"When people tell you the inspirational story of Bill Gates," "when they tell you how talented and hardworking Bill Gates is," you really can't doubt his talent or hard work. But a part of his story is never told to the people. "Had you been in Bill Gates' place," "and even if you were equally talented and hardworking as Bill Gates," you still would not have achieved what he has. Why am I saying this? "Come, let's find out." """So, you're the wealthiest man in the world for 20 years in a row...""" """Microsoft hit a new record high on Wall Street...""" """He'll do whatever he can to capture more of the market.""" """You were the youngest person to become a billionaire, is that right?" "Yeah, in terms of earning it on my own.""" "Hello, friends!" "Seattle, Washington: 1967." "An eighth-grader, Bill, gets a hold of a computer." This wasn't a computer like the ones we're familiar with. "It was the Teletype Model 33 ASR of the time," connected through phone lines to the computers of the General Electric Company. But this surprised young Bill. The possibilities of the computer. Bills started spending hours trying to figure out the computer. He developed his first program on the computer. "Fast-forwarding to some years later," Bill Gates became the richest man in the world. He remained the richest person for about 20 years. "Today, he's the fourth richest with a wealth of $124 billion." Let's start at the beginning. "At 12-years-old, Bill Gates was studying at Lakeside School." A private school in Seattle. "At school, he had some friends who were equally passionate about computers." "Kent Evans, Bill Gates' first best friend." "Paul Allen, a tenth-grader." And Rick Weiland. The four of them started the Lakeside Programmers Group. He tried to come up with ways to use the computer outside school too. "In Seattle, there was a small company called Computer Center Corporation."
They rented out computers by the hour. "A year later, in 1968," Bill and his friends started visiting this
store to use the computers. But the cost
to do this was quite high. This store
charged $40 to use a computer for an hour.
So Bill and his friends started looking for bugs in the operating system
of CCC. "They found the loopholes
in the computer system," and tried
to exploit those for more computer time.
"When they were caught,"
they were banned by the store. "But
next summer," this small company
thought of using these kids to look for
bugs in the system. "They said that
they could use the computers for free,"
if they kept on identifying the problems in the system. "Here, Bill Gates learnt several
programming languages." "Fortran,
Lisp..." But soon this small store
went out of business. "Again, these
kids were left with no means to access computers." Then they found a company in Portland. Called Information Sciences Inc. "This company allowed them to use their
computers for free too," as long as
they wrote a programme for the company. "It
was a payroll programme," it helped
them learn more about taxes and payrolls.
"By then, their school had recognised their talents," "and so in 1971, Bill Gates and his best
friend, Kent Evans were told" to
write a programme for the school. They
had to make class schedules on the programme.
"They worked hard on the programme," "but on a weekend, Kent Evans went on a
holiday to the hills," "and
unfortunately, he died after falling off of a cliff." This accident shocked Bill. But he didn't stop working. "He continued working with his other
friend, Paul Allen." He was in
college by then.
"In 1972, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded their first
company, Traf-o-Data." They were
interested in technology and business both.
They wanted to develop a program that
could process the traffic on the roads. So
that they could sell it to the traffic department. "Though they worked hard on it, it
didn't turn out very successful. " "The
next year, in 1973," Bill Gates
graduated from high school. He takes the
SAT and scores exceedingly well. 1590
out of 1600. "With this, he gets
admission to Harvard." One of the
best universities in America. "By
then, Paul was quite bored of attending classes at the university." So he moved to Boston and started working
with Honeywell Corporation. He advised
Bill to start working with him at Honeywell.
"So in 1974, both were working for Honeywell Corporation." "One day, while Paul was going
somewhere," he came across a
magazine stall. Which carried the magazine
Popular Electronics. The picture on the
front page of the magazine was of Altair
8800. The first personal computer in the
world. It had the Intel 8080 processor. Paul bought the magazine and ran to show it
to Bill Gates. Paul was trying to tell
Bill Gates for quite some time that the
size of the computer chips was getting exponentially smaller. While their speed and power were
exponentially increasing.
And it was only a matter of time before a computer was built that was so small
that it could be used as a personal
computer. There was a live example on
the front page of the magazine. Someone
had built the computer before Bill Gates and Paul. The company that made this computer was Mits. Paul and Bill called up the company and told them that the two of them would like
to write software for them. The most
popular programming language at the time was Basic. So they wanted to write software for the
computer in Basic. "Paul had to
relocate to another city," while
Bill dropped out from Harvard. They
built a Basic version and sold it to Altair.
