William Henry Gates III was born in 1955, the second of three brothers in leading social situation in Seattle, Washington. His father, a lawyer with the firm which had many connections in town, and his mother a teacher, who was active in charitable activities. Bill's a smart boy, but he was too passionate and tend to often get into trouble at school. When he was eleven, his parents decided to make changes and send them to the Lakeside School, a prestigious elementary school specifically for boys. At Lakeside that Gates in 1968 for the first time introduced to the world of computers, in the form of a teletype machine that connected to the phone to a computer time sharing. This machine, called the ASR-33, the situation is still the market. In essence this is a typewriter that students can enter into it commands sent to the computer; answers back to the roll of paper typed on the teletype. This process is inconvenient, but changing the lives of Gates. He quickly mastered the BASIC computer programming language, and together with the hackers who taught himself at Lakeside, he spent time with hours and hours writing a program, play a game, and generally learn a lot about computers. "He was a 'nerd' (eccentric)," as one of the teachers gave the surname Gates. Around the year 1975 when Gates with Paul Allen while still in school together to prepare the first software program for the micro-computer. As a story in Popular Electronics about the "era of computers in homes" and they both believe is the future of software. This is the beginning of Microsoft. Communication is simple: Paul and Gates talk about coke and pizza. No one really pay attention to our opinion. Everything changed in the last two decades. Gates still loves junk food, but he also spent two hours a day to read and respond to electronic mail sent Microsoft's 15,000 employees. Besides a lot of emails from outside Microsoft. Questions ranged from how the experience of a family (menyenangkan!), what I liked the movie (Schindler's List and Shadowlands), to the complex questions that must first open the book to be able to answer (and just happened to also write a book!). The problem, Gates spent the day answering emails and speak or manage his company. Gates tried to run both, but he was not much opportunity to communicate with diverse groups and a lot of emails that never got answered. Gates was so glad to write this article because it is through him to communicate with a more diverse group without teredit into pieces or filtered by one's perception. Reality, not all questions submitted via email. Sometimes people intercepted at airports or Gates pressed him to answer questions on computer fairs or school children sent letters to him. A student recently asked an important question for him. He wanted to know is not something that is very philosophical, as you might expect for example the free market economy. He just wanted to know, "whether Gates was too late foray into the software industry and build a company and then become rich?". Gates was pleased to have the question and the answer is always the same, "It's time to go into business software." Gates did not say you can build other Microsoft. But at least you can get a sales turnover of two million dollars a year by selling 10,000 copies of products worth 200 U.S. dollars. Not bad and it can happen anytime. Because Gates remembers how to pull start a software company, he also enjoys other people's success stories. Small software companies always start slowly. The company initiated a person who has an idea. He is, man or woman, looking for some friends who know how to make their programs and then dreaming up a product. There are so many works of art that they do because they care about the job. Usually they make a product for one customer and because the results are satisfactory, they soon got other buyers. If you want to start a company, its main strategy find the right social environment. Forget wanting to create a word processing program to write, or spreadsheet program to analyze financial, or other primary products that rival many. Instead, create a product that can help users to do specific jobs or can provide practical information in areas such as pharmaceuticals, insurance, accounting, architecture or the administration. Software like that bring a small fortune. If you are not satisfied with a little luck, you should come to the stage of the transition generation. This time, expensive and risky. Every few years a new generation of technology give way. Remember the advent of IBM PC in the early 1980's. Microsoft is betting the IBM PC would become important. Then Microsoft created MS-DOS operating system for IBM PC. The result became a pioneer in the Microsoft operating system software. No one ever heard of the Lotus to carry out a brilliant idea-generation change in the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet to create the first designed specifically for the IBM PC. Apple's Macintosh and Microsoft Windows is the next winner, when the world wanted the graphics processing and leave the old program that displays only the text. To get a big win, you must concentrate on generational change, something that large firms are ignored. And the stakes are very expensive. Recently a number of entrepreneurs speculating software that can be used by computer users how to write by hand - no longer pressing on the letters - will be a new generation of existing spreadsheet software word processors. They started creating new products that they think will win the competition. They were wrong. A great speculation. What should I recommend to a student who wants to become self-employed software? Learn the strands of a company that already exists. Find your own social environment. Get in touch with venture capital. Find a smart person. And do not forget the coke and pizza. Believe me, there will be plenty of work in the late evening.
