Bill Gates, the software magnet holds not only an enviable position in the business world today but is the acclaimed genius of our times. As the American business executive officer of the Microsoft Corporation, Gates dominates the world of hi tech computers.

Born at Seattle, Washington in 1955, gates father was a lawyer and his mother a strong willed, outgoing lady. Gates in contrast was a shy boy. He preferred the company of his own thoughts. Unlike his mates gates was far more concerned with the magic of numbers than fast cars and movie mania. He would spend hours alone and in tie his parents became concerned about the little boy. His father recalling Bill's childhood says, "he was so small and shy, in need of protection and his interest were so different from the children of his age". Gates at the time was in the sixth standard. Often, when asked, "What are you doing?" the standard reply would be, "I'm thinking."

Bill's rationale and a fiercely competitive spirit where "winning mattered" was nurtured in early childhood. Large family dinners were often followed by organized bridge games and trivia. These, gates recalls were played seriously. He was nicknamed "Trey (Three in card terminology).

Even as a boy Gates' interests were different from others. Instead of following the normal run of the mill activities, Trey often spent time thinking about the numbers and their varied behavioral pattern. At a small school where he studied he first came in contact with the world of computers. It was a teletype computer terminal.

By his 13th year Gates and his close friend Paul Allen had picked up computer language from a manual. In the eighth standard Bill had to his credit two programmers. One of then dealt with conversion of one mathematical base into another base. The second programme was a game of noughts and crosses. Later he devised a computer version of RISK, a board game with the final aim of world domination.

Trey's novel interest gave him an exposure into the world of men where work was done with a serious intent. With his friend Paul, trey spent hours at local company with a new computer. They had to identify the "bugs", that would crash it. Often Trey would sneak out after his parents went to bed and spent most of the night at the company. He did maximum overtime and his reward was pleasure!.

While work was pleasure, persuing of leisure was an arduous task for the reticent Bill. Gates lacked confidence in social settings all through his early years. It was only in high school that the shackles of self consciousness began to give away. Getting places in the top 10 of the US aptitude exam and his meritous mental ability amongst his comrades gave him the required confidence. At this point "his confidence and sense of humour increased, "his father recalls. He even worked out programmers that would him in classes with the ‘right' girls.

It was at Harvard that Bill gates met Steve Ballmer. Both took postgraduate level courses and Ballmer nurtured Gates' social side. Under Ballmer's influence gates joined the college eating club and started to visit popular discos in New York. In 1980 Ballmer joined Microsoft. Gates says, "I always would have close business associates like Ballmer and several of the other top people at Microsoft, and the we would stick together and grow together no matter what happened."

While attending Harvard in 1975, gates teamed with Allen to develop a version of the BASIC computer programming language for the ALTAIR, the first personal computer. This led to the formation of Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the same year. Gates decided to droop out of Harvard in 1977 to work at Microsoft full-time, persuing his vision of " a computer on every desk and in every home. " In 1979 Gates and Allen moved the company to Redmond, Washington, a suburb of their hometown of Seattle. Since then the Microsoft has grown from 15 employee and $500,55 in revenues for the fiscal year in June 1995.

In 1981 Microsoft took its first step in diversifying beyond the programming languages market when it released MS-DOS, the operating system for the original IBM personal computer (PC). Microsoft went on to convince other PC-manufactures to license MS-DOS, which made it the de-facto software standard for PCs. Microsoft collaboration with IBM throughout 1980s created the world's first mass- market phenomenon in the computer industry based on the availability of computer chips, parts and the MS-DOS operating systems. The acceptance of the MS-DOS as the software standard for the PC led to Microsoft's increasingly important role in the industry.

Microsoft is a sprawling campus of 35 low rise buildings where competitive workers work relentlessly to materialize Gates' dream, perhaps of world domination. To Microsoft goes the credit of growing the market in desk top operating systems. They survived companies like IBM, which are 10 times their size.

Dressed in khaki trousers and flannel shirts the young members of the Microsoft world re called "Bill clones." These are brilliant young minds hired to be trained in the combined art of technical brilliance and creativity. At the entrance test they are subjected to a rigorous IQ test that poses all but easy questions.

One of the routine tasks of Gates at the Microsoft is to hold meetings with teams working on various projects. The teams are subjected to grilling questions on politics of their rivals, details to technology, marketing strategy and so on. No area remains untouched. Gates expects only excellence from his teams. There is no place for second rate outputs. A good set of ideas is unhesitatingly termed as "really neat" or "super cool." The bad strategies are unsparingly labeled as "crummy", "really dumb" or "random to the max".

Gates office like the man himself is shrouded in silence most of the time. The phone almost never rings. Most of his contact to the outside world is through e-mail. The office is sparsely decorated with ordinary furniture with a lot of airy room for thought.

Gates hopes to run Microsoft for another decade or so. After that he plans to give 95% of his wealth away. Warren Buffett, the investor whom Gates demoted to the second richest says that Gates ............."will spend time thinking about the impact his philanthropy can have.......He is too imaginative to do conventional gifts".

Gates married Metilda French in 1994. She was working for the company when he met her at one of the Microsoft press conferences. She is intelligent and independent and spends most of her time devoted to charity work now. The gates have already given away $34 million to the University of Washington; $15 million for a new computer center at Harvard University; $6 million to Stanford University; $3 million in book royalties to the National Foundation for Improvement of education to fund innovative technology programmers in US schools and $200 million to a foundation run by his father.

Jennifer, a daughter was born to the couple in April 1996. Gates, friends say is smitten by this new love of his. Talking about his fatherhood he says, "I used to think I wouldn't be at all interested in the baby until she could talk....... But I am totally into it now. She's just started to say "ba-ba" and have a personality". He jokingly adds that there is something other than Netscape keeping him awake at night!
Although Jennifer's birth may have tempered the fiercely competitive spirit he still pushes hard and is know to be a Darwinian at heart. A former Microsoft executive and an admirer cum a critic points out, "He doesn't look for win-win situations, but for ways to make others lose. Success is defined as flattening the competition, not creating excellence. In Bill's eyes he's still the kid whose afraid he'll go out of business if he lets anyone compete." Countering the view that what drives Bill is a sense of paranoia Nathan Myhrvold, 37 says, "Bill is not threatened by intelligent people......only stupid ones," For Gates competition is a sport and one must play it with verve and alacrity. He calls it "super fun".

The 43 year old big boss of the bit and byte with a passion for speeding and intelligent minds is much matured man. Less enamoured with pure intelligence than before he says, "I don't think that IQ is as fungible as I used to. To succeed you have to know how to make choices and how to think more morally".

This giant of the computer world has a lot of years ahead of him. With his marked ability to translate technical vision into market strategy and to blend creativity with technical acumen, we can look forward to a future of stupendous innovation, that not only sharpens our grey cells but will have us crying for more.