| Spend time with the family of Bill Gates, and eventually someone will mention the water incident. The future software mogul was a headstrong 12-year-old and was having a particularly nasty argument with his mother at the dinner table. Fed up, his father threw a glass of cold water in the boy's face. 'Thanks for the shower,' the young Mr. Gates snapped. The incident lives in Gates family lore not just for its drama but also because it was a rare time that Bill Gates Sr., father of his famous namesake, lost his cool. The argument presaged a turning point in the life of a tempestuous boy that would set him on course to become the Bill Gates whom the public knows as co-founder of Microsoft Corp. and the world's richest man. Behind the Bill Gates success story is the other William Gates. The senior Mr. Gates balanced a family thrown off kilter by a boy who appeared to gain the intellect of an adult almost overnight. He served as a quiet counsel as his son jumped into and thrived in the cutthroat business world. When huge wealth put new pressure on the son, the elder Gates stepped in to start what is now the world's largest private philanthropy. Bill Gates Sr., 83 years old, is now co-chair of his son's $30 billion philanthropy, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He has avoided the spotlight. The public details of his life include little beyond his official biography at the foundation, which says he was a Seattle lawyer, World War II veteran, nonprofit volunteer and father of three. He has compiled his thoughts on life in a short book to be published next week. In interviews with The Wall Street Journal, Bill Gates Sr., Bill Gates and their family shared many details of the family's story for the first time, including Bill Gates Jr.'s experience in counseling and how his early interest in computers came about partly as a result of a family crisis. The sometimes colliding forces of discipline and freedom within the clan shaped the entrepreneur's character. The relationship between father and son entered a new phase when the software mogul began working full-time seven months ago at the Gates Foundation. For the past 13 years, the father has been the sole Gates family member with a daily presence at the foundation, starting it from the basement of his home and minding it while his son finished up his final decade running Microsoft. They now work directly together for the first time. At six-foot-six, Bill Gates Sr. is nearly a full head taller than his son. He's known to be more social than the younger Bill Gates, but they share a sharp intellect and a bluntness that can come across to some as curt. He isn't prone to introspection and he plays down his role in his son's life. 'As a father, I never imagined that the argumentative, young boy who grew up in my house, eating my food and using my name would be my future employer,' Mr. Gates Sr. told a group of nonprofit leaders in a 2005 speech. 