--- title: Bill Gates Says This Is the Reason He’s So Successful description: Bill Gates says he wouldn't be successful if he was born into. low-income household, didn't have access to education during a Reddit AMA. authors: - name: Allana Akhtar url: https://money.com/author/allana-akhtar/ at_money_since: 2017 articles: 101 covers: - Career Advice - Business - Economy and Politics - Education - Identity Theft - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Technology former_staff: true published: '2018-03-01T19:06:10.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T10:03:10.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - Bill Gates word_count: 317 canonical: https://money.com/bill-gates-says-this-is-the-reason-hes-so-successful/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Goalkeepers: The Global Goals 2017](https://img.money.com/2018/03/180302-bill-gates-successful.jpg) *Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-founder Bill Gates speaks at Goalkeepers 2017, at Jazz at Lincoln Center on September 20, 2017 in New York City. Goalkeepers is organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to highlight progress against global poverty and disease, showcase solutions to help advance the Sustainable Development Goals (or Global Goals) and foster bold leadership to help accelerate the path to a more prosperous, healthy and just future.* Bill Gates hosted his 6th Reddit “Ask Me Anything” on Wednesday, where he answered a variety of questions, ranging from his thoughts on climate change to his [favorite beer](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/80ow6w/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/dux2p97/). The billionaire's most revealing responses, however, were on how he became so successful and rich. So what does he credit most? "I benefited from having a great education — public schools through 6th grade and then a great private School," Gates said. "So there is a good chance I would never have gotten turned on to software and math the way I did and therefore not as successful." The question was actually framed in a very interesting way: Would he have become so successful had he been from a low-income family. Gates’ father was a [prominent lawyer](https://money.com/wealth-secrets-billion-dollars-get-rich/) in his hometown of Seattle. At 13, he enrolled in Lakeside School, which was ranked the [number 6 best private school](https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-private-high-schools/) in the country. Gates went on to [attend Harvard University for two years](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1988080_1988093_1988082,00.html), before dropping out to start Microsoft. Gates has made it his mission to bring access to good education to lower-income communities around the world. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has made access to K-12 its #1 priority, having pledged [$1.7 billion to education reform](https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2017-10-19/gates-foundation-pledges-17-billion-to-k-12-education-will-focus-on-building-school-networks) late last year. A similar question earlier in the AMA broached the same topic of success: "I was a success in getting good grades and test scores in high school. I was a success at writing good code by my early 20s. The dream of the PC being an enabling tool came true by the 1990s, " he said. "Now I am working on being a good father and the ambitious goals of the Foundation including getting rid of polio and malaria. I think it is always good to have goals where your success is in doubt and I have that in many areas including the work I do on climate change." ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-says-this-is-the-reason-hes-so-successful/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Professional Development", "item": "https://money.com/professional-development/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Bill Gates Says This Is the Reason He’s So Successful" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-says-this-is-the-reason-hes-so-successful/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/bill-gates-says-this-is-the-reason-hes-so-successful/", "name": "Bill Gates Says This Is the Reason He’s So Successful", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2018-03-01T19:06:10.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-says-this-is-the-reason-hes-so-successful/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-says-this-is-the-reason-hes-so-successful/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T10:03:10.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Bill Gates Says This Is the Reason He’s So Successful", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/03/180302-bill-gates-successful.jpg", "width": 3000, "height": 1994, "caption": "180302-bill-gates-successful" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Allana Akhtar", "url": "https://money.com/author/allana-akhtar/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/allana-akhtar/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2018-03-01T19:06:10.000Z", "description": "Bill Gates says he wouldn't be successful if he was born into. low-income household, didn't have access to education during a Reddit AMA.", "abstract": "Bill Gates says he wouldn't be successful if he was born into. low-income household, didn't have access to education during a Reddit AMA.", "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-says-this-is-the-reason-hes-so-successful/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T10:03:10.000Z", "wordCount": 317, "keywords": [ "Bill Gates" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Career counseling", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career_counseling" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Professional development", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_development" ] } ] } ] } ```