Chapter 12 11. Bill Gates: No one can bring you down except yourself

Bill Gates, one of the founders of Microsoft Corporation, former chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation. "The world's richest man", "business genius" and other attributives with infinite brilliance are the eternal aura of the name "Bill Gates". In the Zhiben era, Bill Gates is almost synonymous with wisdom, wealth, and dreams. In 1955, Bill Gates was born in an ordinary middle-class family in Seattle, Washington, USA, but since childhood Gates has shown his extremely high talent in mathematics and natural science. In 1967, Gates began to enter the private Lakeside Middle School, where Gates came into contact with computers for the first time, and since then formed an indissoluble bond with computers, and his amazing talent in computers is open and free in Lakeside Middle School. The atmosphere has been displayed and developed to the greatest extent, and Bill Gates' life has begun to become a legend.

In his teenage years, Gates has shown amazing business talent and talent in software design. At the age of 13, Gates started programming; at the age of 15, Gates led the school's computer programming team to compile a payroll program for a large company, and unexpectedly proposed a cooperation form of extracting profits based on copyright, showing shrewdness. Business awareness; at the age of 17, Gates sold the curriculum program to his school, which is still used by Lakeside Middle School; A company, they hire cheap student labor, solicit business, and look for all software projects that can make money; before entering university, Gates and Allen have firmly believed that computers will one day enter thousands of households like televisions, and Their goal is to put the software they design on every computer.

In 1973, Bill Gates entered Harvard University, but to no one's surprise, he dropped out of this world-renowned university two years later, and in 1975, he and Paul Allen co-founded the future giant of the software industry—— —Microsoft, at this time, Gates was 19 years old, what prompted him to make this amazing decision: We realized that the software era has arrived, and we have enough insight into the long-term potential of chips, what does this mean?I am not going to seize the opportunity now but to finish my Harvard studies. The software industry will never stand still and wait for me.Since then, the world has lost a mathematician or a lawyer, but has gained a software genius, business tycoon and a company called "Microsoft".At that time, Microsoft gathered a group of young people who were crazy about software. Under the leadership of Gates, the company gradually emerged. By 1980, Microsoft had the opportunity to cooperate with "Big Blue" IBM to develop it Software has ushered in a brilliant turning point in the development of Microsoft, and Microsoft has become a leader in the software industry.Subsequently, Gates judged with his excellent business sense and technical acumen that windows would become the mainstream in the future, and began to focus on the development of window systems. In 1985, he launched windows 1.0, which was continuously upgraded, and then launched office one after another. Office software, Internet browsers, search engines, etc., have dominated the software industry so far.

Bill Gates once told his university teacher that he would become a millionaire at the age of 30, but the fact is that he had become a billionaire at the age of 31, and became the richest man in the world at the age of 39. Standing on the throne of the richest man in the world. In June 2008, Bill Gates resigned from all positions at Microsoft to devote himself to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates invested almost all of his personal property in this foundation. Warren Buffett also Donated 85% of his personal property to the foundation and handed it over to the Gates couple. Since then, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has become the largest foundation in the world.

Some people say that Gates is a myth and a miracle, but others say that Gates is Satan and Hitler. Microsoft, which is deeply branded by Gates, seems to be invincible in the business world, but starting a business will never be smooth sailing, and it will never be possible to keep a business The weather is calm, the hardships in the early stage of starting a business, the huge risks brought about by wrong decisions, and the criticisms caused by being unruly, domineering, and powerful have turned into a severe crisis of life and death... The world is watching Microsoft as if watching a thrilling blockbuster. The sea of ​​business is turbulent, but Gates, relying on his devil-like mind, with no distractions and no fear, leads Microsoft to save the day and gallop forward time and time again.

Viewpoint: When you fall into artificial difficulties, don't complain, you should quietly cheer up and rise again.No one in this world can bring you down.If your own beliefs still stand. Rome wasn't built in a day, and Microsoft's business empire has experienced countless ups and downs.The repeated failure of Windows development was once the biggest pain in Microsoft's history. When Bill Gates was full of passion to compete for the Windows market, he encountered failures one after another, internal and external troubles.Great entrepreneurs never complain when they are in crisis, but cheer up silently.At this time, Gates calmly resisted internal and external pressures, and with his own beliefs, he led Microsoft out of the crisis and into further glory.

background of the crisis "In the history of Microsoft, there has never been such a sad and frustrating experience." It was Mike George, the main person in charge of Microsoft's Windows Research Group, who said this. In 1981, Apple pioneered the development of machine software called Macintosh, which provided users with an unprecedented graphical user interface.Bill Gates couldn't tolerate letting someone else take the lead, so the development window was even more urgent, and Gates hoped to make a comeback with this software with better performance.Gates attached great importance to the development of this software. He sought technical talents such as McGeorge from outside, and set aside 20 of Microsoft's best programmers to form a team and go all out for research and development.Moreover, Microsoft promised that this will be a disruptive new product, which has brought infinite reverie and expectations to the outside world.

