William Henry Gates III, born on October 28, 1955, was a brilliant boy growing up. But, he grew up as an odd young man and his mother wondered if he was extremely brilliant or had a mental problem. At one time, she even took him to a psychiatrist, who told her there was nothing wrong with Bill, he was just difficult and very bright, and she would have to learn to adjust.
In 1967 he started attending Lakeside Middle School in Seattle, Washington. He was very bright and capable of doing well in school, but he said if he wasn't challenged he became bored and did not excel. Lakeside Middle school got their first computer for the students to use when Bill was in the eighth grade. Here he met a young man named Paul Allen who was 2 years older than him, but shared the same passion for computers. They were considered to be computer nerds, spending hours and hours working on computers, and developing computer programs. At the young age of 14, Bill Gates, who was already farther ahead than his teacher, programmed his first computer game, tic-tac-toe, where the person could actually play against the computer. This was an amazing accomplishment, to have a single player game that was meant for two. This was history in the making, and, I think, Bill Gates, who is known as a visionary, knew that this was the start of something big.
Later, in 1970, Gates and Allen started their own computer company,
Traf-O-Data, analyzing traffic for small towns. In 1973, as a senior in high school, Gates got a job as a computer programmer for a company called TRW in Vancouver, Washington.
Bill Gates started college at Harvard University in 1974, where he met his future vice president, Steve Ballmer, who was his roommate at the time.
Paul Allen, who lived near the University, bought an electronics magazine at Harvard Yard that was advertising what was said to be the first PC. Bill, a Harvard sophomore, and Paul knew that these machines would become very popular and they needed to be involved. Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a version of BASIC to program the very first personal computer, the Altair 8800, and started their business, first called Micro-Soft. In August of 1977, Bill took a leave of absence from Harvard and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to work full time with Micro-Soft. They were able to provide software for PC's and then began to write programs for other PC companies. Bill Gates was 19 years old and this was the beginning of Microsoft.
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