Chapter 1: The Inspirational Story of Bill Gates

Paragraph 1: When people tell you the inspirational story of Bill Gates, when they
tell you how talented and hardworking Bill Gates is, you really can't doubt his
talent or hard work. But a part of his story is never told to the people. Had you
been in Bill Gates' place, and even if you were equally talented and hardworking as
Bill Gates, you still would not have achieved what he has. Why am I saying this?
Come, let's find out.

Chapter 2: Bill Gates' Early Life and Passion for Computers

Paragraph 1: Seattle, Washington: 1967. An eighth-grader, Bill, gets a hold of a

computer. This wasn't a computer like the ones we're familiar with. It was the
Teletype Model 33 ASR of the time, connected through phone lines to the computers
of the General Electric Company. But this surprised young Bill. The possibilities
of the computer. Bills started spending hours trying to figure out the computer. He
developed his first program on the computer.

Paragraph 2: Fast-forwarding to some years later, Bill Gates became the richest man
in the world. He remained the richest person for about 20 years. Today, he's the
fourth richest with a wealth of $124 billion.

Paragraph 3: Let's start at the beginning. At 12-years-old, Bill Gates was studying
at Lakeside School. A private school in Seattle. At school, he had some friends who
were equally passionate about computers. Kent Evans, Bill Gates' first best friend.
Paul Allen, a tenth-grader. And Rick Weiland. The four of them started the Lakeside
Programmers Group.

Chapter 3: Bill's Early Exploits with Computers

Paragraph 1: He tried to come up with ways to use the computer outside school too.
In Seattle, there was a small company called Computer Center Corporation. They
rented out computers by the hour. A year later, in 1968, Bill and his friends
started visiting this store to use the computers. But the cost to do this was quite
high. This store charged $40 to use a computer for an hour.

Paragraph 2: So Bill and his friends started looking for bugs in the operating
system of CCC. They found the loopholes in the computer system, and tried to
exploit those for more computer time. When they were caught, they were banned by
the store. But next summer, this small company thought of using these kids to look
for bugs in the system. They said that they could use the computers for free, if
they kept on identifying the problems in the system.

Paragraph 3: Here, Bill Gates learnt several programming languages. Fortran,

Lisp... But soon this small store went out of business. Again, these kids were left
with no means to access computers.

Paragraph 4: Then they found a company in Portland. Called Information Sciences

Inc. This company allowed them to use their computers for free too, as long as they
wrote a programme for the company. It was a payroll programme, it helped them learn
more about taxes and payrolls.

Paragraph 5: By then, their school had recognised their talents, and so in 1971,
Bill Gates and his best friend, Kent Evans were told to write a programme for the
school. They had to make class schedules on the programme. They worked hard on the
programme, but on a weekend, Kent Evans went on a holiday to the hills, and
unfortunately, he died after falling off of a cliff. This accident shocked Bill.
But he didn't stop working. He continued working with his other friend, Paul Allen.
He was in college by then.
Chapter 4: Bill and Paul's Early Ventures

Paragraph 1: In 1972, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded their first company, Traf-
o-Data. They were interested in technology and business both. They wanted to
develop a program that could process the traffic on the roads. So that they could
sell it to the traffic department. Though they worked hard on it, it didn't turn
out very successful.

Paragraph 2: The next year, in 1973, Bill Gates graduated from high school. He
takes the SAT and scores exceedingly well. 1590 out of 1600. With this, he gets
admission to Harvard. One of the best universities in America.

Paragraph 3: By then, Paul was quite bored of attending classes at the university.
So he moved to Boston and started working with Honeywell Corporation. He advised
Bill to start working with him at Honeywell. So in 1974, both were working for
Honeywell Corporation.