'But that's what happened.' The first stage -- argumentative young boy -- 'started about the time he was 11,' Mr. Gates Sr. says in one of a series of interviews. That's about when young Bill became an adult, says Bill Sr., and an increasing headache for the family. Until that time, the Gates home had been peaceful. Bill Sr. and his wife, Mary, had three children: Kristi; then Bill, born in 1955; and Libby. It was a close family that thrived on competitions -- board games, cards, ping-pong. And on rituals: Sunday dinners at the same time every week, and at Christmas, matching pajamas for every family member. While very involved in his kids' lives, Mr. Gates Sr. was somewhat distant emotionally, which his children say probably reflects his generation. His stature, combined with a lawyerly bent for carefully choosing his words, also made him intimidating at times. 'He'd come home and he'd sit in a chair and eat dinner, but there was never any kind of warm, give-me-a-hug kind of thing,' says Kristi Blake, his oldest daughter. Mr. Gates Sr. left much of the day-to-day parenting to his wife while he was building his career at a Seattle law firm. Daughter of a Seattle banker, Ms. Gates had been an athlete and top student in high school and college, where she met Bill Sr. She became a full-time volunteer and served on corporate boards. Ms. Gates encouraged her kids to study hard, play sports and take music lessons. (Bill Gates tried the trombone with little success.) And she imparted a discipline that reflected her upbringing in a well-to-do family. She expected her kids to dress neatly, be punctual and socialize with the many adults who visited their home. For the most part, young Bill dutifully abided. 'She was the most engaged parent and she had high expectations of all of us,' says Libby Armintrout, Bill's younger sister. 'Not just grades and that sort of thing, but how we behaved in public, how we would be socially.' Bill Gates at an early age became a diligent learner. He read the World Book Encyclopedia series start to finish. His parents encouraged his appetite for reading by paying for any book he wanted. Still, they worried that he seemed to prefer books to people. They tried to temper that streak by forcing him to be a greeter at their parties and a waiter at his father's professional functions. Then, at age 11, Bill Sr. says, the son blossomed intellectually, peppering his parents with questions about international affairs, business and the nature of life. 'It was interesting and I thought it was great,' Mr. Gates Sr. says. 'Now, I will say to you, his mother did not appreciate it. It bothered her.' The son pushed against his mother's instinct to control him, sparking a battle of wills. All those things that she had expected of him -- a clean room, being at the dinner table on time, not biting his pencils -- suddenly turned into a big source of friction. The two fell into explosive arguments. 