The Lesser Known Story of Bill Gates 'College-Dropout-To-Success' You Might Not Know. (2024)

Bill Gates became a billionaire at the age of 31 in 1987, making him the youngest billionaire at the time. Eight years later, in 1995, he became the richest person in the world with a net worth of $11.9 billion.

A highlight which made popular among fake business gurus (FBGs) is that Bill Gates was a Harvard University dropout. However, before you let these FBGs clout your head with some kind of a wet dream, let me share a little less popular story about the man himself:

1. Bill Gates' father, William Henry Gates II, was a wealthy lawyer. He was the founder of the law firm Shidler McBroom & Gates (which later merged to become the firm K&L Gates).
2. Bill Gates' mother, Mary Ann Maxwell Gates, was a member of the Board of Directors for United Way in the 1980s. United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates.
3. Bill Gates attended Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle. In an interview, he told his school friends that many students drove Porsches to school. Given that he attended this school, do you think Bill Gates was the son of a janitor?
4. Why am I mentioning Bill Gates' parents? Because they played a big role in his success, and it's something that the FBGs who charge thousands of dollars for their classes either blind to these facts, or they try their very best to hide them.

Here are some stories of how Bill Gates' parents helped him to succeed:

1. Bill Gates' father was a lawyer, and lawyers with power and a client base are high-profile individuals. When Microsoft was first starting out, there were other startups competing with it. However, Bill Gates' father was able to use his legal expertise to help Microsoft kill off the competition.
2. Bill Gates' mother had an extensive network of contacts. One of her relatives was the President of National City Bank in Seattle and Director (Seattle Branch) of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
3. Bill Gates' mother was also a member of the United Way Board of Directors, where she met John Opel, the Chairman of International Business Machine Corporation (IBM).
4. IBM is a giant company that gave Microsoft its first big opportunity in 1980, when it commissioned Microsoft to develop software for its first personal computer. Seven years later, Bill Gates became the world's youngest billionaire.
5. Do you think for a second that Bill Gates wasn't involved in this Microsoft-IBM deal, given that he knew John Opel from the United Way Board of Directors?

Please do not get me wrong. I have nothing against or trying to discount or deny Bill Gates' abilities. I truly admire that he is powerful, intelligent, and deserves what he has today. What I am trying to highlight here is the populist statement and the 'dakyah' brought up by these MFBGs that anyone can be a billionaire by themselves, through effort alone. And that is not necessarily true.

This kind of populist propaganda is what deludes many people scammed into becoming businessmen, especially the so-called company and product founders. Even worse, you may be brought into daylight robbery by these FBGs and lose thousands of dollars, all in the name of self-improvement.

Bill Gates, like many (not all) young achievers today, was groomed and designed to be rich. He had all the resources needed to be rich from the moment he was born. He was placed on a golden tray and connected directly to influential people.

In conclusion, if you are not in a category with leverage like Bill Gates, then do not be fascinated by words uttered by these FBGs. I've seen a number of people who didn't make it because they bought blindly into this kind of nonsense.

Never underestimate people who attend university and works for a salary. They probably have a plan installed to provide the best path and way of living for their children and family. They may not necessarily aspire to become billionaires, but it is still an honourable thing to have a decent career and be a successful person. To each their own.

I am not here to discourage you if you do want to be a successful millionaire, in fact I highly encourage you to go for that moon. But with a word of caution. Before you make such a decision, please do your due diligence, learn on how to read people and run as fast as you can in the opposite direction the moment you smell these FBGs from a mile away.

And, if you do hear people on the street chatting around that you don't need paper qualifications from higher institutions just because it's deemed useless, bear in mind that Bill Gates has three children, and all of them attended university. Two of them went to Stanford, and one was in Duke.

Go figure.

P/s: The pic above was Bill Gates with his parents, at his wedding in 1994.

This was a year before he was declared the richest person in the world.

When this photo was shot, he was already a billionaire.