Chapter 5: The Birth of Microsoft

Paragraph 1: One day, while Paul was going somewhere, he came across a magazine
stall. Which carried the magazine Popular Electronics. The picture on the front
page of the magazine was of Altair 8800. The first personal computer in the world.
It had the Intel 8080 processor. Paul bought the magazine and ran to show it to
Bill Gates. Paul was trying to tell Bill Gates for quite some time that the size of
the computer chips was getting exponentially smaller. While their speed and power
were exponentially increasing. And it was only a matter of time before a computer
was built that was so small that it could be used as a personal computer.

Paragraph 2: There was a live example on the front page of the magazine. Someone
had built the computer before Bill Gates and Paul. The company that made this
computer was Mits. Paul and Bill called up the company and told them that the two
of them would like to write software for them. The most popular programming
language at the time was Basic. So they wanted to write software for the computer
in Basic.

Paragraph 3: Paul had to relocate to another city, while Bill dropped out from
Harvard. They built a Basic version and sold it to Altair. The company was so
pleased with the work that they offered a job to Paul, But by then, Paul was
running his consultancy. Micro-Soft. It was later renamed to one word; Microsoft.

Paragraph 4: They had several contracts from Texas Instruments, a Japanese company;
But Microsoft got its first big break when they provided DOS operating system for
IBM Computers.

Chapter 6: Microsoft's Growth and Windows

Paragraph 1: In the meanwhile, the team of Microsoft was working on a new operating
system. In November 1983, they announced their new operating system. Windows 1.0.
Though it was officially launched later in 1985.

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Paragraph 2: Next year, in March 1986, Microsoft launched their IPO. With Goldman
Sachs as their Book Running Manager. The IPO price was set at $21/share. And after
the first day of trading, their share price had reached $28. And they never had to
look back since.
Paragraph 3: Microsoft went on to be extremely successful. Windows 98 was launched.
As we all know, their software reached all nooks and crannies in the world, their
computers were astoundingly successful.

Chapter 7: The Twist of Privilege

Paragraph 1: You might find this story very inspirational. A super-intelligent boy,
who's passionate about something, works hard on it, thinks out of the box, and even
drops out of his college to pursue his dream, builds a company that gets immensely
successful. This boy becomes the richest man in the world. Isn't it a motivational
story? An inspirational story. If Bill Gates could do it, why can't you?

Paragraph 2: But friends, as I told you at the beginning of the video, there's a
twist in our story. What is it? It is the twist of Privilege. How privileged was
Bill Gates? Let me explain what I mean in points.

Paragraph 3: As you'll understand, you find that had you been in Bill Gates' place,
and were as talented and hardworking as Bill Gates, even then you couldn't have
been as successful as him. Why? Come, let's see.

Chapter 8: Gender Privilege

Paragraph 1: First: had Bill Gates been a woman, it wouldn't have been possible.
Because during the 1960s, there was significant gender discrimination in the USA.
Did you know that in the 1960s, a bank could refuse to give a credit card to a
woman? Even if the woman was married, her husband's signature was needed. In many
states of the US, women couldn't serve on the jury.

Paragraph 2: In 1961, the Supreme Court of the US, upheld a Floridian law,
preventing women from serving on the jury. Women weren't allowed to take birth
control pills, it was allowed only after the historic judgement in the US in 1972.
1963's Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women stated that for every dollar
that a man earns, if a woman does the same job and the same work, she earns 59
cents.

Paragraph 3: It was in 1964, the US passed a law preventing gender discrimination

against women. And perhaps a more important point, during the 1960s, almost all Ivy
League universities didn't grant admission to women. Women weren't even allowed to
enter Harvard's library till 1967. Till 1977, the male to female ratio was at 4:1.
Women had to be four times as smart as men to get admission to the same university.

Paragraph 4: Harvard had a sister school for women, Radcliffe College. It didn't
give the female students the same privileges that the male students got. It was
shut down only in 1999, and a common Harvard School was set up, where male and
female students could get admission without any discrimination.

