Bill Gates’ motivation may have been sparked from the semi-success of his parents. They were established, after all. His father served in the U.S. Army and later attended college at the University of Washington. His mother also attended college at UW where she was a sorority president. She was also a member of an organization that is now known as the United Way.
Bill Gates was known for taking annual week-long vacations that he called “Think Week”. In 1995 he returned from his Think Week with a memo for his executive staff on the subject of the newest development, the internet, and Microsoft’s newest competitor, Netscape. Bill’s initiative to take time for himself to think could be attributed to his grandmother’s constant reminder for him to think. As a boy, he would even sit in his bedroom after dinner in which he said he was thinking.
Gates’ was determined to grow his company by placing his software everywhere that he could. His software was installed on nearly every computer hardware that was available, except for those made by Apple Inc, in which he later made an attempt to buy when he recognized them as the only competitor left. He even made a deal with AOL to put their icon on his software if they made Microsoft’s Internet Explorer their internet browser. His competitive nature directly relates to his childhood experiences. His Gam was a competitive card player who taught him how to play and “think smart”. Gates was also the fastest in his class at answering math drill questions and had already read the entire World Book Encyclopedia in the fourth grade.
Steve Jobs was a risk taker. We saw this throughout his entire career. The example that stands out the most would be the fact that he created his own technology world; today we use Apple iPhones that function on Apple operating systems and are equipped with Apple applications and even Apple’s own internet