| OK. It's obvious but maybe only in hindsight... I started programming computers when I was 10-11 yo. And that was with punch cards on a mainframe. How did I get access to that? Interest, good parents and luck. Bill Gates was a lot like me in that sense - he'd been involved using a time-share computer system all through high school (just as I was also). So he (like me) already had his first 10,000 hours of experience long before he got to Harvard (or I got to engineering school). It was already a 2nd nature skill. Ditto for me for electronics - started at the same age. Ditto for chemistry - started at the same age. So that's how I was the 4.0 curve-breaking in engineering school - I'd already been exposed to all of it just without some of the math and corner-knowledge. I got jobs over summers doing engineering straight out of high school. That included one summer job on a Naval Test Range operating and fixing radar systems - I'd already learned about similar systems through shortwave and amateur radio combined with my electronics building. I was already reading Skolnik's "Radar Handbook" book (and knew it existed) by sophomore year in high school. Note that I had ZERO romantic life and didn't lose my virginity until university plus I've been married and divorced twice - there's always a price - NOTHING is free. In the case of Bill Gates, I'm guessing he realized at Harvard "I'm not learning anything here; I already know what I want to do and even how to do it". Because he indeed could. Plus his family had money so he had options most people never have. That's not the only or even best path but it's a path. I "did time" in government, military and Fortune 20 corporate with my experience (which was ALWAYS a major career advancing asset) so when I decided to move to entrepreneurship, I'd learned a ton about economics, organization behavior, social interactions in addition to how to do things like project management, finance, etc. on top of multiplying up my technical knowledge and skills. That's another path. There is no "right path" BTW. You can NOT become successful just by practicing Cargo Cult behaviors of other successful people (e.g. Elizabeth Holmes cargo-culting on Steve Jobs by wearing the same kind of black turtleneck sweaters apparently for karma). You have to commit to something and enjoy the ride with all gusto. That's the only thing that works (though you never get a guarantee on success either - just table stakes) However, being conscientious and persistent are probably worth slavishly emulating. Those leverage well. |