'He was nasty,' Ms. Armintrout says of her brother. Mr. Gates Sr. played the role of peacemaker. 'He'd sort of break them apart and calm things down,' says Ms. Blake, the eldest sibling. The battles reached a climax at dinner one night when Bill Gates was around 12. Over the table, he shouted at his mother, in what today he describes as 'utter, total sarcastic, smart-ass kid rudeness.' That's when Mr. Gates Sr., in a rare blast of temper, threw the glass of water in his son's face. He and Mary brought their son to a therapist. 'I'm at war with my parents over who is in control,' Bill Gates recalls telling the counselor. Reporting back, the counselor told his parents that their son would ultimately win the battle for independence, and their best course of action was to ease up on him. Mr. Gates Sr. understood that counsel because of his own childhood, an hour's ferry ride from Seattle in the working-class town of Bremerton. 'There wasn't a lot of structure to my growing up,' he says. 'I had an awful lot of discretion about where I went, what I did, who I did it with.' His mother was doting and easygoing. His sister, his only sibling, was seven years older. And his father was a workaholic who sacrificed child-rearing to work at a furniture store he owned with a partner. 'His complete focus was on the store,' Bill Sr. says. Mr. Gates Sr. early on built a life outside of his home. Next door, the Braman family had two boys for him to play with and a father who would become his most important role model. That man, Dorm Braman, had built his business and would later become a Naval officer, mayor of Seattle and a U.S. assistant secretary of transportation. In the late 1930s, Mr. Braman brought Bill Sr. on family road trips across the country. He was scoutmaster of Bill Sr.'s Boy Scout troop, leading the boys on hikes through the Olympic Mountains and driving them in a beat-up bus to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. The troop spent two years building a log house from Douglas firs they felled themselves. Mr. Braman had 'no sense of personal limitations whatsoever,' says Mr. Gates Sr. Bill Sr. and Mary ultimately took a page from that upbringing: They backed off. They enrolled their son in a school that they thought would give him more freedom. That was the private Lakeside School, now known as the place where Bill Gates discovered computers. Mr. Gates says he began to realize, ''Hey, I don't have to prove my position relative to my parents. I just have to figure out what I'm doing relative to the world.'' From age 13, he was given rare independence. He took off some nights to enjoy free use of the computers at the University of Washington. He spent chunks of time away from home -- much as his dad had done as a kid. He lived for a time in Olympia, where he was a page in the state legislature, and in Washington, D.C. as a Congressional page. During