Bill Gates

1955–present

Bill Gates News: Entrepreneur Reflects on His Childhood In New Memoir

Bill Gates is sharing exclusive insight into his childhood in his new memoir that hit shelves on February 4. The first of a three-volume autobiography, Source Code: My Beginnings details the Microsoft founder and philanthropist’s early years, including his upbringing and passion for computers.

Source Code: My Beginnings

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In the book, Gates recalls using a computer for the first time at school and writing his first computer program—a game of tic-tac-toe—at the age of 13. “I made a lot of errors trying to figure that out,” he wrote. “A game of tic-tac-toe is so simple, even kids learn it quickly. But it felt like a triumph to get a machine to do it.”

Gates also recounts sneaking out his bedroom window at night to write code as a teenager and staying awake for 36 hours straight to study programming while attending Harvard University. The memoir ends with the 69-year-old revealing that he might be neurodivergent, claiming that he “would probably be diagnosed with autism” if he were a kid now.

“My parents had no guideposts or textbooks to help them grasp why their son became so obsessed with certain projects, missed social cues and could be rude and inappropriate without seeming to notice his effect on others,” he shared elsewhere in the book. Gates credits his parents for helping him with his social skills by sending him to therapy and private school and getting him involved in sports.

Entrepreneur Bill Gates is the cofounder of Microsoft and a noted philanthropist. He started his business with Paul Allen in 1975. Through technological innovation, keen business strategy, and aggressive business tactics, Gates helped build the world’s largest software company and became a billionaire in the process. The Seattle native resigned as Microsoft’s CEO in 2000, the same year he cofounded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (now the Gates Foundation). Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage.

FULL NAME: William Henry Gates III
BORN: October 28, 1955
BIRTHPLACE: Seattle, Washington
SPOUSE: Melinda French Gates (1994–2021)
CHILDREN: Phoebe, Rory, and Jennifer
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Scorpio

William Henry Gates III, widely known as Bill Gates, was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle. He was named after his father, William H. Gates II, who was a lawyer. His mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, worked briefly as a teacher before devoting her time to raising the couple’s children and working on numerous nonprofit and corporate boards of directors. She was the first woman to sit on the board for First Interstate Bank of Washington and the first female chair of United Way International.

Young Bill grew up in an upper-middle-class family with his older sister, Kristianne, and younger sister, Libby. All three children were encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence. Bill showed early signs of competitiveness when he coordinated family athletic games at their summer house on Puget Sound. He also relished in playing board games and excelled at Risk and Monopoly.

Bill Gates Sr., second from left, and his wife had three children: Kristianne, Bill III, and Libby.

Bill had a close relationship with his mother, who was heavily involved in civic affairs, philanthropy, and business. Mary would often take Bill along when she volunteered in schools and at community organizations. The exposure later influenced his own community efforts.

A voracious reader, Bill spent many hours poring over reference books such as the encyclopedia. Around the age of 11 or 12, his parents began to have concerns about his behavior. He was doing well in school, but he seemed bored and withdrawn at times. Bill Sr. and Mary worried he might become a loner. Although they were strong believers in public education, when Bill turned 13, his parents enrolled him at Seattle’s exclusive preparatory Lakeside School. He blossomed in nearly all his subjects, excelling in math and science, but also doing very well in drama and English.

While Gates was attending Lakeside School, a Seattle computer company offered to provide computer time for the students. The Mother’s Club used proceeds from the school’s rummage sale to purchase a teletype terminal for students to use. Gates became entranced with what a computer could do and spent much of his free time working on the terminal. He wrote a tic-tac-toe program in BASIC computer language that allowed users to play against the computer.

There, he met Paul Allen, who was two years his senior. The pair became fast friends, bonding over their common enthusiasm for computers and spending much of their free time together working on programs. Occasionally, the two disagreed and would clash over who was right or who should run the computer lab. On one occasion, their argument escalated to the point where Allen banned Gates from the lab.

At another point, Gates and Allen had their school computer privileges revoked for taking advantage of software glitches to obtain free computer time from the company that provided the computers. After their probation, they were allowed back in the computer lab when they offered to debug the program. During this time, Gates developed a payroll program for the computer company the boys had hacked into and a scheduling program for the school.

