My 'regard' wasn't in wealth. It was in regard to him being the CEO of a very important company. Maybe I didn't make it clear, but I don't consider personal wealth to be a criteria in determining if someone is interesting or not. Many many interesting people do attain some level of material wealth in their lives as a result of what they have done, but that doesn't make them interesting. It's the OTHER stuff that makes them interesting.
So what did Bill Gates do?
Bill Gates bought some code cheaply from a guy who didn't think there was anyone interested in it, repackaged it with a few tweaks here and there, and managed to get interest in the product he created. This is exactly the same thing that thousands of people do every year. Gates just managed to have a product that was unexpectedly about to have high demand, and the business acumen and drive to build an organization (Microsoft) which would then go on to hire and employ thousands of people in consolidating that first mover position.
Gates is no different from Ford, or Firestone, or JP Morgan, or Rockefeller, or Carlos Slim, or Sergei Brin, or Richard Branson, or the various magnates of Russia, or the guy who created Ikea, or Andrew Carnegie, or Boeing, or any number of other people who created large important businesses. It merely SEEMS like he's more important right now because his company was created rather recently, and as measured in current non inflation adjusted dollars he's on top of the biggest pile of cash. However he's also no different than the guys who created Myspace, Napster, Rothschild oil company, Sav-a-lot grocery stores, or Brim Coffee. In case you don't know of all these companies or people, don't feel bad. They all had great ideas, and launched them too, but did so at the wrong time, without quite the right technology, or into a political or economic environment that caused them to crash and burn.
