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Minicase Keeping Up with Bill Gates Bill Gates inherited intelligence, ambition, and a competitive spirit from his father, a successful Seattle attorney. After graduating from a private prep school in Seattle, he Pape 5908 enrolled in Harvard but dropped out to pursue his passion-computer programming. Paul Allen, a friend from prep school, presented Gates with the idea of writing a version of the BASIC computer language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal computers on the market. Driven by his competitive nature, Gates decided he wanted to be the first to develop a language to make the personal computer accessible for the general public. He and Allen established the Microsoft Corporation in 1975. Gates's passion and skill were programming-he would work night and day to meet the extremely aggressive deadlines he set for himself and his company. Eventually Gates had to bring in other programmers; he focused on recent college graduates. "We decided that we wanted them to come with clear minds, not polluted by some other approach, to learn the way that we liked to develop software, and to put the kind of energy into it that we thought was key." In the early days of Microsoft, Gates was in charge of product planning and programming while Allen was in charge of the business side. He motivated his programmers with the claim that whatever deadline was looming, no matter how tight, he could beat it personally if he had to. What eventually developed at Microsoft was a culture in which Gates was king. Everyone working under Gates was made to feel they were lesser programmers who couldn't compete with his skill or drive, so they competed with each other. They worked long hours and tried their best to mirror Gates-his drive, his ambition, his skill. This internal competition motivated the programmers and made Microsoft one of the most successful companies in the computer industry, and one of the most profitable. The corporation has created a tremendous amount of wealth-many of its employees have become millionaires while working at Microsoft, including, of course, Bill Gates. Over the past 20 years Gates has been one of the richest people in the world and had an estimated net worth of $87 billion in 2017. Having done extremely well in the business world, Gates shifted his attention in 2008 when he retired from Microsoft in order to focus on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This foundation was created in partnership with Warren Buffett and its purpose is to alleviate extreme poverty, eradicate disease, and improve health care across the globe. Using business practices to improve philanthropic outcomes, the foundation has an endowment of over $35 billion and Gates has been very successful at getting others to donate to their cause. The foundation funds programs to control infectious diseases, such as malaria, HIV/AIDs, and tuberculosis; improve sanitation, nutrition, and family planning: prevent slavery and sex trafficking: help with agricultural development; and provide financial services, such as microlending, to the poor. These programs are making a tangible difference in tackling some of the world's biggest problems