In 1970, at the age of 15, Gates went into business with Allen. They developing “Traf-o-Data,” a computer program that monitored traffic patterns in Seattle, and netted $20,000 for their efforts. The partners became eager to start their own company, but Gates’ parents wanted him to finish school and go on to college, where they hoped he would work to become a lawyer. Gates scored 1590 out of 1600 on the college SAT test, a feat of intellectual achievement that he boasted about for several years when introducing himself to new people. Based on this score, he is estimated to have an IQ of 160.

In 1973, Gates graduated from Lakeside and enrolled at Harvard University. Originally thinking of a career in law, the Harvard student spent more of his time in the computer lab than in class and lacked a proper study regimen. Still, he got by on a few hours of sleep, crammed for a test, and passed with a reasonable grade.

Gates remained in touch with Allen, who after two years at Washington State University had dropped out and moved to Boston to work for Honeywell. In December 1974, Allen showed Gates an edition of Popular Electronics magazine featuring an article on the Altair 8800 mini-computer kit, made by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), a small company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fascinated by the possibilities of what this computer could create in the world of personal computing, the friends contacted the company, claiming that they were working on a BASIC software program that would run the Altair computer.

In reality, they didn’t have an Altair to work with or the code to run it, but they wanted to know if MITS was interested in someone developing such software. MITS President Ed Roberts was and asked the young men for a demonstration. Gates and Allen scrambled, spending the next two months writing the BASIC software at Harvard’s computer lab. Allen traveled to Albuquerque for a test run at MITS, never having tried it out on an Altair computer. To his delight, it worked perfectly, and MITS hired him for the job. Soon after, Gates left Harvard without graduating to work with him.

Paul Allen and Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975. Decades later, it remains the world’s largest software company.

In July 1975, Gates and Allen formed Micro-soft, a blend of “micro-computer” and “software.” They dropped the hyphen within a year. The company’s first product was BASIC software that ran on the Altair computer. Despite their eventual success, all was not smooth sailing at first. Microsoft’s program for the Altair netted the company a fee and royalties, but it wasn’t enough to meet their overhead.

Microsoft’s BASIC software was popular with computer hobbyists, but according to Gates’ later account, only about 10 percent of the people using it had actually paid for it. After obtaining pre-market copies, some people were reproducing and distributing them for free. This practice aligned with the leading mindset among many personal computer enthusiasts at the time, who weren’t into technology for the money. They felt the ease of reproduction and distribution allowed them to share software with friends and fellow computer enthusiasts. Gates thought differently. He saw the free distribution of software as stealing, especially when it involved software that was created to be sold.

In February 1976, Gates wrote an open letter to computer hobbyists, arguing that the continued distribution and use of software without paying for it would “prevent good software from being written.” In essence, pirating software would discourage developers from investing time and money into creating quality software. The letter was unpopular in the computer world, but Gates stuck to his beliefs and later used the threat of innovation as a defense when faced with charges of unfair business practices.

Meanwhile, Gates’ relationship with MITS President Ed Roberts had also soured. The combative Gates clashed with Roberts on software development and the direction of the business. Roberts considered Gates spoiled and obnoxious. Their conversations often devolved into shouting matches. In 1977, Roberts sold MITS to another computer company, leaving Gates and Allen on their own. The pair had to sue the new owner of MITS to retain the software rights they had developed for Altair. Microsoft had also expanded to writing software in different formats for other computer companies.

At the beginning of 1979, Gates moved the company’s operations from New Mexico to Bellevue, Washington, just east of Seattle. Every employee at the young company had broad responsibilities across operations, product development, business development, and marketing. This was especially true for 23-year-old Gates. With his acumen for software development and a keen business sense, he placed himself at the head of Microsoft and worked as its spokesperson. Additionally, he personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, often rewriting code when he thought necessary. By the end of the year, Microsoft’s shaky start was long gone as the company grossed approximately $2.4 million and more than doubled its workforce to 28 people.

