Bill Gates: Top 100 Most Influential Americans List

Over the course of only a handful of decades, society's interconnectivity through tech has grown exponentially. Giving way to investors in Silicon Valley as well as quickly changing tech companies to rise and fall as a result. Routinely remaining on top, Bill Gates’s garage startup Microsoft didn't only come to dominate the PC market, but also packed an unmatched amount of software inside. Due to his forward thinking ingenuity, brilliant business strategies and proposals that paved the way for future tech, and his growing humanitarian efforts, Bill Gates should be included in Atlantic Monthly’s Top 100 Most Influential Americans List. Consistently running into trouble at a young age, Bills exceptional knowledge of computers during his
“Gates invaded the network and installed a program on the main computer that sent itself to the rest of the network’s computers.” (“Bill Gates.”) Introducing the first virus, the crash that entailed was no small feat. Once it was revealed that Gates was involved in this he faced major repercussion for his actions. Together, these two instances brought major complication for Gates and his family at the time of their occurrence. Nevertheless, they show how even before his junior year in high school, Gates had already established a fundamental understanding of computers and how they communicated with each other. Moving beyond Lakeside High School, Gates attended Harvard University in 1973. Focusing on his studies for nearly three semesters, he quickly shifted this spotlight to home computing and software integration. Inspired by recent news of popular home computer the Altair 8800, “Gates knew where he wanted to be: at the forefront of computer software design.” (“Bill Gates.”) Pursuing these goals only aided in heightening Gates and Allen's sense and proficiency in the broken programing languages of the late 70s as well as granting the two a wider perspective in the emerging tech industry. As established, both Gates and Allen
Using new and unorthodox strategies to run his company like no other, Gates’s brilliant business approach resulted in even more success. In an effort to fully comprehend just how large Microsoft had become the periodical Microsoft After Gates. (And Bill After Microsoft.) states, “start-ups would abandon business plans if they felt that Microsoft was thinking of competing in their space.” Possessing an unholy amount of power like this speaks volumes in the colossal impact any proposal could have on the global market. As aforementioned, Gates reigned supreme, he was the captain of this tech ship that paved the way for innovation in both a daily driven work computer and the groundbreaking software included. “By late 1996, over 90 percent of all PCs had a Microsoft operating system - usually a form of windows - and most had Microsoft applications.” (“Bill Gates.”) Such success was unparalleled to the numbers of computing companies prior. Bypassing any and all opportunities to halt progress in an effort to make a quick profit is hardly one of the many practices he enacted. This same document says that “Gates’s competitive drive and fierce desire to win has made him a powerful force in business, but has also consumed much of his personal life.” (“Bill Gates.”) Hard work and large efforts obviously come at a toll except in the case of Gates, his endeavours