美国神话――比尔.盖茨
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American Legend --Bill Gates
Microsoft is not about greed. It's about innovation and fairness.
――Bill Gates
微软公司不鼓励贪婪，而重视创新和公平。
Bill Gates is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur1 who co-founded Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest personal-computer software company.
Bill strongly believes in hard work. He believes that if you are intelligent and know how to apply your intelligence, you can achieve anything. From childhood Bill was ambitious2, intelligent and competitive. These qualities helped him to attain top position in the profession he chose. In school, he had an excellent record in mathematics and science. Still he was getting very bored in school and his parents knew it, so they always tried to feed him with more information to keep him busy.
Bill's parents came to know their son's intelligence and decided to enroll him in a private school, known for its intense academic environment. It was a very important decision in Bill Gate's life where he was first introduced to a computer. Bill Gates and his friends were very much interested in computer and formed "Programmers Group" in late 1968. Being in this group, they found a new way to apply their computer skill in university of Washington. In the next year,they got their first opportunity in Information Sciences Inc. in which they were selected as programmers. ISI (Information Sciences Inc. ) agreed to give them royalties whenever it made money from any of the group's program.
Later, Bill Gates and his close friend Allen started new company of their own, Traf-O-Data. They developed a small computer to measure traffic flow. From this project they earned around $20000. In 1973, he left home for Harvard University. He didn't know what to do, so he enrolled his name for pre-law. He took the standard freshman courses with the exception of signing up for one of Harvard's toughest mathematics courses. He did well over there, but he couldn't find it interesting too. He spent many long nights in front of the school's computer and the next day asleep in class. After leaving school, he almost lost himself from the world of computers. Gates and his friend Paul Allen remained in close contact even though they were away from school. They would often discuss new ideas for future projects and the possibility of starting a business one fine day.
Within a year, Bill Gates dropped out from Harvard. Then he formed Microsoft. Microsoft's vision is "A computer on every desk and Microsoft software on every computer". Bill is a visionary3 person and works very hard to achieve his vision. His belief in high intelligence and hard work has put him where he is today. He does not believe in mere luck or God's grace, but just hard work and competitiveness.
Gates's sway over the infant microcomputer industry greatly increased when Microsoft licensed an operating system called MS-DOS to International Business Machines Corporation--then the world's biggest computer supplier and industry pacesetter--for use on its first microcomputer, the IBM PC(personal computer). After the machine's release in 1981, IBM quickly set the technical standard for the PC industry,and MS-DOS likewise pushed out competing operating systems. While Microsoft's independence strained relations with IBM, Gates deftly manipulated the larger company so that it became partly dependent on him for crucial software. Makers of IBM-compatible PCs also turned to Microsoft for their basic software. By the start of the 1990s he had become the PC industry's ultimate kingmaker.
He became a paper billionaire in 1986, and within a decade his net worth had reached into the tens of billions of dollars--making him by some estimates the world's richest private individual. With few interests beyond software and the potential of information technology, Gates at first preferred to stay out of the public eye, handling civic4 and philanthropic5 affairs indirectly through one of his foundations. Nevertheless, as Microsoft's power and reputation grew, and especially as it attracted the attention of the U. S. Justice Department's antitrust division, Gates, with some reluctance, became a more public figure. Rivals (particularly in competing companies in Silicon Valley) portrayed him as driven and determined to profit from virtually every electronic transaction6 in the world. His supporters, on the other hand, celebrated his uncanny business acumen7, his flexibility, and his boundless appetite for finding new ways to make computers and electronics more useful through software.
In addition to his work at Microsoft, Gates was also known for his charitable work. With his wife, Melinda, he launehed the William H. Gates Foundation (renamed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 1999) in 1994 to fund global health programs as well as projects in the Pacific Northwest. During the latter part of the 1990s, the couple also funded North Ameriean libraries through the Gates Learning Foundation and raised money for minority study grants through the Gates Millennium Scholars program. At the beginning of the 21st century, the foundation continued to focus on global health and global development, as well as community and education causes in the United States. After a short transition period, Gates relinquished8 day-to-day oversight of Microsoft in June 2008--although he remained chairman of the board--in order to devote more time to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates plans to give away 95% of all his earnings when he is old and gray.
