The famous speech Bill Gates used to share his now historical vision of the "future" and communicate the possibilities of personal computers (never before conceivably accessible by the general public) with software industry companies including competitors. . .
"The vision is really that in the information age that the microprocessor-based machine, the PC, along with great software, can become sort of the ultimate tool dealing with not just text, but numbers and pictures, and eventually, even difficult things like motion video. And that is something that when Paul and I would go around speaking about computers, we would always say that there were no limits.
Performance would be unbounded and that all of these incredible things would happen. We were never too specific about exactly when various things would happen the frontiers were sort of wide open. It was that sense of excitement that we really wanted to spark in everybody else wherever we went.
Well, there certainly were a lot of other software companies. . dozens of companies. . There were many fine companies.. . .They didn't take quite the same long-term approach that we did.. . .,taking a worldwide approach, thinking of how the various products could work together. So, we were more comprehensive. We weren't the largest. . . . But we were always the most technical. Whenever anybody else in the software industry wanted to know where we thought things were going, they'd come and talk to us. Because our vision, we shared; we didn't view that as some competitive edge. We just wanted to talk about it and get other people to share the same ideas so that they would help make it all come true."
Bill Gates
NATIONAL MUSEUM
OF AMERICAN HISTORY
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
Transcript of a Video History Interview
Winner of the 1993 Price Waterhouse Leadership Award
for Lifetime Achievement,
Computerworld Smithsonian Awards
Interviewer: David Allison (DA)
Division of Computers, Information, & Society
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Location: Microsoft Corporation, Bellevue, Washington
"When you dream alone, with your eyes shut, asleep, that dream is an illusion. But when we dream together, sharing the same dream, awake and with our eyes wide open, then that dream becomes reality!"Our expansive view of the future continues to dwarf our miniature memory banks that hold the sum of our previous memory of our past combined with our current impression from a quick glance looking back at the lengthy journey behind us. In 2008, Bill Gates famous vision almost seems tight or too small to fit around the reality that unfolded. But then it was so big, so seemingly unrealistic and unattainable, that it had to be promoted to creative contributors and industry collaborators & persuade a majority lacking a clear creative vision.
Unknown Source
Gates confidence in this dream, mastery of "code" and command of computer language as well as his proven ability to command hardware components to successfully speak to each other to complete increasingly useful tasks - all were necessary components to realize the vision, but most important was his courage to share it with all freely.
"Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing."Sharing is the essence of teaching. It is, I have come to believe, the essence of civilization . . . Without it, the imagination is but the echo of the self, trapped in a soundproof chamber, reverberating upon itself until it is spent in exhaustion or futility.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Bill Moyers
"Happiness is not so much in having or sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
Norman MacEwan
Above is a photo of Bill's Eco Home.
He is the richest billionaire in the world.
How did he create so abundantly?
Gates was given a great gift of talent as well as a great purpose for which to use it. He matched that gift with eager preparation from childhood mastering specialized skill sets. He loved his work and thrived on the challenge of competition as well as cooperation and sharing among an intimate peer group. Here he was nurtured and allowed to grow as needed to prepare to give a great gift to society.
In the following quote describing the first computer that ran the first version of Basic, an account is given of the first incidence of piracy and file theft, of Gate's first version of Basic, and stolen from their "van.""MITS actually stands for "Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems", funny little things you stick on top of the rocket that tells you what the temperature is at the top. Next they got into Kit Calculators. ...and then..., they did Kit Computers. When these computers came out at $360, The price of the 8080 chip was $360. So people kept saying, "They must be broken chips, it must be fake." A lot of people had a hard time putting these things together. But, a lot got it done and bought the Teletype and BASIC, So we thought, "Hey, are we really on to something here? We think so."
And MITS was just great because it was just a center of activity for those first few years. We went around the country in this big van, big blue van, they had, with these machines starting up user groups and demonstrating things.
Actually, before we even shipped BASIC, somebody stole the demo copy out of the van and started copying it around and sending it to different computer clubs. There was a real phenomenon taking place there, right around this Altair computer. In fact, the MITS guys were kind of upset when people would imitate this computer, same plug-in bus for peripherals -- things like that. They really weren't sure what to do about it."
Bill Gates
Does anyone else pick up the flavor here that I did? I can really identify with the van imagery. Also reminds me of those NYC Cybeko promotions. I'm left wondering if young Gates was sharing more than his vision. If anyone has any more insight into this aspect please share!
In summary, Gates early wisdom to share his great vision, and personal sacrifices made to realize this dream, has transformed almost every aspect of modern life. Without the PC, we would have never seen the ushering in of the Information Age. It is fitting and fair then that his business strategy & shrewd implementation, timely insights & judgments in the development of valuable software products, combined with calculated market control has amassed a small fortune.
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