gates to turn to Allen to help finish the job.
Years later, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University so as to focus on his software company with the complete support of his parents.
Career
Just like Jeff Bezos in his early years who got super attracted to computers, in January 1975, Bill Gates had the opportunity to read an article on the popular Electronics which had the Altair 8800 on display.
Due to the different needs Bill had at the time, he was forced to contact the Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) to let them know of his BASIC Interpreter for their system.
However, Gates and Allen didn’t work on anything of such, it was just a move to measuring the interest of the MITS.
The president at the time, Roberts, then replied to them with a request for a demonstration of their acclaimed work.
Within a few weeks, both of them were able to develop a program for the Altair Emulator which ran on a mini-computer, as well as the BASIC interpreter.
After the completion of the program, Bill Gates and Allan then proceeded to the MITS office in New Mexico for the scheduled demonstration.
The demonstration turned out to be a great success which impressed Robert. The success of the demonstration resulted in a deal with the MITS for mass production and distribution of the interpreter as Altair BASIC.
This Deal represented a huge amount that kickstarted Bill Gates’s net worth. This development led Bill Gates to take a leave of absence from Harvard in order to solely focus on his work with MITS in 1975.
After Bill Gates returned to MITS full time, Allan made a move to name their partnership “Micro-Soft”, which was derived from a combination of microcomputers as well as Software.
The first person to be employed by the pair is one of their collaborators in school who was referred to as Ric Weiland.
Afterward, the hyphen was eliminated from the company name and was registered duly within a year with the Secretary of state of New Mexico.
This led to Gates being unable to return to Harvard to complete his studies.
Within a few years, Microsoft became the undisputed, world’s largest personal computer software company in the world. From the establishment of the company in 1975 till January 2000, Gates had the role of the company Chairman and CEO.
Despite stepping down in 2000, he still continued to keep his role as the company’s chief software architect.
In the late 90s, Bill Gates was widely criticized by many tech companies for his anti-competitive business tactics. This idea was also supported by many legal proceedings at the time.
Gates made an announcement in 2006 that he would be transitioning into a part-time role at Microsoft, while holding a full-time position at the foundation founded in 2000 by Bill and his wife named Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
It was during this period that he gradually initiated a transfer of his duties and role to Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie.
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He finally stepped down as the Chairman of Microsoft eight years later, taking a new post as a tech adviser to support his successor, Satya Nadella.
After he relinquished his daily activities and role in Microsoft, Gates embarked on numerous journeys as a philanthropist.
Of course, Bill Gates net worth was sky-high at this time, which is why he was able to dish out substantial sums of money to countless charity foundations similar to the one founded by him and his wife.
He has also donated huge sums of money to scientific research programs. A huge collaboration between Bill Gates and Warren Buffet surfaced in 2009 when they joined forces to create ‘The Giving Pledge’.
This foundation’s basic function is to allow other billionaires like them pledge half of their total net worth to charity. Despite that, Bill Gates net worth remained solid.
Bill Gates has been ever-present on the Forbes list of richest people in the world from 1987 to date. No doubt, he’s one of the people that any of the richest footballers in the world want to be like.
He also held the position of the world’s richest person in the world from 1995-2017 by Forbes, until he was displaced by none other than the Amazon Mogul, Jeff Bezos whose net worth stood at $90.6 billion while Bill Gates net worth stood at $89.9 Billion as at 2017.
Bill Gates Net Worth and Highlights
In 2020 however, Bill Gates net worth is estimated at a mind-blowing figure of $110 billion, which still keeps him in the second position behind Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world.
- Presidential Medal of Freedom 2016
- Padma Bhushan 2015
- National Medal of Technology and Innovation 1992
- Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award 2013
- Silver Buffalo Award 2010
- Bambi – Millennium Award 2013
- Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society 1994
- Satellite Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Entertainment New Media 1997
- Bower Award for Business Leadership 2010
In of the Great quotes from Bill Gates, he said; “If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it’s your mistake.” – Bill Gates
Life Lessons From Bill Gates
- Make the world better than you met it. It is an obvious fact we can all confirm from the life and actions of Bill Gates, through his countless, immeasurable ways of philanthropy.
- Always try to make an impact in whichever aspect of life you find yourself.
- According to him, ‘All lives have equal value’. This means we have to treat everyone as equals whether male, female, children, adults, white or black.
- You will only be better when you have the right people around you.
That’s not all, here are 10 more great life and business lessons from Bill Gates, that will inspire you to achieve your dreams.
SUMMARY NOTES
Bill Gates has established himself as a person to be reckoned with in any part of the world through his exemplary life of philanthropy.
Despite Bill Gates net worth being a massive one ever since the early 90s, he has frequently lived a life of impact and always trying to ring positive changes wherever he finds himself.
The exceptional career which he has had spanning almost 3 decades gave Bill Gates worth the mind-blowing lift to become one of the richest persons in the world.
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