Chapter 9: Racial Privilege

Paragraph 1: Second: had Bill Gates been black, it wouldn't have been possible.
Because the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, before this, the "blacks" weren't
allowed to enter in restaurants, cinema halls, churches or schools. Even in busses,
they had to sit in designated corner, while the buses used to be reserved for the
whites. People of colour weren't even allowed to vote in several southern states.

Paragraph 2: In 1968, when Bill Gates and Paul Allen were working on their
computers in the Computer Centre Corporation, Martin Luther King was assassinated,
because he was fighting for the rights of the people of colour. Throughout the
1960s, there were several riots for Black Rights over racial discrimination.
Chapter 10: Geographic and Economic Privilege

Paragraph 1: Third: had Bill Gates been born in some other country. Or even in
another US city. It might not have been possible. Bill and Paul lived in a
developed country, a developed city in a developed country. Had Bill Gates been
born in India, he might not have seen a computer before he turned 30. Because mass-
scale adoption of computers was seen in India after 1985.

Paragraph 2: But even if we talk about America, Seattle was an advanced city for
computers. Computer technology reached this city in the 1960s. The programming
language Basic was invented in this city. The computer that Bill and Paul were
using at the CCC store, was one of the first commercial systems, to be available in
the country.

Paragraph 3: Fourth: even if you were a white male living in Seattle, don't get
your hopes up, because not everyone living in Seattle had an access to computers.
Bill and Paul both were studying at a top-notch private school. The middle-class
people couldn't send their kids to the Lakeside School. Not only were they getting
a good quality education at the school, but they were also getting access to the
computers.

Paragraph 4: When Bill Gates experienced computers for the first time in 1965,
there were only about 22,000 computers all across America. While the population of
America was 200 million.

Chapter 11: Privilege of Affluent Parents

Paragraph 1: Fifth: the influence of parents. Paul Allen's father Ken, he was the
Associate Director at the Library of the University of Washington. Because of this,
Paul could access the books on computers. Bill Gates' parents were also on the
governing body of the university.

Paragraph 2: When the CCC store went bankrupt, Paul and Bill went to their parents
for help and they got access to the university's graduate computing centre at
Robert's Hall. There they worked with various computers. It was here that they saw
the first computer game of their lives.

Paragraph 3: Again, I'd like to repeat what I said in the video on nepotism, it
isn't a criticism, any parent would want to help their kids in any way possible. So
Paul and Bill got their parents' help, an advantage.

Paragraph 4: Later in his life, Paul built a library and a computer centre, and
named the library after his father for this reason. Bill Gates too got an advantage
of his father's profession. Bill Gates's father was a lawyer. Officially
registering Microsoft, renting a space, hiring people, fighting legal battles
against Altair, these would have been very difficult for a common man, but because
his father was a lawyer, Bill Gates could get a lot of legal help from his father.

Paragraph 5: On a related note, not everyone can afford to drop out of college.
Bill and Paul could afford this because they had their family's wealth as a
reserve. There's another man in our story, Monte Davidoff. When Paul and Bill were
working on Altair's Basic software, a crucial part of the software was written by
Monte. But when Paul and Bill offered Monte a permanent job at Microsoft, Monte
refused to drop out of college. He said that his father had a small hardware store,
so he couldn't afford to take such a big risk. He had to get a college degree. And
thus it is a very important point. Not everyone can afford to drop out of college.

Chapter 12: The IBM Deal

Paragraph 1: Next point: a major turning for Microsoft was when they got a contract
from IBM. Till then, Microsoft was a small company. But how did they get this
contract? There's an interesting story to it.

Paragraph 2: The Chairperson of IBM at the time was John Opel. He was also a board
member of a non-profit organisation United Way. A co-member of the board of this
organisation was Mary Maxwell Gates, Bill Gates' mother. She talked to Opel about
Microsoft. As Microsoft's competition, there was a big company called Digital
Research. It was much bigger than Microsoft. IBM wasn't able to negotiate properly
with it. So when Mary suggested Microsoft, IBM's Chairman decided to give a chance
to Microsoft. This chance that Microsoft got, was immensely important. They may not
have gotten this chance if Mary Gates was on the same board.

