A story first.
In early 1975, 19-year-old Bill Gates and his friend Paul Allen saw the Altair 8800 computer kit on a magazine cover. They called the maker and said they had a BASIC that ran on it — before they'd written a line of code.
They then worked around the clock for about eight weeks. Allen flew out to demo it; reportedly it was the first time the program ran on real hardware, and it worked on the first try.
That April they founded Microsoft, and later set out a vision that sounded almost absurd at the time: a computer on every desk and in every home.
Gates was born in Seattle on Oct 28, 1955. He turns 71 today.
3 takeaways:
• Spot the trend early: they bet on software when personal computers had barely appeared.
• Say yes — then deliver: the bold claim only worked because of eight weeks of hard work. (Maybe don't try "promise first" at home.)
• Make time to think: Gates has long taken "Think Weeks" to read and reflect.
Then it was a computer on every desk. Now it may be an AI partner on every computer.
Who's the most influential tech figure for you?
(Some images are AI-generated.)
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