IBM Partnership

As the computer industry grew with companies like Apple, Intel, and IBM developing hardware and components, Gates was continuously on the road touting the merits of Microsoft software applications, often taking his mother with him. Mary was highly respected and well-connected with her membership on several corporate boards, including the United Way of America. It was through her position that fellow board member John Opel heard about Microsoft. Opel was also chairman of IBM and reportedly put in a good word about the startup to IBM executives.

In November 1980, IBM was looking for software that would operate their upcoming personal computer and approached Microsoft. Legend has it that at the first meeting with Gates someone at IBM mistook him for an office assistant and asked him to serve coffee. Gates did look very young, but he quickly impressed the established tech firm, convincing them that his company could meet their needs. The only problem was that Microsoft hadn’t yet developed the basic operating system that would run IBM’s new computers.

To remedy this, Gates bought an operating system that was developed to run on computers similar to IBM’s PC. He struck a deal with the software’s developer that made Microsoft the exclusive licensing agent and later the software’s full owner without telling them about the IBM deal. The company later sued Microsoft and Gates for withholding important information. Microsoft settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, but neither Gates nor Microsoft admitted to any wrongdoing.

Gates had to adapt the newly purchased software to work for the IBM PC. He delivered it for a $50,000 fee, the same price he had paid for the software in its original form. IBM wanted to buy the source code, which would have given the company the operating system’s information, but Gates refused, instead proposing that IBM pay a licensing fee for copies of the software sold with their computers. Doing this allowed Microsoft to license the software they called MS-DOS to any other PC manufacturer, should other computer companies clone the IBM PC, which they soon did. Microsoft also released software called Softcard, which allowed Microsoft BASIC to operate on Apple II machines.

Microsoft made a name for itself building the early operating system MS-DOS that was used on IBM’s Personal Computers like this one.

Following the development of MS-DOS, Microsoft’s growth exploded. Between 1980 and 1981, when IBM’s personal computer was released to mass appeal, Microsoft staff increased from 40 to 129, and sales shot up from $8 million to $17.3 million. Another milestone arrived in June 1981 when the cofounders incorporated Microsoft. Gates became president and chairman of the board, while Allen was named executive vice president.

By 1983, Microsoft had gone global, with subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. An estimated 30 percent of the world’s computers ran on its software. Allen left Microsoft that same year after being diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, which went into remission a year later with intensive treatment. Even though Allen resigned from the company, he remained on the board of directors.

Windows

Although their rivalry is legend, Microsoft and Apple shared many of their early innovations. In 1981, the Steve Jobs–led Apple invited Microsoft to help develop software for Macintosh computers. Some developers were involved in both Microsoft development and the development of Microsoft applications for Macintosh. The collaboration could be seen in some shared names between the Microsoft and Macintosh systems. It was through this knowledge sharing that Microsoft developed Windows, a system that used a mouse to drive a graphic interface with onscreen text and images like we’re used to seeing today. This differed greatly from the text-and-keyboard–driven MS-DOS system where all text formatting showed on the screen as code and not what actually would be printed.

Gates quickly recognized the threat graphic interface software might pose for MS-DOS and Microsoft overall. For the standard user, which was most of the buying public, the graphic imagery of the competing VisiCorp software used in a Macintosh system would be much easier to use. He soon announced the Windows software in an advertising campaign despite having no such program under development at the time.

Bill Gates led the development of Microsoft Windows, first released in November 1985. The graphic interface made computers even more accessible to the public.

As a marketing tactic, it proved successful. Nearly 30 percent of the computer market was using the MS-DOS system and would wait for Windows software rather than change to a new system. Without people willing to change formats, software developers were unwilling to write programs for the VisiCorp system, and it lost momentum by early 1985. That November, nearly two years after his announcement, Gates and Microsoft launched Windows. Visually, the Windows system looked very similar to the Macintosh system that Apple had introduced nearly two years earlier.

