> What separates Gates from most other programmers of his skill level is willingness to take on risk. Balderdash. His parents were wealthy, his father was a s

> What separates Gates from most other programmers of his skill level is willingness to take on risk. Balderdash. His parents were wealthy, his father was a successful lawyer and his mother was on the board of IBM and was very well connected socially. From Wikipedia: "Gates explained his decision to leave Harvard, saying '... if things [Microsoft] hadn't worked out, I could always go back to school. I was officially on [a] leave [of absence].'" According to Gates, the decision was fairly riskless.