Entrepreneurs thrive at Rensselaer

Margaret M. Knight

To no one's surprise, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates topped Forbes magazine's 13th annual "world's billionaires" list this July. In October he will be just 44 years old.
 With $90 billion, Gates alone is worth as much as all of the nine wealthiest people listed 10 years ago. Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, took the number three spot with $30 billion and the firm's president, Steven Ballmer, ranked fourth with $19.5 billion. Three of the world's four wealthiest men from just one company in an industry that didn't exist 25 years ago!
 In fact, 25 years ago no one even suspected that we would be unable to survive without the technology being created by Gates and Allen at Microsoft, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniac at Apple Computer, and a few other brilliant "madmen" who gave us the personal computer.
 Love them or hate them, theirs is a story that fills us with as much awe as envy. It's a uniquely American adventure—the incredible story of how some talented kids turned their passion for technology into a global industry. It's about making history and changing forever the way we live, work, and communicate.
 It's also about changing forever the way we look at new ventures. And it's about money. Lots of money!