11 ms·
There were niche startup doing niche programming language (BASIC) with less revenue that ended up being Microsoft.
by jakozaur 10y ago
There were niche startup doing niche programming language (BASIC) with less revenue that ended up being Microsoft.
- sidlls 10y agoIs that an accurate comparison? Gates was born into weatlh and a pre-existing social network. His company's success has a foundation of winning the genetic lottery.
- rpedela 10y agoThere are millions of people who are equally as lucky as Bill Gates in terms of family economic and social status. Luck plays a role but it is not the defining factor.
- sidlls 10y ago"Millions?" How do you figure? Gates was born well into the top 1%. Tens or hundreds of thousands is more accurate. Luck isn't the deciding factor, especially in what endeavors to pursue, but it is a prominent factor in the success of those endeavors.
- rpedela 10y agoLet's say you are right that he was born into the top 1% in the US. I am not confident that is true without data but let's say that is it for the sake of argument. .01 * 330,000,000 = 3,300,000 So yes, millions. And yet there are only a handful of Americans like Bill Gates.
- ArkyBeagle 10y agoIt's reasonably accurate. IMO, MS grew because of DOS. They were hoping Gary Kildall's C/PM would be the OS for the IBM PC, and only leveraged DOS "to save the language business." It's not clear how much of a factor Gates' parents' wealth and social network was in this process. Yeah, his Mom was on the board of IBM but Microsoft was an established brand already.
- sidlls 10y agoHis company didn't spring into being without a history. He had access to educational and tutoring resources, specifically technology related resources, his entire life. I'd say it's very clear his parents' circumstances were a huge factor in his early successes, and arguably much more important than those successes were to later ones.