比尔・盖茨，美国电脑编程师和企业家，与人合作建立了世界上最大的个人电脑软件公司――微软公司。
比尔坚信付出就有回报。他相信，如果头脑聪明并知道如何运用这种聪明，就能做成任何事。从童年时期比尔就具有壮志雄心，充满了智慧与竞争力。这些品质让他得以在选择的行业中脱颖而出。学生时代，比尔的数学和科学成绩都是优秀。但他觉得课程非常无聊，父母了解到这一点之后，总是用各种信息塞满他的空闲时间。
比尔的父母渐渐了解到儿子的智慧，于是决定送他去私人学校，因为私人学校以严谨的学术气氛而闻名。这个决定深深影响了比尔的人生，因为他在那里第一次接触到电脑。比尔和朋友对电脑非常感兴趣，在1968年成立了“编程师组合”。在这个组合里，他们找到了一次在华盛顿大学一展电脑技艺的机会。第二年，他们在信息技术公司找到了第一个机会，被选为那里的编程师。信息技术公司同意只要使用组合研发的编程赚了钱就付给他们版税。
后来，比尔和好友艾伦成立了他们自己的公司――Traf-O-Data。他们开发了一种小型电脑，来测量交通流量。两人从这个项目中赚了大约2万美元。1973年，比尔考上了哈佛大学。他不知道要干什么，所以报名攻读法律预料，所上的课程与标准大一课程无异，但他还辅修了哈佛最难的数学课程。虽然成绩很好，但是他还是不感兴趣。在学校电脑前度过无数个夜晚，白天就在课上睡觉。放学后比尔几乎沉浸在电脑世界里。尽管比尔和艾伦离学校很远，但是他们一直保持联系。两人常常一起讨论对未来项目的想法，以及将来一起开办公司的可能性。
大一没读完，比尔就从哈佛辍学，成立了微软公司。公司的目标是实现“每个桌子都放一台电脑，每个电脑都用微软软件”。比尔是一个有梦想的人，他会辛勤工作，让梦想成真。他相信，正是因为有了高智商和努力的工作，他才有了今天的成就。比尔不相信纯粹运气或上帝恩惠，他只相信辛勤劳作和竞争实力。
微软许可IBM(当时世界第一大电脑供应商和电脑行业的先行者)在它的第一台微机IBM个人电脑上使用操作系统MS-DOS时，微软对幼小的微机行业的控制大大增加了。1981年，该电脑推出市场以后，IBM很快建立了个人电脑行业的技术标准，MS-DOS也推出了与之匹配的操作系统。虽然微软的独立性使它与IBM的关系紧张起来，盖茨灵活地操纵了IBM，让它永远依赖于自己的关键软件。IBM兼容机的制造者们也就基本软件向微软求助。20世纪90年代初，比尔就已经成为个人电脑行业的最终造王者。
1986年，媒体评他为亿万富翁，十年以内他的身价达到了几百亿――据有关估计成为世界首富。盖茨对软件和信息技术潜力以外的东西毫无兴趣，起初他更愿意不进入公众眼球，而是通过一个基金来间接处理市民和慈善事务。然而，随着微软力量和名声的增长，尤其是吸引了美国司法部反垄断科的注意，尽管心不甘情不愿，比尔成为了一个公众人物。竞争对手(尤其是硅谷的竞争公司)把比尔描述成受到利益驱使的、决心从世界上每宗交易中都获得实际利润的人。而他的支持者却恰恰相反，赞扬他超人的商业智慧、灵活性和渴望找寻通过软件更加有效使用电脑和电子的方法。
除了在微软的工作，盖茨也因其慈善工作闻名于世。他和妻子梅林达在1994年一起发起建立了威廉姆・H・盖茨基金(1999年更名为比尔・盖茨和梅林达・盖茨基金)，为全球健康项目和太平洋西北项目提供资金。90年代后期，这对夫妇还用盖茨学习基金赞助为北美图书馆，而且通过盖茨千禧年学者项目为少数民族学习者募集助学金。21世纪初，这个基金继续致力于全球健康和发展，并致力于美国的教育和社区事业。经过短暂的过渡期之后，盖茨在2008年6月放弃了微软的日常监管――尽管还是董事会主席――目的是投入更多时间来管理比尔・盖茨和梅林达・盖茨基金。盖茨计划在年老体衰之前把财产的95％用于慈善事业。
注释
①entrepreneur：n．企业家；主办人
②ambitious:adj.有抱负的，雄心勃勃的
③visionary:adj.有眼光的，有远见的
④civic：adj.城市的；公民的
⑤philanthropic:adj.博爱的，慈善的
⑥transaction:n.交易
⑦acumen:n.敏锐，聪明
⑧relinquish:v.交出，放弃