William “Bill” Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955, in Seattle) is an American computer scientist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and co-founder, chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft Corporation. During his career at Microsoft, he held the positions of CEO and chief software architect and remains the company's largest individual shareholder, owning over 9 percent of the common stock. 1)
Bill Gates loves cleaning his own dinner dishes and does so most evenings. Some people volunteer, however, Gates says, “Other people volunteer but I like the way I do it.” 2)
Gates was infamous for f-bomb-filled rants in meetings and emails during his days at Microsoft. They weren't aimed at people. 3)
Bill Gates used to collect Porsches and loved driving them at reckless speeds. During his early days at Microsoft, Gates received so many speeding tickets that he was forced to recruit a traffic attorney. 4)
The majority of his fortune no longer comes from Microsoft. For years, Gates has been selling off stock, investing in other firms, and using all of it to support his charity work. His hidden investment arm is his company manager, Michael Larson. 5)
Gates wrote his first programming program on a General Electric computer as a young teenager at Lakeside Prep School. That was a tic-tac-toe variant, where you could play against a machine. 6)
Gates was imprisoned once in 1977 in New Mexico. He was driving without a license and ran a red light. 7)
Now, he has a plane of his own. He names it his “big splurge.” 8)
In addition to his aircraft, one of Gates' greatest splurges was the Codex Leicester, a series of writings by Leonardo da Vinci. He purchased the codex at a 1994 auction for $30.8 million. 9)
Gates claims his kids are only going to inherit $10 million each. Considering his vast fortune, it's just a small slice of his net worth of $81.1 billion. “Leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favor to them,” he says. 10)
As one of the richest individuals in the world, you'd imagine Bill Gates would be seeing green. In truth, he can't — the billionaire announced in a 2006 interview that he is colorblind. 11)
The timetable for Gates is scheduled down to the minute, but he somehow makes time to read 50 books each year somewhere. That’s almost a book per week. 12)
Gates has learned a variety of programming languages have been learned by Gates but he only speaks one human language: English. Despite having a hand in charitable endeavors across the globe, Gates has said that not learning to speak any languages other than his native English is one of his biggest regrets. 13)
In 2008, Gates starred alongside comedian Jerry Seinfeld in a series of Microsoft commercials. The ad featured the pair shopping at a discount shoe store, and when Gates holds up a membership pass, audiences will glimpse the 1977 mugshot from his speeding violation instead of the card's ID photo. 14)
Gates may be a machine magician, but that doesn't mean he lacks enthusiasm for art. He's known to be a music enthusiast and has said Weezer is his favorite American rock band. U2 and the fictitious punk group Spinal Tap are among his other favorites. 15)