Apple had previously given Microsoft full access to their technology while it was working on making Microsoft products compatible for Apple computers. Gates had advised Apple to license their software, but they ignored the advice, being more interested in selling computers. Once again, he took full advantage of the situation and created a software format that was strikingly similar to the Macintosh. Apple threatened to sue, and Microsoft retaliated, saying it would delay shipment of its Microsoft-compatible software for Macintosh users. In the end, Microsoft prevailed in the courts. It could prove that while there were similarities in how the two software systems operated, each individual function was distinctly different.

Microsoft Goes Public

On March 13, 1986, Gates transitioned Microsoft into a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq stock market. Its initial public offering was $21 per share. The move made the 30-year-old CEO an instant millionaire. Two weeks earlier, the company had moved its headquarters to nearby Redmond, Washington, where it remains today.

For all of Microsoft’s successes, Gates never felt totally secure. Always checking on the competition over his shoulder, he developed a white-hot drive and competitive spirit. One assistant reported coming to work early to find someone sleeping under a desk. She considered calling security or the police until she discovered it was her boss, Gates. His intelligence allowed him to see all sides of the software industry, be it product development or corporate strategy. When analyzing any corporate move, he developed a profile of all the possible cases and ran through them, asking questions about anything that could possibly happen. He expected everyone in the company to have the same dedication.

His confrontational management style became legend, as he would challenge employees and their ideas to keep the creative process going. An unprepared presenter could hear Gates say, “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” This was as much a test of the rigor of the employee as it was his passion for his company. He was constantly checking to see if the people around him were really convinced of their ideas.

Microsoft Office and Anti-Competition Lawsuits

Outside the company, Gates was gaining a reputation as a ruthless competitor. Several tech companies, led by IBM, began to develop their own operating system, called OS/2, to replace MS-DOS. Rather than give in to the pressure, he pushed ahead with the Windows software, improving its operation and expanding its uses. In 1989, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Office (now Microsoft 365). The bundle of office productivity applications was compatible with all Microsoft products and originally included Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

The next year saw the release of Windows 3.0, which sold 100,000 copies in just two weeks. Unable to compete, OS/2 soon faded away. This left Microsoft with a virtual monopoly on operating systems for PCs. Soon the Federal Trade Commission began to investigate Microsoft for unfair marketing practices.

Bill Gates successfully defended Microsoft against multiple government investigations in the 1990s while retaining the company’s popularity.

Throughout the 1990s, Microsoft faced a string of FTC and Justice Department investigations. Some related to allegations that Microsoft made unfair deals with computer manufacturers who installed the Windows operating system on their computers. Other charges involved Microsoft forcing computer manufacturers to sell Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser as a condition for selling the Windows operating system with their computers. At one point, Microsoft faced a possible breakup of its two divisions: operating systems and software development. Microsoft defended itself, harking back to Gates’ earlier battles with software piracy and proclaiming that such restrictions were a threat to innovation. Eventually, the company reached a settlement with the federal government to avoid a breakup.

Through it all, Gates found inventive ways to deflect the pressure with lighthearted commercials and public appearances at computer trade shows, during which he posed as Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. Gates continued to run the company and weather the federal investigations through the 1990s. In 1997, the software giant purchased the email service Hotmail and renamed it MSN Hotmail. (This eventually became Microsoft Outlook following a 2012 rebranding.) By the end of the decade, Microsoft employed more than 31,000 people and netted $19.7 billion in sales in 1999 alone.

Leaving Microsoft

After 25 years at the helm, Gates stepped down from day-to-day operations of Microsoft in January 2000. The 44-year-old turned over the job of CEO to his college friend Steve Ballmer, who had been with Microsoft since 1980. Gates positioned himself as chief software architect so he could concentrate on what was for him the more passionate side of the business, though he remained chairman of the board.

In 2006, Gates announced he was transitioning away from full-time work at Microsoft to devote more quality time to his philanthropic foundation. His last full day at Microsoft was in June 2008 when he was 52.

Gates continued as Microsoft’s chairman for several years until February 2014 when he stepped aside to become technology adviser to incoming CEO Satya Nadella. In March 2020, Gates resigned from the board of directors completely. He remains Microsoft’s technology adviser and revealed in January 2025 that he still does product reviews for the company on occasion.

