Bill Gates'S Family Story: Cold Water Spills The World'S Richest Man

The Wall Street journal recently interviewed the Bill Gate family, and Gates's father and family first published some little-known family stories. Bill Gate was quite rebellious when he was young. He used to quarrel with his mother. His steady father threw a glass of cold water on Gates's face angrily. However, this cold water has become a turning point in the unruly teenager's life. In the end, the teenager became the most famous founder of Microsoft and became the richest man in the world.

"As a father, I never thought that my stubborn son would eventually become my boss." Old Gates laughed at himself at a charity party in 2005.

Old Gates grew up in the city of the city of Seattle, which was 1 hours away from the city of Bill, and was seldom restrained. So he also fully respected his freedom.

Behind Bill Gate's success is a great man, Gates's father, William Gates. The 83 year old Gates, who is the co chair of the Bill Melinda Gates foundation, has been silent behind the scenes. Little is known about the outside world, just knowing that old Gates was a lawyer in Seattle, a veteran of the Second World War, a volunteer for nonprofit organizations, and a father of three children.

Young Bill almost had the understanding of an adult almost overnight, a balanced family broke the balance. Rebellious Gates often quarrelled with his mother, and it was old Gates who kept on balancing the family. Later, when young Gates was eager to join in the cruel commercial competition, his father became the most faithful adviser of his son. And when his son was rich, he was the father who led his son to charity.

And all of this must start with that cold water.

Harmonious family

Old Gates was taller and taller than his own son. Compared with his son, old Gates is more talkative. But the two characteristics of father and son are intelligence and directness. In his son's life, old Gates has always played a supporting role, silently supporting his son.

"As a father, I never thought that my stubborn son would eventually become my boss." Old Gates laughed at himself at a charity party in 2005.

"At the age of 11, Gates began to be very fond of arguing with others." Old Gates said in an interview. It was also from then on that Gates's character became irritable, which made the old Gates and his wife Marie headache.

Before that, Gates's family was calm and peaceful. Old Gates, wife Marie, and three children: old Christie, second child Bill and old Sanli. This is a close family. They play chess and table tennis together. There is also a family tradition: every Sunday evening there will be a sumptuous dinner at the same time; all members of the family will wear the same colored pajamas on Christmas day.

Old Gates is not a father who easily reveals his feelings. Maybe because of the relationship between the background of birth and the working environment, old Gates is short and cautious. Even at home, he is the image of a lawyer. "He (old Gates) went home and went straight to the table, then he ate. Unlike other affable fathers, the first thing to get home from work is to give their children a warm hug. The eldest daughter Christie said.

When Gates was young and busy with his career, his wife Marie took the responsibility of taking care of his children's daily life. Marie came from a wealthy family and his father was a banker in Seattle. Marie studied hard, loved sports, met Gates in college, and became a husband and wife.

Marie encouraged his children to develop in many ways. They not only had to work diligently in their studies, but also participated in sports and learning musical instruments. Bill had learned a trumpet for some time. As a well - born woman, Marie always instilled large family's upbringing into his children, such as neat clothes, punctuality, and excellent conversation and social skills. Most of the time, Bill could listen to his mother's teachings.

"She (Marie) is a very conscientious mother and has high expectations of us." Bill's younger sister Libby said, "not only in her academic performance, she also requires us to have good social skills."

Dispute of will

Bill Gate is very small and shows a bright side. His hobby is reading, and his parents are very supportive of his hobby. If Bill opens his mouth, his parents will buy any book for him.

But parents worry that Bill will become a nerd without knowing how to deal with people like this. They once tried to have a party at home and let Bill greet guests at the door. Also tried to let Bill in the old Gates's company party to serve as a waiter, in order to train Bill's affairs.

By the time he was 11 years old, Bill was mentally mature and always liked to take some deep questions, such as diplomacy, economy and life problems, to "embarrass" his parents.

"This is a good bud, which shows that the depth of Bill's understanding was deepening." Old Gates said. "But to be honest, his mother doesn't like him because sometimes problems are too sharp and we can't give him a perfect answer."

The contradiction between Bill and his mother became more and more intense as he grew older. Marie always nagged at Bill that he could keep his room clean, not to drag himself down while eating, or to always bite pencils.

At this time, he (old Gates) will act as a peacemaker. The two men who quarrelled with the red face were drawn up to calm the dispute. Christie said.

The quarrel between Bill and his mother came to a climax when he was 12 years old. One night, Bill shouted at his mother at the dinner table. Bill recalled afterwards that he was totally a self righteous bastard, and he shouted "sarcastic to his mother."

Next, the "peacemaker" old Gates poured a cup of water directly into Bill's face, which is the famous "water splashing incident".

"Thank you for bathing for me," cried Little Gates.

Old Gates seldom had such an uncool act. Although he had close ties with his children, he was very taciturn in daily life. After that, old Gates and Marie took Bill to the psychiatrist for advice. "I was arguing with my parents about who was the master of my life." Bill said this to the psychiatrist. Later, the psychologist suggested to Bill's parents that Bill was a very independent child, and that his fate in life would eventually be mastered by him. As a parent, old Gates and Marie had better let go and give him freedom.

