Influential Business Leader - Essay Example

INFLUENTIAL BUSINESS LEADER: BILL GATES “There will be a day, not far distant, when you will be able to conduct business, study, explore the world and its cultures, call up any great entertainment, make friends, attend neighborhood markets, and show pictures to distant relatives- without leaving your desk or armchair. It will be more than an object you carry or an appliance you purchase. It will be your passport into a new, mediated way of life” - Bill Gates. (“Bill Gates: The inspirational leader”; Le’).

The Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has been the richest man and a successful business leader for quite a span of time. His success can be attributed to his unambiguous entrepreneurial quality, “dogged leadership” and of course his “philanthropic” interest. Bill Gates is no doubt the undisputed king of computer sciences and engineering. Born in 1955, he got acquainted with digital computers when he was in the seventh grade and after that he worked on several computer projects. His entrepreneurial ability was evident at a very early stage of his life when he along with his friend Paul Allen founded the company Traf-Data when they were still in school.

In this company they used the Intel 8008 microprocessor to assist in monitoring and controlling the traffic of Seattle. He enrolled at Harvard but he never had a particular study plan so he had dropped out and went ahead with his friend to lay the foundation of his company, Microsoft. The writing of the software program, Altair BASIC, with the help of his friend Allen was the first biggest achievement of Gates. At the time of Bill Gates the knowledge about computers were very much limited. Being a man with creative thinking he took advantage of the situation and became an expert in programming.

His contribution towards the computer industry cannot be questioned. He is also a role model for generations to come as his success stories reveal hard work and “persistence”. (Emdee)Bill Gates’ is also very much known for his philanthropist activities. He has donated money all over the world and had played a major role in reducing poverty and also has helped in the enhancement of better medical facilities. He has also helped in the expansion of education all over the world. He has also donated to aid the aids victims.

According to Forbes Magazine (2004), Bill Gates had been giving $29 billion for charities since 2000 (“Bill Gate’s philanthropy”). Bill Gates’ life had been like a fairy tale. A Harvard drop out to being the world’s richest man is a journey indeed very remarkable. His retirement from Microsoft was pre planned as he wished to give more time to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The man who had taken the computer industry at its zenith has not been free from controversies. He has often accused of being a “merciless competitor” and “an appropriator” of the ideas of others.

(“Bill Gates Retires Amid a Legacy of Growth, Controversy”; Kent).  References “Bill Gate’s Philanthropy”, power of giving, September 18, 2011 from: http://www.power-of-giving.com/bill-gates-philanthropy.htm Emdee, Warner, William H.(Bill) Gates III, NVCC, 2001, September 18, 2011 from: http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his135/Events/gates00/gates.html Kent, Patrick, Bill Gates Retires Amid a Legacy of Growth, Controversy, enterprise-security-today, 2008, September 18, 2011 from: http://www.

enterprise-security-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=121008UARI6KLe’, Patrick, ‘Bill Gates: The inspirational leader’, pdx, 1998, September 18, 2011 from: http://www.wc.pdx.edu/billgates/billy.html