However, due to the low memory capacity of the PC computer at that time, the speed of its 8088 microprocessor was too low to meet the needs of Windows. It is expected that Windows software has been developed for more than two years, but it has been mired in the quagmire without any substantial breakthroughs. The launch of Windows seems to be in the foreseeable future.In desperation, Microsoft had no choice but to announce that it would postpone the delivery time originally scheduled for the end of 1983 to the first quarter of the next year. Disgraceful, however, the really frustrating things happened one after another, and the consequences were completely beyond Gates' expectations.

In February, when more than 300 hardware and software companies rushed to Seattle hoping to get Microsoft's Windows documents, Microsoft announced again that it would postpone the delivery of Windows to May, and everyone returned disappointed; , Microsoft's sales managers had to visit each user company one by one, and apologized to them that the delivery of Windows software would be delayed again until August.After repeated delays, users gradually lost patience and began to explore the possibility of the VisiOn software of the "visual" company.This is an extremely dangerous signal for Microsoft. If the "visual" company achieves a technological breakthrough first, then Microsoft will miss this market, leaving only a sigh of regret.Fortunately, the VisiOn software and the "Top View" software that IBM personally launched later encountered a cold market response due to the lack of a complete breakthrough in technology, and people continued to look forward to the birth of Windows.This is a good opportunity for Microsoft to take a breather, but the invisible pressure is also increasing. If Windows still cannot meet people's expectations, it means that Microsoft will also withdraw from this competition. August came soon, however, Microsoft still handed in a blank paper. This time, after being disappointed, everyone had no patience, and the press began to do their best to sarcasm: "If you want to become a billionaire like Bill Rich man, you must first learn how to blow big bubbles with a diameter of more than one inch in public.” The cynicism of public opinion and the disappointment of the market put Microsoft in a dilemma, and the development of Windows was in a dilemma.

However, Gates, who insisted on making only the best software, advanced bravely with his strong beliefs. He rejected all the noise from the outside world and turned to continue to seek the crux of the company's internal problems.Aware of his own lack of experience in administrative management, Gates resolutely retreated to the chairman's seat and gave up the position of president to Shelly, who has superb organizational skills.And it is precisely because of this conversion that the development of Windows has taken a turn for the better.After some investigation, Shirley found that the slow progress of the Windows project was due to technical reasons, and the confusion in organization and management was an important reason for hindering the progress of the plan.After cutting through the mess quickly, Shirley began to make drastic changes and adjustments in personnel and organizational structure.At this time, Gates devoted himself to the formulation of the overall software framework and development direction.At the beginning of 1985, the development of Windows was finally on an orderly track. At this time, Gates showed the demeanor of a general who was not chaotic. In order to develop the perfect software as possible, Gates simply postponed the delivery time of the windows to June 1985.All doubts and criticisms from the outside world have become insignificant. In Gates' heart, he only wants his perfect window.Afterwards, Gates led Microsoft Windows to start the team's devil-style centralized development. Everyone lived in the laboratory, day and night, at full capacity, and all the designers entered a state of near madness.