his senior year, he took a break from school to work as a programmer at a power plant in southern Washington. And in what would become his first major collaboration with Paul Allen, his future Microsoft cofounder, Mr. Gates designed the 'Traf-O-Data', a device for counting cars traveling over a section of road. His parents played supporting roles. They acquiesced when Bill quit Harvard and then moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to start Microsoft. It was a tough decision to back. 'Mary and I were both concerned about it -- I think she a bit more than I,' Bill Sr. says. 'Her expectations and mine were very ordinary expectations of people who have kids in college -- that they get a degree.' The family support was one reason Mr. Gates decided to move Microsoft to Seattle, where he settled into a house not far from his parents. Ms. Gates arranged to have a maid clean her son's house, and made sure he had clean shirts for his big meetings. She also insisted he kept observing the family traditions, including the weekly Sunday dinner at his parents' house. Mr. Gates Sr., drawing from his own experience as a lawyer guiding small companies, helped find Seattle businesspeople to serve on the Microsoft board. In 1980, Bill Gates brought his father along to dinner to help persuade college friend Steve Ballmer -- now Microsoft's chief executive -- to quit graduate school and join Microsoft. The father's law firm would also end up representing Microsoft, which became the firm's biggest client. Bill Sr. eased his son's worries about taking Microsoft public when Bill fretted that it would be a distraction for employees. The offering would turn Bill Gates into a billionaire. It also spawned the next challenge for the family. After the windfall, Ms. Gates pressed her son to get into philanthropy. At his father's law office late one night, someone present recalls, Bill quarreled with his mother as she urged him to give money away. 'I'm just trying to run my company!' he snapped, says the person in the office at the time. Mr. Gates says that at the time he wasn't opposed to philanthropic work, he just didn't want to be distracted from his duties at Microsoft. Eventually, she got her son to start a program at Microsoft to raise money for the United Way. He also followed his mother onto the national United Way board in the 1980s. But as Bill Gates's wealth grew, letters from Seattle-area nonprofits asking for donations piled up. He says he planned to get serious about philanthropy after retiring from Microsoft, or at about 60 years old. That plan would be fast-tracked after Ms. Gates was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer. As she battled the disease, she continued to urge her son to do more philanthropy. Ms. Gates passed away in June 1994. The day of her funeral, the Gates family had dinner at home. Bill Sr. told his children not to worry about him, saying that he