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That amount of cash is not trivial for the vast majority of Americans.
by s73v3r_ 8y ago
That amount of cash is not trivial for the vast majority of Americans.
- skookumchuck 8y agoMillions can do it, rendering the notion that that was what enabled Bill Gates to be a zillionaire absurd. And then there are all those millions buying houses for over $500,000, and $30,000+ cars, who could invest $25,000 in a business instead. But that's why they aren't Bill Gates - they made different choices.
- ericd 8y agoThere are vastly more people with access to $25k in cash than there are people who end up making an impact as large as Gates had. It still takes an enormous amount of work and savvy to pull off what he did.
- skookumchuck 8y agoGates seemed to be the only one who understood the value of DOS initially. Not you, not I, not Gary Kildall, not IBM, not Tim Paterson.
- petra 8y agoAny idea how he got to that unique understanding? Is that something we can learn from?
- skookumchuck 8y agoIf I knew how, I'd be a billionaire myself :-)
- btilly 8y agoIf you read http://gunkies.org/wiki/Gordon_Letwin_OS/2_usenet_post http://gunkies.org/wiki/Gordon_Letwin_OS/2_usenet_post closely you'll understand the key business insight about the value of platforms that underlay a lot of Microsoft's success. And further see how Microsoft's continued success required a series of good decisions that capitalized on the famous lucky break.
- code_duck 8y agoThere were thousands of other people involved in the industry at the time. Many of them understood the future value of personal computer operating systems.
- s73v3r_ 8y agoSure. But if he didn't have access to that money, would he still have been able to do that?
- kamaal 8y agoThat is a necessary but not a sufficient condition.
- skookumchuck 8y agoYes. An aggressive entrepreneur like Gates would be able to rustle up a few paltry thousand in investment capital. People do it all the time.
- code_duck 8y agoHis personal connections and family wealth were a lot more significant than one loan.