Hard work pays off. In May 1985, Gates finally appeared at the Comdex computer show that year with a demo version of the Windows software, showing thousands of viewers the effect of opening or closing the "window" with the mouse and keyboard at the same time.At the same time announced that the Windows 1.0 software price is only 95 US dollars. One month later, Microsoft officially released the beta version of Windows 1.0.Since then, Microsoft's position in the software industry has become more difficult to shake.Subsequently, Microsoft continued to launch Windows 2.0, Windows 3.0, Windows 2000 and even VISTA with more complete performance. When Windows 3.0 was launched, it achieved an astonishing performance of 7 million sets sold in 1992. Relying on such an unrelenting drive to achieve its goals, Microsoft still insists on its own beliefs in times of crisis, firmly occupying the dominant position in software, and hardly giving any opportunities to any competitors, creating business miracles one after another. "Keep going, success is waiting for you at the next street corner." This is Bill Gates' understanding of success at the time. In fact, when you encounter setbacks in your career, if you retreat, then the setback will become a failure; If you always stick to your original beliefs, setbacks may turn into more glorious successes after tempering.No one can make you down except yourself, please don't bow to yourself. Viewpoint: Fairness does not always exist, and there are always some unsatisfactory places in all aspects.But as long as you adapt to it and stick to it, you can always get unexpected results. Some people say that apart from anti-monopoly, Microsoft is already invincible. It is anti-monopoly that once made Microsoft face the disaster of extinction, and it is more entangled like a nightmare.Microsoft has many grievances. In Gates’ mind, this is the biggest injustice. However, given the environment, Gates chose to face and accept this reality, persevere to the end, seek all possible breakthroughs, and finally break out of the cocoon. background of the crisis being targeted.The big tree of Microsoft is not only big, but also extremely high-profile and even domineering. Its large-scale acquisitions, unscrupulous competition, and strength that does not leave any room for competitors to survive. Don't touch the business that Gates wants to do", the two names "Bill Gates" and "Microsoft" have the lethality to make competitors shudder.Therefore, the shadow of "monopoly" has always shrouded Gates and Microsoft, and even caused Microsoft to face a catastrophe of disintegration. As early as 1993, the U.S. Federal Court announced that it would start investigating whether Microsoft had violated the antitrust law. The cause of the incident was that SATCELECTRONICS, a small software company in California, sued Microsoft for infringement. But the real headache for Microsoft was the antitrust charges brought by the Department of Justice for crushing the Netscape browser, which almost put Microsoft in danger of disintegration. In the mid-to-late 1990s, with the rapid development of computer technology and the rise of the Internet, Internet browser technology was in the ascendant, but Gatsbier, who had always had a foresight about future development trends, believed that the fate of the future computer world was still determined by "Windows". ” technology rather than browser technology.Therefore, Microsoft has no plans to develop browser technology.And it was this fatal mistake that was enough to destroy Microsoft, and it also made a small company called Netscape happily discover a ray of sunshine revealed in the shadow of the giant.In the next two years, Netscape focused on the development of browser technology and launched a new browser called "Navigator".Soon, a new software and hardware system based on the Internet and not related to Microsoft was formed for the first time.A group of Internet technology companies led by Netscape rose up in response, and quickly formed a new force that could faintly rival Microsoft.Everyone tacitly looked at the undeniable fact that if Netscape gained a monopoly advantage in the browser market, it would be entirely possible and powerful to launch a new operating system to replace Microsoft's Windows.All of a sudden, it seemed that the whole world saw that the foundation of Microsoft's empire was shaking, and countless people took a comfortable position to see how Microsoft and Gates would deal with this "self-inflicted" disaster. Obviously, Gates quickly realized how ridiculous his original decision was.Gates began to act quickly. After the strategic cooperation negotiations with Netscape broke down, relying on the strength of his wealth and wealth, in just one year, Microsoft spent 2 billion US dollars, and through various means such as purchases, mergers and developments, Microsoft quickly developed launched a browser product IE2.0.To destroy Netscape for good, Bill?Gates decided to make this product free and open.As soon as this decision came out, the browser market was in turmoil, because the Netscape browser charged $45 at that time, while IE's functions were similar to it, but it didn't charge a penny. Everyone was dumbfounded.Subsequently, Microsoft announced that it would bundle Windows 95 with IE. At that time, 85% of the computers in the world were installed with Windows 95, which almost squeezed out most of Netscape's market. The two main channels of the Internet - original equipment manufacturers and network service providers have signed a series of agreements, the core content of which is only one: to use IE instead of Netscape's "navigator" as the preferred browser they recommend to consumers . A series of strong counterattacks caught Netscape by surprise and retreated steadily.By 1998, Microsoft's IE had already occupied half of the web browser market, regaining the dominant position lost by Netscape's "Navigator" browser three years