had about 10 good years left in him. He was 70 at the time. Still, after his wife died he was listless. About six months later, standing in a line for a movie with his son and daughter-in-law, Melinda, the elder Mr. Gates again broached the idea of philanthropy. He suggested he could start sifting through the requests for money and give some out. A week later, the software mogul set aside about $100 million to create a foundation that his father could run. Bill Gates Sr. later sat at his kitchen table and wrote the first check, $80,000 to a local cancer program. In the early days, Mr. Gates Sr., who soon remarried, would scribble a few notes on the most-promising requests for donations. He would then put them in a cardboard wine box that he periodically sent to his son's house. The box would come back with Bill Jr.'s responses. Mr. Gates Sr. would then reply to all the grant seekers, sometimes including a $1 million check with little more than a single-page letter of congratulations. Bill Sr. and a former Microsoft executive managed the foundation, doling out money, overseeing a staff of hundreds and expanding its purview to areas like education and vaccines. Mr. Gates Sr. says he hasn't lost sight of the fact that he was playing the role of caretaker until his son and daughter-in-law took the helm. And after 53 years, he knows to give his son space. 'He has very fixed ideas of some things,' says Mr. Gates Sr. 'The dynamic of the family is that you don't cross him on those things, because it's a waste of time.' 跟比爾·蓋茨(Bill Gates)的家人一起談話，最后總會(huì)有人提到潑水事件。 當(dāng)時(shí)，這位后來(lái)的軟件業(yè)大亨還是個(gè)12歲的任性男孩，吃飯時(shí)跟母親吵了個(gè)天翻地覆。他父親在一旁實(shí)在受夠了，端起一杯冷水潑到了小蓋茨的臉上。 小蓋茨咬牙切齒地說(shuō)，感謝給我來(lái)了場(chǎng)淋浴。 蓋茨家的人之所以經(jīng)常提到這件事，不僅因?yàn)樗膽騽⌒裕€因?yàn)?，?duì)于老蓋茨(Bill Gates Sr.)來(lái)說(shuō)，這是他少有的發(fā)火的時(shí)候。這次吵架預(yù)示著一個(gè)性格暴躁的小男孩的生活將出現(xiàn)轉(zhuǎn)折，他從此走上一條使他成為日后為公眾所知的比爾·蓋茨的道路，成了微軟公司(Microsoft Corp.)的創(chuàng)始人、也是世界上最富有的人。 在比爾·蓋茨的成功故事背后，是他的父親老蓋茨。老蓋茨恢復(fù)了被一個(gè)男孩打破的家庭平衡，這個(gè)男孩彷佛一夜之間長(zhǎng)大了，具備了成年人的智慧。當(dāng)兒子沖進(jìn)殘酷的商業(yè)世界并在其中蓬勃發(fā)展的時(shí)候，老蓋茨靜靜地在一旁為他出謀劃策。當(dāng)巨大的財(cái)富給兒子帶來(lái)新的壓力時(shí)，老蓋茨加入進(jìn)來(lái)，發(fā)起了目前世界上規(guī)模最大的私人慈善基金。 這家基金名叫比爾及梅林達(dá)·蓋茨基金會(huì)(Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)，規(guī)模為300億美元。今年83歲的老蓋茨現(xiàn)在是基金會(huì)的聯(lián)席主席。他一向不愿拋頭露面。人們對(duì)其生活的了解僅限于從基金會(huì)得來(lái)的官方個(gè)人介紹。其中提到，他是西雅圖的一名律師，曾參加過(guò)二戰(zhàn)，當(dāng)過(guò)非營(yíng)利組織的志愿者，有三個(gè)孩子。他將自己對(duì)生活的想法寫成了一本小書，下周即將出版。 在接受《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》采訪時(shí)，蓋茨父子及他們的家人首次透露了他們家庭生活中的許多細(xì)節(jié)，包括小蓋茨從事咨詢業(yè)的經(jīng)歷，以及他早期對(duì)電腦的興趣在一定程度上可以說(shuō)是一場(chǎng)家庭危機(jī)的結(jié)果。家庭內(nèi)部講求紀(jì)律和追求自由的力量有時(shí)會(huì)互相沖突，而這些力量的共同作用塑造了比爾·蓋茨的性格。 隨著這位軟件巨頭7個(gè)月前開始全職為蓋茨基金會(huì)工作，父子間的關(guān)系也進(jìn)入一個(gè)新階段。在過(guò)去13年時(shí)間里，父親一直是所有家庭成員中唯一一位每天都會(huì)出現(xiàn)在基金會(huì)的人。他最早在家里的地下室里創(chuàng)辦了這個(gè)基金會(huì)，在兒子經(jīng)營(yíng)微軟的最后10年中，他一直照看著基金會(huì)?