Paragraph 3: Not only this, friends, there's another twist in the story, regarding
IBM's contract. When Microsoft entered into a contract with IBM, Microsoft didn't
even have any software to sell. There was another company called Seattle Computer
products, that had a Q-DOS Operating System. Paul bought this Q-DOS operating
System, and gave it to IBM. It wasn't the exact copy, they made some modifications
to it. They changed the name too. From Q-DOS, it became MS-DOS. Microsoft DOS. And
you know how popular MS-DOS is today.

Chapter 13: Recognizing Privilege

Paragraph 1: But anyway, what I'm trying to say here is that these points, were the
privileges that Bill Gates and Paul Allen had, due to which they could be so
successful. With talent and hard work alone, perhaps Bill Gates couldn't have
reached the point he is at now. These are the things ignored by many. You can call
this Privilege Blindness. Ignoring privileges.

Paragraph 2: All of us have some privileges. We have different circumstances, we

have grown up in different environments, our parents have different backgrounds,
our caste, our religion, all these do make a difference. Due to these reasons, the
starting line for Bill Gates, was very ahead of that of a common person who was
born in India at the same time. There was a next to impossible chance that an
Indian could have reached the point that Bill Gates could reach then.

Paragraph 3: Today, obviously, the world has changed. But these privileges are
still valid. Though there are exact same privileges, obviously, there's higher
racial equality in America, there's more gender equality, there are more female
students at Harvard than males. But even today, in various countries, we get to see
privileges of different aspects. One of the aspects of this privilege is the
nepotism in Bollywood. Or when politicians' children become politicians. Being born
in a developed city, growing up there, being born in a background that saw no riots
and uprisings, all of these come together, to become an advantage for some of you.
And will be a disadvantage for the others.

Paragraph 4: A person who got these privileges, I'm not saying that he should be
robbed out of all privileges, but they need to acknowledge those privileges. People
shouldn't be blind to it. Look around you, and acknowledge these.

Paragraph 5: On a small scale, I can be an example of this. I could be successful

on YouTube, ignoring the talent and hard work, one of the reasons is also that from
my childhood I got exposure to the filming equipment. I could spend my free time on
an editing software to improve myself. I could get an early exposure to YouTube
that most of the Indians didn't. I knew about YouTube since 2010, I knew what it
was, its content, but most Indians could access the internet only after the launch
of Jio in 2016, So perhaps doing this would have been much more difficult for
someone else.
Paragraph 6: I want you to think about this too. Whatever you're doing in life,
whichever profession you're in, what are the privileges that you got that you could
reach where you are? Obviously, talent and hard work would always be a factor. But
on ignoring these factors, what were the privileges in your life? That helped you
reach where you are in your career. Comment below and let me know. It will be very
interesting to know.

Chapter 14: Exceptions Don't Negate Societal Issues

Paragraph 2: Now, you might say that there are examples of people who have truly
risen from the bottom to the top. There definitely are. Oprah Winfrey, Barack
Obama, but the point I'm trying to make is that they had to work much harder to
reach that point. They are the exceptions. Not the rule.

Paragraph 3: Based on the exceptions, you can't say that there are no problems in
society. Some people cite these exceptions as an example, to say that if they could
do it, it was possible for everyone else too. That no one should have a problem
with that.

Paragraph 4: "If Oprah Winfrey could get rich, poverty is just a 'state of mind'."
"If Barack Obama could become the President of the USA, there is no racism in
America." "If a Dalit, Ramnath Kovind is the current President of India, there's no
caste discrimination in India anymore." "If Kalpana Chawla could go to space, there
isn't any gender discrimination."

Paragraph 5: These statements are absolutely illogical. You can't negate the
problems based on exceptions. We should try to acknowledge our privileges, we
should identify the problems in the society, and should try to have the same
starting line for everyone.