ago, and the once ambitious Netscape could only be forced to Give up the browser market.And Microsoft benefited more than this: it was in such competition and attacks that Microsoft completed the company's strategic transformation: from a PC software system technology provider to an Internet-based service provider.This has laid a solid foundation for Microsoft's future development. Seems like a perfectly won battle.However, Microsoft's strong approach also has a hidden crisis. In 1997, Microsoft and Netscape competed fiercely in the field of Internet browsers.In order to seize market share, Microsoft bundled its "Explorer" browser with Windows 95, which caused Netscape's market share to drop from nearly 90% to 50%, while Microsoft's share soared to 36%.This move aroused strong dissatisfaction from Netscape, and also attracted the attention of the Department of Justice. In October 1997, the Department of Justice filed a complaint against Microsoft to the District Court of Columbia, arguing that Microsoft should be fined a huge amount. In December, a Colombian district court rejected that claim. On May 18, 1998, the Department of Justice and 19 states and the District of Columbia filed antitrust charges against Microsoft. On October 19, Judge Thomas Jackson of the United States Federal District Court opened a trial on this high-profile "Microsoft Unfair Competition Case". On November 5, Jackson released a 207-page fact finding that Microsoft has a monopoly in the personal computer operating system. On January 13, 2000, under pressure, Bill Gates resigned as Microsoft CEO and was replaced by Steve Ballmer.By June, the situation had deteriorated further. Jackson ruled that Microsoft violated the antitrust law and should be divided into two, one operating the operating system of personal computers, and the other operating IE browser and office application software.For Microsoft, this judgment is tantamount to being sentenced to death. If Microsoft is divided into two, its unique advantages will no longer exist, and the Microsoft empire is about to fall.Microsoft refused to accept it and immediately appealed.As of June 28, 2001, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia's seven-judge jury unanimously overturned the initial ruling to split Microsoft.Microsoft escaped without a hitch. All of this is like a wonderful and exciting drama. For Microsoft, although it is "there is no way out, the willows are dark and the flowers are bright again", but the period is thrilling, and Gates feels extremely wronged and unfair. Such as the battlefield, in the concept of businessmen, the winner is the king and the loser is the most normal shopping mall rule. As a result, an anti-monopoly lawsuit almost ruined the entire Microsoft empire.But emotions can never be of real use. In the face of injustice, Gates’ response method is: first adapt to this environment, and then persist to the end, and eventually you will be able to achieve unexpected results. In the face of anti-monopoly lawsuits, Gates has always sought support from the widest possible range, including customers, partners, company shareholders, and more importantly, consumers. It clearly expresses this meaning to the public: everything Microsoft does is beneficial to the market and consumers, and the judgment of the Ministry of Justice will only benefit some of Microsoft's competitors, while harming the interests of the entire market and the computer industry. , Gates even raised it to the height of national interests.At the same time, Gates has repeatedly emphasized that Microsoft will always provide consumers with the best software as its mission.Indeed, during this period, Microsoft did not stop or even slow down the pace of technological development, and consumers have become highly dependent on Microsoft products. Therefore, to the surprise of the Ministry of Justice, in April 2000, according to the A poll conducted by the broadcaster showed that 62% of Americans disagreed with breaking up Microsoft into several smaller companies.And high-income Americans even complained about the government suing Microsoft, saying it was wrong to sue Microsoft.Those who win the hearts of the people win the world, and Gates obviously knows this well. In addition, Gates adopted the "curve to save the country" strategy.In the Clinton era ruled by the Democratic Party, the court's judgment was basically not conducive to Microsoft, and even a judgment to split Microsoft has been made.But Gates clearly saw the turning point that the political transition might bring, and began to pin his hopes on the 2000 US general election.During the lawsuit, Microsoft changed its previous style and began to vigorously invest in politics. According to the statistics of a research company, in 1997, Microsoft donated less than US$100,000 to the Republican and Democratic parties and their political candidates.But in 2000, Microsoft's political donations reached 6.1 million US dollars, of which 2/3 gave to Republicans represented by Bush.During the presidential election, Bush Jr., who is expected to become the next president of the United States, has repeatedly expressed his disapproval of the Department of Justice's sanctions against Microsoft, and even declared in public: "I support innovation, not legal proceedings." , "What I worry about is that once Microsoft is divided, this engine for innovation and growth will also be affected."Slowly, everything began to change in a more favorable direction for Microsoft. As the presidential election gradually settled, Microsoft finally got the expected "unexpected" turnaround. You can't expect the god of luck to always look after you. The business world is turbulent. The countermeasure should be to always be prepared with both hands: when luck and opportunity come, reach out and grab it; when injustice and crisis come, Face it, adapt to it, persevere to the end, do everything in your power, and then wait for the expected turnaround.