Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire

by Jim Erickson, James Wallace, Jim Erickson

Book Overview

This biography chronicles William Gates' rise as the most powerful player in the computer industry--a man who has revolutionized the software industry with the incredible growth of his Microsoft company, that now threatens gigantic IBM. Reveals Gates' personal quirks and idiosyncrasies which helped fuel his fierce competitive spirit. Interviews Gates' closest friends, associates and former employees, and details IBM's as well as Apples' efforts to...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471568864
• ISBN13: 9780471568865
• Release Date: April 1992
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Still a Good Read

Should I Buy This Book? The story is starting to get a bit dated but the book still has 95% of the Gates story warts and all. He is one of the most compelling and admired and maybe feared business leaders today. Unlike Jack Welch, another great leader and manager, he started from zero or near zero in a new field and (largely) owned the company. I remember seeing the personal computers for sale in the 70's - just pre Microsoft - that did not come with anything other than a very rudimentary software. He was one of the first people to recognize the dollar value of the software and to charge for its use in the hobby market. Since then he has dominated the market. Now there is a computer in virtually every office and home using his (expensive high margin) software. Now he has the resources to buy anything he wants, or to support any charity or university, or buy a sizeable portion of the stock in almost any company that he wishes. And of course he has no debt. He used no risky leverage or tricks. He took the software and generated billions of dollars in cash and securities on hand. It is quite the story. This is a relatively short book and an easy read. Frankly it is a must read for anyone running their own business and or in the Tech field. Gates is the statistical anomaly who sits at the very pinnacle. He is perched even above Warren Buffet the financial guru who is at least 20 years older than Gates. But Gates was astute enough to buy DOS for $50,000. and then had the business smarts and drive to market and sell the product. He was a hands on manager working long hours and a technical leader. He was (is) as smart or smarter than anyone else in the field. He did not invent any major new invention but he had the practical ability to take the product to market and make it work, make it better, and build a winning business. He hired great people and built a team that literally crushed the opposition including IBM and all foreign competitors in that area. It is only now two decades later that people are (seriously) starting to consider alternatives such as Linux, and these still have a lot of catch up to do. Still a great book and a great yarn. A must buy 5 stars.

Still relevant and thrilling in 2005

Although this book was written at a time when the authors found it necessary to explain what 'electronic mail, or e-mail' was, the insight into Bill Gates' life, methods and extraordinary success is timeless. It is hard to imagine much in this book is out of date, other than the estimate of Gates' wealth at the time ($4b). This is a well-written book and a fast read.

The rise and rise of Gates and Microsoft

This book is an excellent biography of Gates and that little startup company called Microsoft. The book is well written, the story flows chronologically, detailing Gates' childhood in the 1960's, his fascination--bordering on obsession--with computers, and his relentless focus on starting Microsoft. It is a fascinating story and full of parallels and insights for anyone starting a business in the technical field. Nobody is perfect, we all have flaws, including Gates, but he did almost everything right. He was focused, he had ambition, intelligence and he applied himself relentlessly. When it came time to take risk, he stepped up to the plate more than once, and when the pressure was on, he didn't buckle under. His detractors say he got lucky. Well as a famous athlete once said, "the harder I practice, the luckier I get." That phrase is applicable to Gates.

GREAT BOOK... BUY OVERDRIVE AS WELL!

Bill Gates is by far the most successful man of our time and probably of all time. This book explains gates earlier life in depth. Who was Bill Gates before the billions? This is all explained in this book. Gates' incredibly driven personality was always present even in his earlier years. Gates is today undoubtedly the most feared man in the industry and thought of by many as the most powerful man in the world. This book shows both sides of the man behind it all. Enemies and Allies alike are all shown in this book. He fought wars with Apple and IBM and had peace with people like his friend and partner in success Paul Allen and his mother. Is Gates really the "ruthless" billionaire as many consider him to be or a giving loving and gentle man as few people know? Well he's a little of both and the great insight that can be gained by many can be found here in this book. I previously read a book about Bill Gates by Johanthan Gatlin and this book is far less indepth and much more for a quick read. HARD DRIVE is a book I highly recommend to those of you who are interested in knowing all about Gates. A little out date, this book was released before the release of Microsoft Windows 95 which in many ways brought Bill Gates up in power almost twice as much. At the time this book was written he was the richest in America. Presently he is the richest in the world. I reccomend going out and buying the sequal to this book "Overdrive" which I am about to do. VERY GOOD BOOK OVERALL. Go out and get your self a copy today.

Sleep Under your Desk, Skip the Shower, Blow off Harvard

This is the first "big" biography of Gates and is written by local reporters with a feel for Seattle and the indigenous industry which has been guaranteed a place in world history all because Bill Gates decided to jump in his Porsche one day and get out of Albuquerque as fast as he could drive. Home to the ancestral Seattle, with Mom-very-rich-family and dad respected-lawyer with connections all over the place: None of which would have been worth anything unless Bill was obsessed with software, starting with Lunar Lander, traffic light control programs, and then of course the big IBM success.The intensity of Gates comes out clearly here. Wearing the smae shirt forever, paying some lady to do his laundry and pay his bills, ripping the radio out of his car so he can think more intently, sleeping under the desk. And lots of foul language. This strain of the book does not come out as clearly in later books, now that Gates is married, a major philanthropist, and under the gun of all of the politically connected Utah software Republicans he defeated in the business wars. The book has a funny scene where Gates refers to the 70 year old head of Novell as "Grandfather from Hell." When Judge Stanley Sporkin read this book over a weekend (hoping to develop more obsessive behavior like his anti-hero Bill?), it caused him to try to quash the DOJ consent decree negotiated with Microsoft in the first antitrust case. Sporkin saw something evil in Microsoft and Gates as a result of reading this book. Microsoft got Sporkin's judicial spike of the consent decree reversed by another court, and got Sporkin dumped from the case (I seem to recall).The childhood portions of the book are revealing. There are the usual recitations of how smart Bill was as a kid, but also a hint that he had to change schools because of adjustment problems. Prior to junior high.The early years in N.M. are recounted with a sense of drama, and in that sense, reading this book prepares you to understand more completely the details in the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" (e.g., the scene in the diner where Bill successfully argues Paul Allen into a larger equity chunk for Bill, less for Paul).Bill going "legal" early to protect the I.P. rights to Microsoft's software is also key to his later empire, and the authors cover it early, along with the court battles with the MIPS guy over rights to Bill and Paul's work.My reaction to reading this right after it came out was to buy stock in MSFT, which Judge Sporkin may have also done, I guess. I must have skipped over the rabid anti-Microsoft stage of my development. ... Bill owns it and stole it from Patterson? So what, he bought it.Gates seems to have the qualities of an inventor, a construction foreman, and a broker. This puts him in Henry Ford's league, and he seems to be a lot smarter, as well. Go Microsoft.