“When people think of a hero they most likely think of Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man, but what they should think of is people that make a difference in the world” (“One of America’s Greatest” par. 2). This quote is saying that most people often forget to acknowledge the people who have strived to make a difference, but what people do acknowledge is what entertains them, such as the superheroes who don’t make any difference in their lives. Today, even the people who aren’t determined to succeed in life, want to have an easy life, but if one cannot be productive, they cannot achieve the goal of having a successful life ahead.
Some people devote their whole life to make difference in society for its betterment. Bill Gates, is one of those people, a hero and a philanthropist, who contributed his life to advance the world technologically as well as by other means to today’s era. Bill Gates is a Renaissance man, a person who is skilled in multiple fields or has a broad base of knowledge. Renaissance means “rebirth” because it is viewed as a time when art and literature reinvented itself. The Renaissance began in Italy in the late 1400s & began to spread throughout Europe during the 1500s.
The Renaissance ideal was humanism, and humans replaced God in the center of the universe” (Barnes par. 3). An example of an original Renaissance man was Michelangelo who was successful in multiple areas; he was a great poet, sculptor, painter, and architect. Michelangelo was widely considered to be one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance (“Michelangelo Buonarroti” par. 1). Today, Bill Gates can be seen as a modern-day Renaissance man, as he has proficiency in more than one fields.
Bill Gates is a modern-day Renaissance man because he is a philanthropist, founder of Microsoft, and a computer programmer. To start with, Bill Gates is a notable Renaissance man because he is an active philanthropist. Gates and his wife established the William H. Gates Foundation, a charitable fund to help people all around the world. According to Bill Gates, the main goal of the foundation is to “enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and… to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology” (Harvey par. 8).
The foundation is dedicated to reduce hunger and poverty, support education, world health, and investment for low-income communities. Bill Gates constantly strives to make the public school system more effective and innovative. By helping needy people, he has improved many people’s lives and has made a positive effect on the community financially. Consequently, Gates received numerous awards for his phenomenal philanthropic work. Bill Gates has not only helped the world in the field of technology, but has also helped poor and needy people and this is what makes Bill Gates a modern-day Renaissance man.
In addition, Bill Gates is a true Renaissance man because he is not only an active philanthropist, but he is also a founder of the Microsoft Corporation. Bill Gates has been a CEO of Microsoft in the past and is currently a CEO of Cascade Investment. “Bill Gates found the world’s largest software business, Microsoft, and subsequently became one of the richest men in the world” (“Bill Gates Biography” par. 1). He started from zero and put Microsoft to the summit of success. Bill Gates has worked very hard his entire life generating the Microsoft company.
He was only in high school when he first started working and analyzing computers. To pursue his career further, he used his outstanding talents and intelligence for the advancement of technology, and became a successful entrepreneur. Gates expanded his success with Windows OS and developed other user-friendly software applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Furthermore, he also provided thousands of people with jobs. Besides the fact that Bill Gates was an active philanthropist, he was a founder of the Microsoft Corporation as well and this exemplifies that Bill Gates is, indeed, a Renaissance man.
Lastly, Bill Gates is irrefutably a modern-day Renaissance man because in addition to being a founder of the Microsoft and being a philanthropist, Gates is also a computer programmer. “Gates wrote his first software program at the age of 13. In high school, he helped form a group of programmers who computerized their school’s payroll system and found Traf-O-Data, a company that sold traffic-counting systems to local governments” (“Bill Gates | American Computer Programmer” par. 2).
Bill Gates developed an early interest in computer science and started writing computer programs at a very young age because he was fascinated by how the machines would conduct software code perfectly. He spent countless hours learning how to program on various systems and thereafter pursued his passion through college (Haden par. 9). Gates has influenced thousands of people across the world with his extraordinary skills. Bill Gates is a successful programmer because people are able to share ideas and knowledge around the world using technology Bill Gates created.
Gates’s achievements highlight a bright future for the world as he has made so many changes in our world technologically, thus, this proves that Bill Gates is a Renaissance man. To conclude with, Bill Gates is a modern day Renaissance man because he is a philanthropist, founder and a former CEO of Microsoft, and a computer programmer. The success of Microsoft provided Gates with an enormous fortune, and he used it in a thoughtful way by helping people across the globe technologically as well as financially.
The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation is helping children and adults all over the world to provide proper education and reduce world hunger, and poverty. Bill Gates founded the world’s largest software business and expanded his success with Windows OS and developed other software applications. Bill Gates is clearly a modern Renaissance man because of his multitude of talents and actions, the most obvious ones being his active philanthropic actions, establishing the Microsoft Corporation, and lastly, being a successful computer programmer. Because of these marvelous qualities Bill Gates has, he is unquestionably a modern-day Renaissance man.