Today, Microsoft is one of the five top tech companies in the United States and has expanded its products to include phones, laptops, tablets, the Xbox gaming system, the search engine Bing, and the AI-powered internet browser Microsoft Edge. The most recent Windows version, Windows 11, came out in 2021.

As of February 12, 2025, Gates has an estimated net worth of $107.3 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time calculator. The publication ranks him as the 16^th wealthiest person in the world. Meanwhile, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his net worth considerably higher at $166 billion and ranks him as the 7^th richest person. The former tech CEO’s fortune is highly variably given his stock holdings.

Gates became a millionaire in March 1986 when he was 30 years and 5 months old. The entrepreneur had Microsoft’s IPO to thank for his influx of wealth. When his company went public, Gates sold $1.6 million worth of shares but still held 45 percent of Microsoft’s shares. His stake at that time accounted for $350 million.

Over time, the company’s stock increased in value and split numerous times. In 1987, Gates became a billionaire when the stock hit $90.75 a share. At the time, he held the record for the world’s youngest billionaire at age 31.

Since then, he has been ranked at or near the top of Forbes’ annual list of the top 400 wealthiest people in America. Gates held the distinction of the world’s richest person from 1995 to 2007. He briefly reclaimed the titled in 2009 then again from 2014 to 2017. In October 2019, his Microsoft shares dropped down to 1.3 percent. Gates hasn’t publicly reported his Microsoft stock ownership since stepping down from its board in 2020.

Throughout the 1990s, and with his wife Melinda’s influence, Gates took an interest in becoming a civic leader in the footsteps of his mother. Studying the philanthropic work of American industrial titans Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, he realized that he had an obligation to give more of his wealth to charity.

In 2000, the couple combined two family foundations and contributed close to $16 billion to form the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its initial focuses were education, world health, and communities in the Pacific Northwest. Bill’s father, William H. Gates Sr., was one of the first co-chairs. Melinda oversaw the foundation’s grant-making and soon became co-chair alongside her father-in-law and Bill.

Bill and Melinda Gates founded their nonprofit in 2000 to support global health initiatives, education, and economic prosperity.

Over the next few years, Bill’s involvement with the philanthropy occupied much of his time and even more of his interest. The entrepreneur had stepped down as Microsoft’s president and CEO, allowing him to devote energy to the foundation’s expanding work. Today, the nonprofit invests in low-income communities around the world, supports global economic development, promotes gender equality, and continues to champion disease prevention and education.

In 2006, billionaire investor Warren Buffett announced a major gift to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He pledged 10 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock, then worth $31 billion. (As of June 2024, Buffett had given the foundation around $43 billion.) Another wealthy partner emerged in April 2018 in Google Cofounder Larry Page, who committed to funding universal flu vaccine research in partnership with the foundation.

After years of warning that the world was not ready for the next pandemic, Bill saw his ominous words come true with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in 2020. That March, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation teamed with the Wellcome Trust and Mastercard to pledge $125 million toward efforts to curb COVID-19’s outbreak. Bill subsequently revealed that his foundation was prepared to invest billions of dollars into building factories earmarked for the development of a vaccine.

By the end of 2023, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had funded $77.6 billion in lifetime grants. Its internal operations had come to reflect some of the organization’s priorities as in 2015 when the foundation announced that it would give its staff a year’s paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child. The founders had also been repeated recognized for their work. Bill and Melinda were named Time magazine’s 2005 Persons of the Year, alongside U2 lead singer and noted activist Bono; awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the Mexican government in 2006; and received Presidential Medals of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2016. A major change in leadership was ahead however.

In June 2024, Melinda left her role as longtime leader of the foundation in the wake of her divorce from Bill. The organization has since been renamed the Gates Foundation, with Bill continuing to serve as co-chair and as a member of its board.

Additional Philanthropy: Alzheimer’s Research

Gates has made philanthropic gifts outside of his foundation, too. In November 2017, he shared his plan to invest $50 million into the Dementia Discovery Fund and another $50 million toward start-up ventures working in Alzheimer’s research. It was said to be a personal matter for Gates, who has seen the devastating effects of the disease on his own family members, including his father, who died in 2020. “Any type of treatment would be a huge advance from where we are today,” he told CNN at the time, adding, “the long-term goal has got to be cure.”

