According to an article on Biography.com, Bill Gates was born William Henry Gates III on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. Gates began to show an interest in computer programming at the age of 13 at the Lakeside School, but started to pursue his passion through college.  Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle-class family with two sisters: Kristianne, who is older, and Libby, who is younger.  He wasn’t the smartest kid in school, with grades only at or below average, and he dropped out of high school.  His father, William H. Gates Sr., was not mad because he knew that Bill would strive to have success outside of the classroom.  His father was a law student when he met his future wife, Mary Maxwell. The Gates family atmosphere was warm and close, and all three children were encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence not just in school.  Bill showed early signs of competitiveness when he coordinated family athletic games at their summer house on Puget Sound. He also enjoyed playing Monopoly and Risk, popular games that are still played today.

In 1970, at the age of 15, Bill Gates went into business with his pal, Paul Allen. They developed "Traf-o-Data," a computer program that monitored traffic patterns in Seattle, and netted $20,000 for their efforts according to a CNN article from 2012. After that, Gates and Allen wanted to start their own company, but Gates's parents wanted him to finish school and go on to college where they hoped he would work to become a lawyer. 

From his dorm room in 1975, Gates called MITS, the maker of the world’s first personal computer. He offered to develop software for the MITS Altair. MITS eventually accepted and bought his software for $3,000 plus royalties. Gates then took his first leave of absence from school to start working on the software venture he referred to as Micro-Soft.  Microsoft’s year-end sales exceeded $1 million in 1984.  After his early success, Gates gained a reputation for being tough, but focused.  At age 31, Gates become the youngest billionaire ever. Later, he met his future wife, Melinda French, at a Microsoft event in New York, and got married 7 years later on January 1st, 1994. 
Striking out on his own with his friend and business partner Paul Allen, Gates found himself at the right place at the right time.  According to a business article on Forbes, “Through technological innovation, strong business strategy and aggressive business tactics, he built the world's largest software business, Microsoft. In the process, Gates became one of the richest men in the world.”

Largely on the strength of Microsoft’s success, Gates amassed a huge paper fortune as the company’s largest individual shareholder.  A paper fortune is what the person is worth on paper.  He became a paper billionaire in 1986, and within a decade his net worth had reached over $20 billion which made him by Forbes’ estimates, the world’s richest private individual according to Forbes Magazine. 

Later on June 27, 2008, Gates announced his retirement, and stated that he will pour just as much energy into The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as he did for the Microsoft Cooperation.  After being the richest man on earth for 12 years in a row since 1996, he was surpassed by his friend Warren Buffet and Mexican telecom giant Carlos Slim Helu according to Forbes Magazine.  His total net worth reached $77 Billion in 2009.

Bill Gates will leave an inspiration, and a legacy to millions of other people in the world.  He also published several best-selling books like, Business @ the Speed of Thought, about the interconnectedness of business and technology which anyone can look back on today for inspiration and motivation to achieve success.  The popular ad that stuck with his software company was, “A computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software.”  If it wasn’t for him and his partner, Paul Allen, the computer and several other software technologies probably would not have been invented yet, or at least for quite a while. 

Now he is a retired man, and with the largest private foundation in the world.  He continues to donate to healthcare, education, medicine research, and help the poor people.  The foundation has donated over $31 billion so far, and is not considering slowing down.  One of his famous quotes are, “It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”  When he stated this, he meant that it is important to learn from you mistakes and failures because you can’t improve and have success if you didn’t learn from mistakes.  Bill Gates and his friend made mistakes, but they kept striving to build something better.  This is the true meaning behind success.