Because of their growth experience, old Gates agreed with the advice of a psychiatrist. "Times are different," said old Gates. "He doesn't need to be cautious in all respects like I was when I was young." Old Gates came from a working family. He grew up in the city of the city of Seattle, which was a 1 hour voyage from the city of London. It was a place where blue collar workers gathered and grew up in such a place because their parents had no time to discipline their children, so the old Gates was less restrained. In the process of growing up, old Gates often needs to make plans and decisions for his own life.

So Gates and his wife made concessions to little Gates. Later, they sent Bill to school. They felt that Bill could get more freedom there. It's a private school called Lakeside School. It is now famous for its first contact with computers in Gates.

Gates said, from then on, he began to realize, "I don't have to prove myself in front of my parents, I must start thinking about what I should do to prove myself to the world".

Small and small independence

Because of the trust of their parents, from the age of 13, Bill began to enjoy the same age children do not have the freedom. He could spend all night studying programming in the computer room of University of Washington, and he could leave home and study experience everywhere. After going to university, Bill started working in an electrical appliance factory in South Washington to design computer programs for them. Also in University, Bill recognized his later life friend and career partner: Paul Alan. Two people worked together in the school to produce the first programming work, called "Traf-O-Data", which can calculate the total number of cars passing through a certain road within a certain period of time.

During this period, Bill's parents expressed support for any decisions made by his son, including Bill's decision to drop out of Harvard and move to Microsoft, New Mexico, to establish Microsoft. For old Gates and Marie, Bill's decision is far from their expectations of their sons, but they still give their support behind them.
Old Gates later said, "Bill and I are worried about Marie's decision. Marie may have more heart. Like both of us, we feel that our son is able to finish his university safely and get a degree. "

The unconditional support of parents has also become the main reason why Bill will move Microsoft to Seattle in the future. After returning to Seattle, Bill lived in a house not far from his parents' home. His mother, Marie, hired a babysitter to help Bill do housework. When Bill is going to attend an important meeting, Marie will come to help his son to pack up. Because living close, Marie also asked Bill not to forget his family tradition. He had to eat dinner every Sunday.

As a senior commercial lawyer, old Gates also played a great role in the development of his son's career. Because he has been working as a lawyer in small businesses, old Gates has accumulated many early connections for Microsoft's development. Old Gates even helped persuade his son at college to give up his studies and join Microsoft. The college student who was successfully persuaded by Gates was Steve Bulmer, who later became chief executive of Microsoft. Gates's law firm later became a legal adviser to Microsoft to solve legal problems for Microsoft.

When Microsoft grew stronger and began to attract people's attention, Bill worried that excessive media exposure would make his staff panic, while old Gates comforted him. After that, Microsoft quickly grew to be the leader of the software industry in the United States, and Gates became a billionaire. How to deal with huge wealth became a new problem that puzzled Gates family.

The edification of charity

After "getting rich overnight", old Gates persuaded his son to invest his property in charity. But Bill didn't agree with his father at first. Some people at the time recalled that, because they did not know how to deal with the money, Bill and his mother had a big row at old Gates's law firm.

"I just want to manage my company." Bill said to his mother like this. Bill later explained that he was not opposed to philanthropy at that time, but felt that the company was still developing and did not want to distract itself.

But in the end, Bill accepted his parents' opinions and started a donation project inside Microsoft to raise funds for charity United Way. Later, Bill joined the board of directors of United Way in 1980s, which was also followed by his parents' opinions.

But as Bill's wealth grew richer, letters from charitable organizations asking him to donate to Seattle Microsoft headquarters like snowflakes. Bill once said that he plans to take part in more charities, but only if he retires after he is more than 60 years old.

But this plan was later disrupted by Bill's mother's illness, and Marie was diagnosed with breast cancer. During her illness, she continued to persuade her son to devote more energy to charity. In June 1994, Marien died of breast cancer.

On the day of the funeral, old Gates told his children not to worry about him. "I still have at least 10 years to live." Old Gates said. But for the then 70 year old Gates, the loss of his beloved wife made him listless all day.

About 6 months later, old Gates and his son and daughter-in-law Melinda stood at the front of a cinema and lined up to buy tickets. At this time, old Gates put forward the idea of establishing a charitable foundation. He could help select the help letters sent to Microsoft headquarters and pick out people who really needed help, representing Microsoft to donate money to them.

A week later, Gates took out $100 million to start the "Bill and Melinda Gates charitable foundation" and commissioned his father to take charge of it. The foundation's first charity is the old Gates's own dinner table, the amount of $80 thousand, the recipient is a local cancer treatment center in Seattle.

Later, some executives from Microsoft retired to join the management of the foundation. Together with old Gates, they are making the foundation bigger and bigger, and the scope of donation extends to education and vaccine research and development.

Old Gates made no secret that he was just helping his son look after the foundation business. Once Bill and Melinda had time, he would give them the management of the foundation. After spending 54 years with her son, old Gates knew that the best way to get along with Bill was to give Bill free space.

"He has inherent ideas for anything." Old Gates said, "people in this family know not to argue with Bill, because he always wins, and it's a waste of time to fight."