，F(xiàn)在，父子倆第一次直接在一起工作了。 老蓋茨身高6英尺6英寸，幾乎比兒子整整高出一頭。眾所周知，老蓋茨比兒子更擅長(zhǎng)交際，但他們都有敏銳的才智，而且同樣直率，這種直率在一些人看來(lái)可能有點(diǎn)唐突。他不喜歡反省自己，而且他不認(rèn)為自己在兒子的生活中有多大的重要性。 老蓋茨在2005年的一次演講中對(duì)一群非營(yíng)利組織的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者說(shuō)，作為一名父親，我從沒想到那個(gè)在我家里長(zhǎng)大、吃著我的飯、名字也跟我一樣的愛爭(zhēng)論的小男孩將來(lái)會(huì)成為我的老板。但事實(shí)就是這樣。 在系列采訪中的某一次，老蓋茨說(shuō)，蓋茨成長(zhǎng)的第一階段──愛爭(zhēng)論的小男孩──大約是從11歲的時(shí)候開始的。老蓋茨說(shuō)，大約就是那個(gè)時(shí)候，小比爾長(zhǎng)大了，而且越來(lái)越讓家里人頭痛。 在那之前，蓋茨家一直都很寧?kù)o。老蓋茨和妻子瑪麗有3個(gè)孩子：克里斯蒂(Kristi)、比爾（1955年出生）和利比(Libby)。這是一個(gè)親密的家庭，家人熱衷于競(jìng)賽：各種棋盤游戲、紙牌、乒乓球。還有各種固定習(xí)慣：比如每個(gè)周日同一時(shí)間的大餐；圣誕節(jié)的時(shí)候，全家每個(gè)人都穿同樣的睡衣。 雖然老蓋茨深深參與到孩子們的生活里，但他在感情上卻多少有點(diǎn)內(nèi)斂，孩子們認(rèn)為，這可能是他那代人的普遍特點(diǎn)。老蓋茨身材高大，加上身為律師喜歡小心措詞的習(xí)慣，也讓他有時(shí)顯得有點(diǎn)嚇人。他的大女兒克里斯蒂·布萊克(Kristi Blake)說(shuō)，他回到家，坐到椅子上然后吃飯，但從來(lái)沒有諸如來(lái)個(gè)擁抱這樣的溫馨舉動(dòng)。 在西雅圖一家律師事務(wù)所從業(yè)期間，老蓋茨將撫養(yǎng)孩子的日常工作大部分都留給了妻子。蓋茨太太是西雅圖一位銀行家的女兒，就讀高中和大學(xué)時(shí)，她一直都是運(yùn)動(dòng)員和優(yōu)秀學(xué)生。她是在大學(xué)遇到老蓋茨的。后來(lái)她成了一名全職志愿者，還曾在企業(yè)董事會(huì)任職。 瑪麗鼓勵(lì)孩子們刻苦學(xué)習(xí)，多運(yùn)動(dòng)，并學(xué)習(xí)音樂(lè)。（比爾·蓋茨曾學(xué)過(guò)長(zhǎng)號(hào)，但沒有什么建樹。）由于在富裕的家庭長(zhǎng)大，因此瑪麗有著自己教育孩子的方式。她希望孩子穿著得體、守時(shí)重信、熱情好客。小蓋茨在多數(shù)情況下都謹(jǐn)遵母命。 蓋茨的妹妹莉比·阿米特洛特(Libby Armintrout)說(shuō)，她是最忙碌的家長(zhǎng)，而且對(duì)我們抱有很高的期望。不僅關(guān)心我們的學(xué)習(xí)成績(jī)，還包括方方面面，比如我們?cè)诠矆?chǎng)合的行為，以及如何與人交往。 意志的斗爭(zhēng) 蓋茨從小就非常努力。他從頭到尾讀完了整部《世界大百科全書》。他的父母也鼓勵(lì)他多讀書，但凡蓋茨想讀的書，他們都會(huì)買給他。 不過(guò)，父母卻擔(dān)心蓋茨過(guò)于沉迷于書籍，而忽略了人際交往。他們強(qiáng)迫小蓋茨參加他們舉辦的聚會(huì)，并在父親的專業(yè)會(huì)議上充當(dāng)服務(wù)生，希望使其不再過(guò)度沉迷于書本。 老蓋茨說(shuō)，兒子在11歲時(shí)便表現(xiàn)出與眾不同的智力水平，經(jīng)常向父母問(wèn)一些國(guó)際關(guān)系、商業(yè)和生命本質(zhì)的問(wèn)題。 老蓋茨說(shuō)，這些問(wèn)題很有趣，我認(rèn)為這樣很好。現(xiàn)在可以告訴你，他母親并不欣賞這一點(diǎn)，甚至令她感到不安。 此時(shí)，蓋茨已開始不斷沖撞母親意欲控制他的本能，不斷引爆意志的較量?，旣悓?duì)兒子的一切期待──保持房間干凈、按時(shí)吃飯、不要咬鉛筆──忽然間成為雙方摩擦的起源。 最終，兩人爆發(fā)了一場(chǎng)激烈爭(zhēng)吵。 阿米特洛特在談到哥哥時(shí)說(shuō)，他真的很討厭。 老蓋茨則扮演了和事佬的角色。蓋茨的姐姐說(shuō)，他會(huì)將他們分開，安撫他們激動(dòng)的情緒。 蓋茨12歲那年，在一次晚餐時(shí)，他同母親的大戰(zhàn)終于達(dá)到了高潮。在餐桌上，蓋茨沖著母親大吵大嚷，他現(xiàn)在將其描述為“極其不敬，帶有狂妄自大的孩子般的粗魯”。 一向好脾氣的老蓋茨再也按捺不住心中怒火，將一杯水潑到了兒子的臉上。 他和妻子還帶孩子去看了心理醫(yī)生。蓋茨后來(lái)回憶道，他當(dāng)時(shí)向心理醫(yī)生說(shuō)，正在與想控制他的父母爆發(fā)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)。據(jù)說(shuō)心理醫(yī)生當(dāng)時(shí)告訴老蓋茨和瑪麗，他們的兒子最終將贏得“獨(dú)立戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)”的勝利，他們最好減少對(duì)他生活的干涉。 老蓋茨理解這番忠告。他在布雷默頓一個(gè)工人家庭長(zhǎng)大，從這里乘渡輪到西雅圖大約要一個(gè)小時(shí)。他說(shuō)，兒子與我的成長(zhǎng)環(huán)境截然不同。我開始認(rèn)真反省自己以前的行為以及與孩子的相處之道。 老蓋茨的母親對(duì)孩子比較溺愛，為人非常隨和。他只有一個(gè)年長(zhǎng)7歲的姐姐。他的父親是一個(gè)工作狂，與人合伙經(jīng)營(yíng)一家家具店，父親一門心思撲在工作上，沒有時(shí)間照顧孩子。老蓋茨說(shuō)，他把全部精力都花在打理店鋪上。 老蓋茨的人生軌跡深受另一個(gè)家庭的影響，這就是隔壁的布拉曼(Braman)一家。布拉曼的兩個(gè)孩子成為他的玩伴，而父親多姆·布拉曼(Dorm Braman)則成為老蓋茨最重要的榜樣。 布拉曼自己創(chuàng)立了企業(yè)，后來(lái)曾擔(dān)任海軍軍官、西雅圖市市長(zhǎng)以及美國(guó)運(yùn)輸部副部長(zhǎng)。上世紀(jì)30年代末，布拉曼一家?guī)е仙w茨踏上了足跡遍布美國(guó)的公路之旅。