speed reading harvard

speed reading harvard

Bill Gates has created the world’s largest company, he is the world’s richest man and he has become the biggest charitable giver in history.
He may be a college drop-out and “computer geek” but rivals have often underestimated his abilities in the cut throat world of business.
Despite the wealth and ruthless domination of the global computer industry, Gates maintains it is the programming itself which is his abiding passion.

He stood down as chief executive of Microsoft in 2000, to focus on software development and the new challenges of the mobile internet age.
The one-time high school computer enthusiast – whose worth
passed the $100bn mark in 1999 – said he wanted to immerse
himself again in the work he loves most.
Early fascination
Gates has come to be known for his aggressive business
tactics and confrontational style of management.
He, and his company, have attracted a vast army of critics and enemies in recent years as their domination of the IT world has grown.
He was born on 28 October, 1955, growing up with two sisters in Seattle. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney, and their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher.
Gates began computing as a 13-year-old at the city’s Lakeside school.
By the age of 17, he had sold his first program – a timetabling system for the school, earning him $4,200.
It was at Lakeside that he met fellow student Paul Allen, who shared his fascination with computers.
During Gates’ stint at Harvard, the two teamed up to write the first computer language program written for a personal computer.
The PC’s maker, MITS, liked their work and the two friends established Microsoft in 1975, so-called because it provided microcomputer software.
Self-made billionaire
A year later, Gates dropped out of Harvard, once it became clear that the possibilities for Microsoft were bright.
The big break came in 1980 when an agreement was signed to provide the operating system that became known as MS-DOS, for IBM’s new personal computer.
In a contractual masterstroke, Microsoft was allowed to license the operating system to other manufacturers, spawning an industry of “IBM-compatible” personal computers which depended on Microsoft’s operating system.
That fuelled further growth, prompting the company to float in 1986, raising $61m.
Now a multi-millionaire, Allen had already stepped back from the frontline. But Gates continued to play the key role in the company’s growth, with his vision for networked computers proving central to Microsoft’s success.
However, his judgment has not always appeared flawless.
While sales and profits rocketed in the early 1990s, he was seen to have misjudged on a grand scale the possibilities and growth of the internet.
Outside of Microsoft he also has interests in biotech companies, sitting on the board of the Icos Corporation and has a stake in Darwin Molecular, a subsidiary of British-based Chiroscience.
Family man
He founded Corbis Corporation, which is developing a digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe.
His books, The Road Ahead and Business @ the Speed of Thought have both hit the best seller lists.
Gates married Melinda on New Year’s Day 1994.Together they have three children – Jennifer Katharine, born in 1996, Rory John, born in 1999, and Phoebe Adele, born in 2002
He met his wife in 1987 at a Microsoft press event in Manhattan. She was working for the company and later became one of the executives in charge of interactive content.
Other interests listed on his official website are reading and playing golf and bridge.
Gates and Melinda have been giving increasing amounts of money to charity, with his father running a foundation.
It has been endowed with billions to support initiatives in the areas of global health and education.
It is the world’s second richest philanthropic organization, and within shouting distance of the world number one, The Welcome Trust in the UK.
Bill Gates
Business Personality
Name at birth: William Gates III
Bill Gates is the head of the software company Microsoft and is one of the world’s wealthiest men. Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in the 1970s, though Allen left the company in 1983. Gates oversaw the invention and marketing of the MS-DOS operating system, the Windows operating interface, the Internet Explorer browser, and a multitude of other popular computer products. Along the way he gained a reputation for fierce competitiveness and aggressive business savvy. During the 1990s rising Microsoft stock prices made Gates the world’s wealthiest man; his wealth has at times exceeded $75 billion, making Gates a popular symbol of the ascendant computer geek of the late 20th century. In June of 2006, Gates announced that he would step down from day-to-day involvement in Microsoft by July of 2008. He said he would then remain chairman of the Microsoft board while focusing on his charitable foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Extra credit: Gates married Melinda French, a Microsoft employee, on 1 January 1994. The couple have three children: daughters Jennifer Katharine (b. 1996) and Phoebe Adele (b. 2002) and son Rory John (b. 1999)… Gates’s personal chartiable initiative, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has focused on global health issues, especially on preventing malaria and AIDS in poor countries; in 2005, ABC News reported that he had given away over six billion dollars in the previous five years… For their philanthropic activities, Time magazine named Bill and Melinda Gates (along with rock star and activist Bono) its Persons of the Year for 2005.