"The company was so pleased with the work that they offered a job
to Paul," "But by then, Paul
was running his consultancy." Micro-Soft. It was later renamed to one word; Microsoft. "They had several contracts from Texas
Instruments," a Japanese company; But Microsoft got its first big break when they provided DOS operating system for
IBM Computers. "In the meanwhile,
the team of Microsoft was working on a new operating system. " "In November 1983," they announced their new operating system. Windows 1.0
Though it was officially launched later in 1985. "Before we move ahead since we're
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topic now. "Next year, in March
1986," Microsoft launched their
IPO. With Goldman Sachs as their Book
Running Manager. The IPO price was set
at $21/share. "And after the first
day of trading," their share price
had reached $28. And they never had to
look back since. Microsoft went on to be
extremely successful. Windows 98 was
launched. "As we all know, their
software reached all nooks and crannies in the world," their computers were astoundingly successful. You might find this story very inspirational. "A super-intelligent boy," "who's passionate about something," "works hard on it," "thinks out of the box,"
"and even drops out of his college to pursue his
dream," builds a company that gets
immensely successful. This boy becomes
the richest man in the world. Isn't it a
motivational story? An inspirational
story. "If Bill Gates could do it,
why can't you?" "But friends,
as I told you at the beginning of the Blog,"
there's a twist in our story. What
is it? It is the twist of Privilege. How privileged was Bill Gates? Let me explain what I mean in points. "As you'll understand, you find
that" "had you been in Bill
Gates' place," "and were as
talented and hardworking as Bill Gates,"
even then you couldn't have been as successful as him. Why? "Come,
let's see." "First: had Bill
Gates been a woman," it wouldn't
have been possible. "Because during
the 1960s," there was significant
gender discrimination in the USA. "Did
you know that in the 1960s," a bank
could refuse to give a credit card to a woman?
"Even if the woman was married," her husband's signature was needed.
"In many states of the US, women couldn't serve on the
jury." "In 1961, the Supreme
Court of the US," "upheld a
Floridian law," preventing women
from serving on the jury. "Women
weren't allowed to take birth control pills," it was allowed only after the historic
judgement in the US in 1972. 1963's
Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women stated that "for every dollar that a man
earns," "if a woman does the
same job and the same work, she earns 59 cents. " "It was in 1964," the US passed a law preventing gender
discrimination against women. "And
perhaps a more important point," "during
the 1960s, almost all Ivy League universities" didn't grant admission to women. Women weren't even allowed to enter Harvard's
library till 1967. "Till 1977, the
male to female ratio was at 4:1." Women
had to be four times as smart as men to get admission to the same university. "Harvard had a sister school for
women," Radcliffe College. It didn't give the female students the same
privileges that the male students got. "It
was shut down only in 1999," "and
a common Harvard School was set up,"
where male and female students could get admission without any
discrimination.
"Second: had Bill Gates been black," it wouldn't have been possible. "Because the Civil Rights Act was passed
in 1964," "before this, the
""blacks"" weren't allowed to enter in" "restaurants, cinema halls, churches or
schools." "Even in busses,
they had to sit in designated
corner," while the buses used to be
reserved for the whites. People of
colour weren't even allowed to vote in several southern states. "In 1968, when Bill Gates and Paul
Allen" "were working on their
computers in the Computer Centre Corporation," "Martin Luther King was
assassinated," because he was
fighting for the rights of the people of colour. "Throughout the 1960s," there were several riots for Black Rights. Over racial discrimination. Third: had Bill Gates been born in some other
country. Or even in another US city. It might not have been possible. Bill and Paul lived in a developed country a developed city in a developed country. "Had Bill Gates been born in
India," he might not have seen a
computer before he turned 30. Because
mass-scale adoption of computers was seen in India after 1985. "But even if we talk about
America," Seattle was an advanced
city for computers. Computer technology
reached this city in the 1960s.
The programming language Basic was invented in this city. "The computer that Bill and Paul were
using at the CCC store," "was
one of the first commercial systems,"
to be available in the country. "Fourth:
even if you were a white male living in Seattle, don't get your hopes up," because not everyone living in Seattle had an
access to computers. Bill and Paul both
were studying at a top-notch private school.
The middle-class people couldn't send their kids to the Lakeside School. "Not only were they getting a good
quality education at the school," but
they were also getting access to the computers.
"When Bill Gates experienced computers for the first time in
1965," "there were only about
22,000 computers all across America."
While the population of America was 200 million. Fifth: the influence of parents. "Paul Allen's father Ken," he was the Associate Director at the Library
of the University of Washington. "Because
of this, Paul could access the books on computers." Bill Gates' parents were also on the
governing body of the university. "When
the CCC store went bankrupt," Paul
and Bill went to their parents for help and
they got access to the university's graduate computing centre at Robert's Hall.
There they worked with various
computers. It was here that they saw the
first computer game of their lives. "Again,
I'd like to repeat what I said in the Blog on nepotism," "it isn't a criticism," any parent would want to help their kids in any way possible.
"So Paul and Bill got their parents' help," an advantage.
"Later in his life, Paul built a library" "and a computer centre," and named the library after his father for
this reason. Bill Gates too got an
advantage of his father's profession. Bill
Gates's father was a lawyer. "Officially
registering Microsoft," "renting
a space," "hiring
people," "fighting legal
battles against Altair," "these
would have been very difficult for a common man," "but because his father was a
lawyer," Bill Gates could get a lot
of legal help from his father. "On
a related note," not everyone can
afford to drop out of college. Bill and
Paul could afford this because they had
their family's wealth as a reserve. "There's
another man in our story, Monte Davidoff."