在老蓋茨成為童子軍一員時(shí)，布拉曼曾是他們的團(tuán)長(zhǎng)，帶領(lǐng)他們攀登奧林匹克山，搭乘破舊的公共汽車游覽黃石公園及冰川國(guó)家公園。這支童子軍團(tuán)花了兩年時(shí)間，用自己砍伐的花旗松建造了一座木屋。老蓋茨說(shuō)，布拉曼沒有任何性格缺陷。 老蓋茨和瑪麗最終掀開了撫養(yǎng)孩子的重要一頁(yè)：選擇放手。他們把兒子送到認(rèn)為會(huì)給予孩子更大自由的學(xué)校。蓋茨就讀的是私立湖濱學(xué)校，這所學(xué)?，F(xiàn)在因成為蓋茨首次接觸到計(jì)算機(jī)的地方而聞名于世。 蓋茨說(shuō)，他開始意識(shí)到，他沒有必要證明自己在父母面前的地位，而是要向這個(gè)世界證明他自己。 少見的獨(dú)立性 從13歲開始，蓋茨就有了相當(dāng)大的獨(dú)立性，這在當(dāng)時(shí)很少見。有些晚上，他會(huì)去華盛頓大學(xué)享受免費(fèi)使用的電腦。他大部分時(shí)間都不呆在家里，就像他父親小時(shí)候一樣。蓋茨曾在奧林匹亞呆過(guò)，在那里的州立法機(jī)構(gòu)聽差，也曾在華盛頓特區(qū)的國(guó)會(huì)聽差。大四時(shí)，他休學(xué)去華盛頓州南部的一個(gè)發(fā)電廠做了程序員。當(dāng)時(shí)，蓋茨與未來(lái)的微軟聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人保羅·艾倫(Paul Allen)聯(lián)手設(shè)計(jì)了用于計(jì)算道路車流量的“Traf-O-Data”設(shè)備，這也是兩人之間的首次主要合作。 他的父母對(duì)他非常支持。當(dāng)蓋茨從哈佛退學(xué)，搬到新墨西哥州阿爾帕克基開創(chuàng)微軟時(shí)，他們默許了。像蓋茨這樣的決定通常很難獲得支持的。 蓋茨的父親說(shuō)，我和瑪麗都對(duì)他的決定很擔(dān)心，我想她比我還要更加擔(dān)心一點(diǎn)兒；我們倆的期望和那些正在上大學(xué)的孩子們的父母?jìng)兊钠椒财谕粯?，就是希望孩子能拿學(xué)位。 家人的支持是蓋茨決定將微軟搬到西雅圖的原因之一，他在距離父母家不遠(yuǎn)的一座房子里安頓下來(lái)。蓋茨的母親安排了一個(gè)女傭打掃兒子的房子，保證他在參加重大會(huì)議時(shí)有干凈的襯衫可以穿。她還堅(jiān)持讓蓋茨遵照家族傳統(tǒng)，包括每周日要到父母家里共進(jìn)晚餐。 蓋茨的父親利用自己為小企業(yè)提供咨詢的律師經(jīng)歷，幫助找到西雅圖的商人加入微軟董事會(huì)。1980年，蓋茨帶著他的父親一起赴宴，幫助說(shuō)服蓋茨大學(xué)時(shí)的朋友、如今的微軟首席執(zhí)行長(zhǎng)鮑爾默(Steve Ballmer)放棄研究生學(xué)業(yè)，加入微軟。蓋茨父親的律師事務(wù)所后來(lái)還成了微軟的代理，它的最大客戶就是微軟。 微軟在面臨上市問(wèn)題時(shí)，蓋茨擔(dān)心這會(huì)讓員工分心，他的父親打消了他的疑慮。上市讓蓋茨成了億萬(wàn)富翁，也醞釀了蓋茨一家將要面對(duì)的新一輪挑戰(zhàn)。 走上慈善事業(yè)之路 微軟上市大賺一筆后，蓋茨的母親力勸他從事慈善事業(yè)。當(dāng)時(shí)在場(chǎng)的一個(gè)人回憶說(shuō)，一天晚上在蓋茨父親的律師事務(wù)所里，當(dāng)蓋茨的母親勸他捐錢的時(shí)候，兩人吵了起來(lái)。 這個(gè)當(dāng)時(shí)在辦公室的人說(shuō)，蓋茨嚷道：“我只是想經(jīng)營(yíng)我的公司”。蓋茨表示，當(dāng)時(shí)他并不反對(duì)慈善事業(yè)，他只是不想從微軟的工作中分心。 最后，蓋茨的母親成功說(shuō)服他在微軟啟動(dòng)一個(gè)計(jì)劃，為美國(guó)聯(lián)合慈善總會(huì)(United Way)籌集善款。他還跟隨母親的腳步，于80年代加入了美國(guó)聯(lián)合慈善總會(huì)的董事會(huì)。 不過(guò)隨著蓋茨財(cái)富的增加，西雅圖地區(qū)非營(yíng)利機(jī)構(gòu)請(qǐng)求捐款的信件像雪片一樣飛來(lái)。蓋茨說(shuō)，他曾計(jì)劃從微軟退休后或是在60歲左右的時(shí)候，專心做慈善事業(yè)。 在蓋茨的母親被診斷患上一種罕見的乳腺癌之后，這個(gè)計(jì)劃的進(jìn)度就加快了。在她與疾病抗?fàn)幤陂g，她仍在勸說(shuō)兒子更多地投入慈善事業(yè)。蓋茨的母親于1994年6月去世。 葬禮的當(dāng)天，蓋茨一家在家共進(jìn)了晚餐。蓋茨的父親告訴孩子們不要擔(dān)心他，他說(shuō)他還能再活上10年。當(dāng)時(shí)他70歲。不過(guò)，在他的妻子去世之后，他就沒什么精神了。 大約6個(gè)月之后，在和蓋茨小兩口子一起排隊(duì)進(jìn)電影院時(shí)，老蓋茨再次提起慈善事業(yè)的想法。他建議蓋茨可以開始篩選募捐請(qǐng)求，并捐出一部分錢。 一周后，軟件大亨蓋茨撥出約1億美元?jiǎng)?chuàng)建了一個(gè)基金會(huì)，讓他的父親經(jīng)營(yíng)。蓋茨的父親后來(lái)坐在廚房的桌子邊，開出了基金會(huì)的第一張支票，給當(dāng)?shù)匾豁?xiàng)癌癥計(jì)劃捐款8萬(wàn)美元。 開始時(shí)，蓋茨的父親（他很快又再婚了）會(huì)在最有希望獲得捐款的請(qǐng)求上草草地做點(diǎn)注釋。然后放在一個(gè)裝葡萄酒的紙盒子里，定期送到兒子家。這個(gè)盒子隨后會(huì)返回來(lái)，上面附有蓋茨的回復(fù)。蓋茨的父親之后會(huì)向所有募捐人回信，有時(shí)候會(huì)附帶一張100萬(wàn)美元的支票和一頁(yè)紙多一點(diǎn)兒的祝賀信。 蓋茨的父親和一位微軟前高管共同管理這個(gè)基金會(huì)，捐錢、監(jiān)督數(shù)百名工作人員、將捐款范圍擴(kuò)大到教育和疫苗研制。 蓋茨父親說(shuō)，他一直沒有忘記這樣一個(gè)事實(shí)，直到他的兒子和兒媳接管之前，他都是在扮演看管人的角色。53年后，他知道要給兒子空間。 蓋茨父親說(shuō)，蓋茨對(duì)一些事情的看法非常頑固，我們家庭的活力就在于在這些事情上不要干涉他，因?yàn)檫@只會(huì)是浪費(fèi)時(shí)間而已。 （實(shí)習(xí)編輯：顧萍） |
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