About the Author:

Article Source: ArticlesBase.comBill Gates Profile

Policy Debate in the News


The Product Development Challenge: Competing Through Speed, Quality, and Creativity


The Product Development Challenge: Competing Through Speed, Quality, and Creativity


$0.25


How do top product development companies gain competitive advantage? They bring rapidly evolving technologies to increasingly fragmented markets using the talents within the organization and those of suppliers, distributors, and customers. In this collection of articles and interviews from the Harvard Business Review, authorities describe successful practices and provide frameworks for managing th…

Harvard University Reading Course, Selections for Improving Speed of Comprehension: 3d rev. ed.


Harvard University Reading Course, Selections for Improving Speed of Comprehension: 3d rev. ed.


$2.00



Selections for improving speed of comprehension,


Selections for improving speed of comprehension,





Harvard University Professor Father Georges Florovsky Reading in One of Harvard's Libries


Harvard University Professor Father Georges Florovsky Reading in One of Harvard’s Libries


$69.99


Harvard University Professor Father Georges Florovsky Reading in One of Harvard’s Libries – Photographic Print

Light Speed: SAT Reading & Writing


Light Speed: SAT Reading & Writing


$8.99


Light Speed: SAT Reading & Writing

Speed Reading for Success (Unabridged)


Speed Reading for Success (Unabridged)


$11.99


Speed Reading for Success will show you how to read faster – and understand and recall what you have read….

Triple Your Reading Speed


Triple Your Reading Speed


$5.19


A complete program of practice exercises designed to improve reading speed and comprehension includes tips on study habits and test-taking skills. Reprint.

Speed Reading for Dummies (Paperback)


Speed Reading for Dummies (Paperback)


$23.08


A guide for time-pressed students and employees reveals how to change reading methods in order to process information more quickly and accurately while improving retention and recall, in a guide that outlines the latest speed-reading techniques for a variety of media. Original.

21st Century Guide to Increasing Your Reading Speed


21st Century Guide to Increasing Your Reading Speed


$11.2


21st Century Guide to Increasing Your Reading Speed

Member Reading Newspaper in Smoking Room at the Harvard Club Beneath a Rhino Head Trophy


Member Reading Newspaper in Smoking Room at the Harvard Club Beneath a Rhino Head Trophy


$69.99


Alfred Eisenstaedt Member Reading Newspaper in Smoking Room at the Harvard Club Beneath a Rhino Head Trophy – Photographic Print

Speed Reading For Professionals


Speed Reading For Professionals


$22.04


Barron`s Business Success books offer useful advice to career-minded men and women who are looking to get ahead in the business and corporate world. Titles touch on all levels of management, marketing, organization, and related business operations. Reading and comprehending a large number of documents and reports—many of them specialized and technical—is a vital task that is intrinsic to fulfilling management and executive responsibilities. The authors of this practical book recommend techniques and exercises designed to increase reading speed dramatically and to retain important information more easily. They also offer tips on methods for comprehending dry and often difficult reading matter.

Speed Reading For Professionals (Paperback)


Speed Reading For Professionals (Paperback)


$17.21


Barron`s Business Success books offer useful advice to career-minded men and women who are looking to get ahead in the business and corporate world. Titles touch on all levels of management, marketing, organization, and related business operations. Reading and comprehending a large number of documents and reports—many of them specialized and technical—is a vital task that is intrinsic to fulfilling management and executive responsibilities. The authors of this practical book recommend techniques and exercises designed to increase reading speed dramatically and to retain important information more easily. They also offer tips on methods for comprehending dry and often difficult reading matter.


Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogplay

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.