"When Paul and Bill were working on Altair's Basic software," a crucial part of the software was written by
Monte. "But when Paul and Bill
offered Monte a permanent job at Microsoft," Monte refused to drop out of college.
"He said that his father had a small hardware
store," so he couldn't afford to
take such a big risk. He had to get a
college degree. And thus it is a very
important point. Not everyone can afford
to drop out of college. Next point: a
major turning for Microsoft was when
they got a contract from IBM. "Till
then, Microsoft was a small company."
But how did they get this contract?
There's an interesting story to it.
The Chairperson of IBM at the time was John Opel. He was also a board member of a non-profit
organisation United Way. A co-member of
the board of this organisation was Mary Maxwell Gates. Bill Gates' mother. She talked to Opel about Microsoft. "As Microsoft's competition, there was a
big company called Digital Research. "
It was much bigger than Microsoft.
IBM wasn't able to negotiate properly with it. "So when Mary suggested Microsoft," IBM's Chairman decided to give a chance to
Microsoft. "This chance that
Microsoft got, was immensely important."
They may not have gotten this chance if Mary Gates was on the same
board. "Not only this,
friends," "there's another
twist in the story," regarding
IBM's contract. "When Microsoft
entered into a contract with IBM," Microsoft
didn't even have any software to sell. "There
was another company called Seattle Computer products," that had a Q-DOS Operating System. "Paul bought this Q-DOS operating
System," and gave it to IBM. "It wasn't the exact copy, they made
some modifications to it." They
changed the name too. "From Q-DOS,
it became MS-DOS." Microsoft DOS. And you know how popular MS-DOS is today. "But anyway, what I'm trying to say here
is that" "these points," "were the privileges that Bill Gates and
Paul Allen had," due to which they
could be so successful. "With
talent and hard work alone," perhaps
Bill Gates couldn't have reached the point he is at now.
These are the things ignored by many. You can call this Privilege Blindness. Ignoring privileges. All of us have some privileges. "We have different circumstances," "we have grown up in different
environments," "our parents
have different backgrounds," "our
caste, our religion, all these do make a difference." "Due to these reasons, the starting line
for Bill Gates," was very ahead of
that of a common person who was born in
India at the same time. There was a next
to impossible chance that an Indian could
have reached the point that Bill Gates could reach then. "Today, obviously, the world has
changed." But these privileges are
still valid. "Though there are
exact same privileges," "obviously,
there's higher racial equality in America," "there's more gender equality," there are more female students at Harvard
than males. "But even today, in
various countries," we get to see
privileges of different aspects. One of
the aspects of this privilege is the nepotism in Bollywood. Or when politicians' children become
politicians. "Being born in a
developed city, growing up there," "being
born in a background that saw no riots and uprisings," "all of these come together," to become an advantage for some of you. And will be a disadvantage for the others. "A person who got these
privileges," "I'm not saying
that he should be robbed out of all privileges," but they need to acknowledge those
privileges. People shouldn't be blind to
it. "Look around you, and acknowledge
these."
"On a small scale, I can be an example of this." "I could be successful on YouTube," "ignoring the talent and hard
work," one of the reasons is also
that from my childhood I got exposure to
the filming equipment. I could spend my
free time on an editing software to improve myself. I could get an early exposure to YouTube that most of the Indians didn't. "I knew about YouTube since 2010," "I knew what it was, its content," "but most Indians could access the internet
only after the launch of Jio in 2016, "
So perhaps doing this would have been much more difficult for someone
else. I want you to think about this
too. "Whatever you're doing in
life, whichever profession you're in,"
what are the privileges that you got that you could reach where you are? "Obviously, talent and hard work would
always be a factor." "But on
ignoring these factors," what were
the privileges in your life?
That helped you reach where you are in your career. Comment below and let me know. It will be very interesting to know. "Now, you might say that there are
examples of people " who have truly
risen from the bottom to the top. There
definitely are. "Oprah Winfrey,
Barack Obama," but the point I'm
trying to make is that they had to work
much harder to reach that point. They
are the exceptions. Not the rule. "Based on the exceptions, you can't say
that there are no problems in society."
"Some people cite these exceptions as an example," "to say that if they could do it, it was
possible for everyone else too." That
no one should have a problem with that. """If
Oprah Winfrey could get rich," "poverty
is just a 'state of mind'."""
"""If Barack Obama could become the President of the
USA," "there is no racism in
America.""" """If
a Dalit, Ramnath Kovind is the current President of India," "there's no caste discrimination in
India anymore.""" """If
Kalpana Chawla could go to space," "there
isn't any gender discrimination.""" These statements are absolutely illogical. You can't negate the problems based on
exceptions. "We should try to
acknowledge our privileges," "we
should identify the problems in the society," and should try to have the same starting line
for everyone. "If you liked this
blog " "I have several others
on such socio-cultural issues," you
can watch the playlist here. I would
like to recommend this blog on Brain Drain especially. You can click here to watch it. Thank you very much!