Melinda and Bill Gates were married from 1994 until 2021. They share three kids.

For nearly three decades, as they raised three kids, the entrepreneur was married to Melinda French Gates. The former couple first met in 1987 at a sales meeting in New York City. At the time, Melinda was working as a product manager at Microsoft. Nine years her senior, the CEO asked her out in a parking lot several weeks later. She initially turned him down, but their relationship grew as they discovered an intimate and intellectual connection and eventually started dating. The pair got engaged in 1993. Their wedding on January 1, 1994, was a private yet lavish affair in Hawaii.

Following the devastating death of his mother to breast cancer just a few months after their wedding, Bill took some time off with his new wife in 1995 to travel and get a new perspective on life and the world. In April 1996, the couple welcomed their first child, Jennifer, and Melinda left Microsoft to raise their daughter. Their son, Rory, was born was in May 1999 followed by their second daughter, Phoebe, in September 2002. Bill and Melinda raised their children in the Catholic faith and regularly attended church, even though the Microsoft founder grew up Protestant.

After 27 years of marriage, Bill and Melinda announced their separation in May 2021. “After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” they wrote in a joint statement on Twitter. “We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.” Their divorce was finalized that August.

Bill reflected on his divorce in an interview with the British newspaper The Sunday Times in May 2022, explaining that his relationship with Melinda changed when their kids grew up and left home. “But from my point of view, it was a great marriage,” he said. “I wouldn’t have changed it.” Gates also said he felt “lucky” they still have a connection through the work at their charitable foundation. Two years later, Melinda resigned from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bill Gates and his girlfriend, Paula Hurd, have been dating since around 2023.

In February 2023, People confirmed that Gates had started dating philanthropist Paula Hurd, the widow of former Oracle CEO Mark Hurd. Two years later, he referred to Hurd as his “serious girlfriend” on the Today show. “We’re having fun,” he said. “Going to the Olympics and lots of great things.”

Bill Gates owns several houses including his Xanadu 2.0 estate in the Seattle metro area.

In 1997, Gates and his family moved into a 37,000-square-foot house on the shore of Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. Although the house, nicknamed Xanadu 2.0, served as a business center, it was said to be very cozy for the couple and their three children at the time. The house has since doubled in size and is now around 66,000 square feet. It’s estimated to be worth $130 million.

Today, Gates is the sole occupant of the house. His ex-wife, Melinda, moved out after their divorce in 2021. The Microsoft cofounder also owns several other properties in California, Florida, Montana, and Wyoming.

In 2017, it was revealed that one of Gates’ firms had invested $80 million into the development of a “smart city” near Phoenix, Arizona. The proposed city, named Belmont, will “create a forward-thinking community with a communication and infrastructure spine that embraces cutting-edge technology, designed around high-speed digital networks, data centers, new manufacturing technologies and distribution models, autonomous vehicles and autonomous logistics hubs,"”according to the Belmont Partners real estate investment group.

Of the nearly 25,000 acres of land designated for the site, it was reported that 3,800 acres will go toward office, commercial, and retail space. Another 470 acres will be used for public schools, leaving room for 80,000 residential units. As of February 2025, there have been no updates on the progress of the project.

• Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.
• Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
• We are all created equal in the virtual world, and we can use this equality to help address some of the sociological problems that society has yet to solve in the physical world.
• I’m a big believer that as much as possible—and there’s obviously political limitations—freedom of migration is a good thing.
• If you show people the problems and you show people the solutions, they will be moved to act.
• Like almost everyone who uses email, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren’t so irritating.
• I believe that computers are the most incredible tool we can use to feed our curiosity and inventiveness—to help us solve problems that even the smartest people couldn’t solve on their own.
• I’ve always been an optimist, and I suppose that is rooted in my belief that the power of creativity and intelligence can make the world a better place.
• It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, “Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.”
• The technology business has a lot of twists and turns. Probably the reason it’s such a fun business is that no business gets to rest on its laurels.

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