While the article lacks in certain places, this brief look at Bill Gates Sr. and his relationship with his son is an interesting read with a few amusing anecdotes about the mostly elusive Gates family.
[Bill Gates Sr.] and Mary brought their son to a therapist. “I’m at war with my parents over who is in control,” Bill Gates recalls telling the counselor. Reporting back, the counselor told his parents that their son would ultimately win the battle for independence, and their best course of action was to ease up on him. […]
They enrolled their son in a school that they thought would give him more freedom. That was the private Lakeside School, now known as the place where Bill Gates discovered computers.
Mr. Gates says he began to realize, “Hey, I don’t have to prove my position relative to my parents. I just have to figure out what I’m doing relative to the world.”
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One response to “Raising Bill Gates”
I doubt that Junior will enjoy the same success as Pappy had at Lakeside.
According to Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers (2008), when Bill Gates Senior entered Lakeside School at 13, he had unfettered access to a time sharing computer terminal connected to the local University mainframe. By the time Papa Gates finished high school he had racked up thousands of hours of programming experience at a time when most University students didn’t have access to mainframe computing hardware.
Privilege can be handed across generations, it seems, but luck and being born at the right time cannot …