DKA: We thought we'd start talking about your family. Tell me some of the qualities that you attribute to your family that later shaped your career at Microsoft.
BG: My dad was a lawyer and my mom was very involved in business activities as a board member in non-profit organizations like running United Way Campaigns. She was the Director of the University of Washington, banks, that kind of thing. They shared what they were doing out in the world with my older sister and I as we were growing up. So, we always had a sense of, "Okay, this is the Governor coming to dinner, or here is this political campaign, let's get involved in this." I was a page down in the State Capitol of Olympia, Washington. Then I went out and spent some time being a page back in Washington, DC. I understood about contracts and things. I was interested in the business world, reading about it all the time. Sort of always playing around with the idea of "What would I end up eventually doing?"
DKA: Were other of your contemporaries equally interested in the business, or did you find yourself unusual among the groups?
BG: Well, when I went to Lakeside School, I was about 12 years old. I started there in seventh grade. That was kind of a change for me. It is a private boys' school. Very strict. At first I really didn't like the environment. I did eventually find some friends there, some of who had the same sort of interest, like reading business magazines and Fortune. We were always creating funny company names and having people send us their product literature[laughs]. Trying to think about how business worked. And in particular, looking at computer companies and what was going on with them.
DKA: What companies, in particular, did you like to follow?
BG: The first computer we used was a GE time-sharing system. It was connected over a phone line. Actually, the school couldn't afford a full phone line, so someone in the offices had a switch where you could take over the phone line. It was an ASR-33 Teletype with paper tape connected up to a GE computer. But, very quickly, we found out about PDP-8s, and eventually got one loaned to us. And then eventually, Data General Nova got loaned to us. So, it these companies making smaller computers that were very fascinating to us. Joining all the user groups. DEC had one called the DECUS User Group. Getting on every mailing list. In Datamation they had these bingo cards where you could check everything you were interested in. So, we just put our name down and checked everything in there and tried to learn about the world of computing.
Bill Gates Oral History
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