Money and Career of Bill Gates - Essay Example

The essay aims to proffer Bill Gates’ views on the abovementioned concerns.

Money and Career
Bill Gates, his profound and innate passion for computers made him decide to drop out of Harvard to possibly pursue a career in law. This same drive for computers, particularly software development, catapulted him to fame and fortune. Being pegged as the second wealthiest man by Forbes in 2010, Bill Gates was revealed to have a net worth of $53 billion (Kroll & Miller, 2010). His life manifested an entrepreneurial spirit focusing on doing things that he loved the most. In so doing, his efforts were repaid in multitudes. According to Net Industries (2011), “Gates’ competitive drive and fierce desire to win have made him a powerful force in business, but have also consumed much of his personal life. In the six years between 1978 and 1984 he took a total of only two weeks’ vacation” (Net Industries, 2011, par. 12).

Sexuality, Family and Friends
Information about views on sexuality was revealed in Top Synergy (2003) as quoted: “Bill's emotional life seems to be overly intense and his sexuality is very strong. Bill Gates is likely to make many demands of his partner and he has to guard against possessiveness, jealousy, and a tendency to force someone to love him” (Top Synergy, 2003, par. 7). Bill and Melinda had been married for 17 years and were blessed with three children (Global Oneness, n.d.).

Sheri and Bob Stritof (2011) reported Melinda as stating “I think it's very important that we instill in our kids that it has nothing to do with their name or their situation that they're growing up in; it has to do with who they are as an individual ... "I think we've got the right set-up for them. They have a lot of close friends... they have a lot of close family. I think we're doing the best we can at providing them with a normal environment" (Stritof, 2011, par. 23).

Bill Gates, in an interview with David Allison of the National Museum of American History, revealed his close friends as school friends, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer, and Kazuhiko Nishi, from Japan (Bill Gates Interview, n.d.).

Suffering and Death
Spouses Bill and Melinda Gates, through their foundation, seek to alleviate poverty and improve the health of people from diverse cultural orientations hoping to minimize the incidents of suffering and death. As averred, their program on “the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases is working to end global suffering and death from neglected tropical diseases by expanding access to low-cost and proven treatments. While most of these diseases have little name recognition in industrialized countries, together they cause severe disability in the world's poorest countries and result in billions of dollars of lost productivity. The new grant announced today aims to end the suffering of more than 1.4 billion people worldwide who live on less than $1.25 per day” (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2009, par. 4).

Comparison to Christianity
According to Stritof (2011), “Melinda is Catholic. Bill's family was Congregationalist” (par. 17). In the website Jesus is Savior, David Frost who interviewed Bill Gates in 1995 revealed that “I'm not somebody who goes to church regularly. The specific elements of Christianity are not something I'm a huge believer in. There's a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion. I think it can have a very, very positive impact… In terms of doing things, I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don't know if there's a god or not, but I think religious principles are quite valid” (Jesus, 1995, pars. 2 & 4).

Comparison with Personal View
Bill Gates is such an extraordinary person in terms of the magnanimity of his accomplishments. His views on money and career are antithetical to traditional views of emphasizing the need to get a degree as a prelude to a successful career. His sheer talent, drive, and passion for his endeavor are instrumental to his phenomenal fame and fortune.

The same drive pushed him to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort on his career. Although he has a productive personal life, his focus remains on the organizations he built. Only recently did he change his thrust from entrepreneurial activities to philanthropic activities in response to taking a proactive stance on solving the world’s toughest problems such as “extreme poverty and poor health in developing countries, the failures of America’s education system” (Bill & Melinda, 2011, par. 2).

Despite having neither particular religious orientations nor belief in Christianity, Bill’s character and personality, as well as his mission and vision in life, as manifested in their foundation, exemplify an unselfish pursuit to improve the lives of others through the money he generated from his entrepreneurial activities.
If given the chance, I would share the blessing received to those who are in most need. Bill Gates’ life Read More