Should my child be sincerely super-rich or -poor?
True competitiveness and excellence are the mantras, Bill Gates as an example

Dr. Gunadhor S Okram *

Bill Gates in Berlin (2013) :: Pix - wikipedia/www.dts-nachrichtenagentur.de/nachrichtenbilder

These words what we are reading here is now-a-days normally typed through a personal computer (called also PC, in short). Many of us know that it is quite often in a Microsoft windows' 'word' software. The software 'word' is a part of several components of the main software called 'Microsoft windows', which have several versions and are developed as per the need of the society. This can be known as a part of the so-called information technology (IT). These versions are gradually developed like a human being is born as a baby. Then, it becomes slowly a child, a boy/ girl, an adult, man/woman and finally old man/woman.

As a baby turns older and older to become finally an old man/ woman, people believe that s/he becomes more and more wise. However, harder the person in her/ his studies, wiser normally s/he is. The same rule holds there also in Microsoft windows as the version increases more and more, its applicability becomes more and more versatile as per our societal need in information technology. In other words, the software becomes smarter and smarter as its version increases as its aging goes on and on. This makes us more versatile as the time passes by. If it is so, shall we raise a question: Who discovered this idea and who manages to upgrade this in this way what everybody likes?

This was discovered and founded by none other than Mr. Bill Gates (with Paul Allen) who is an entrepreneur and subsequently became one of the richest men in the world today!

One may also translate this modern miraculous item (Microsoft) as souls of computers and many more of modern gadgets. Means, without this, a computer is just a sophisticated-looking box of no use! That is, a computer without (Microsoft) software is a box like death body (corpse) of an animal/ a human without soul. This translates into the fact that this looking-like invisible software similar to our soul rules our academia or modern humans and hence into the fact that to rule somebody's mind and its body requires innovative knowledge (idea). This is above the normal way of thinking, a first class innovation!

This is what Bill Gates (and his friend Paul Allen) demonstrated to the modern world. Born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, USA, he (Bill) began to show an interest in computer programming at the age of 13 at the Lakeside School. He pursued his passion through college. Striking out on his own with his friend and business partner Paul Allen, Gates discovered himself at the right place at the right time. Through technological innovation, keen business strategy and aggressive business tactics, he built the world's largest software business, Microsoft, to make himself Bill gates of today.

Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle-class family with elder sister (Kristianne) and younger sister (Libby). William H. Gates Sr., their promising father who was a law student, met his future wife, Mary Maxwell. She was fond of athletics, outgoing, loves student affairs and leadership. They created a warm atmosphere in their home. All three children were encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence. Bill showed early signs of competitiveness and teamwork. He coordinated family athletic games at their summer house on Puget Sound and was also excelled at Monopoly; risk was his favorite. Mary, a brief career as a teacher, also served on several corporate boards, including those of the First Interstate Bank in Seattle (founded by her grandfather), the United Way and International Business Machines (IBM) takes care of Bill well. She often accompanies Bill along as volunteer in schools and at community organizations.

He was an avid reader as a child, spending many hours over reference books such as the encyclopedia. Around the age of 12, his parents were worried about his behavior. When Bill turned 13, they enrolled him at Seattle's Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school. He shined in nearly all his subjects, excelled in math and science, very well performed also in drama and English. The most dramatic outcome was his entrancement with what a computer could do and spent much of his free time working on a terminal, which was offered by a Seattle computer company for the students through the Mother's Club. He wrote a tic-tac-toe program in BASIC computer programming language that enabled users to play against the computer. This was his onset of the journey ….

Today, an owner of US$ 76 billion (Rs 4.5 lakh crore), , Bill is the richest man on earth by just his own talent, an organizational and extraordinary talent and its products something invisible like our souls, not with Boeing who possesses just US$40 billion (Rs 2.4 lakh crore) makes aircrafts in one of which passengers of six buses can seat! In other words, money creating power is not just the size of the product but the capability it possesses. Is it the reason that over a billion people use products of Bill while heftily sized Boeing aircrafts are used by a few million people? Similarly, most of the top richest people are from (tele) communications. It seems Facebook is to earn about Rs 500 crore in this general Indian election. They earn money sort of in GODLY manner, not by ghastly means.

This is where we can learn from: we should encourage our children hard work, sincerity, innovativeness, valued life, love for knowledge (philosophy), love for the environment (nature) and others, dutifulness, patriotism, punctuality, respect for elders and others, regards for others; not instant solution to get good marks in their exams by unfair means, insincerity, hate for others, laziness, dereliction of duty, unpunctuality, disregard of, and disrespect for, others.

The former (talent) constructs and develop the society systematically (like normal cells in our body) while the latter (materialism/greediness) destructs it systematically (like cancerous cells in our body) to ruins. If we choose the latter, our society may one day become just like man-like (monkeys) who (may perhaps) carry sophisticated smart mobiles and swanky cars with majestic houses with no moral values or knowledge as to how these gadgets work like those in Gulf countries, who import skilled people, not like those of America, Japan or European countries who export their products derived from their knowledge. A man without (using) knowledge may be no different from monkey or corpse. Which one should we choose from?

What (civilized) society appreciates are industrialized nations, not the wealthy nations. The former is synonymous with industrious people while the latter with lazy ones with lots of natural resources. If we do not have either, who should we be/ become? Our future wealth would then lie in nurturing our children for hard-work, sincerity, innovative knowledge, genuine competition, creativity, value-added life, strong desire for new knowledge, affection for environment (nature), dutifulness, obedience, patriotism, punctuality, respect and strive for excellence with kind regards to others. This will wholly lie with the concerted efforts of co-ordination of our parents, planners, administrators, employees and all who should create such an enviable environment synergically.