A first-person monologue (YouTube video) by Larry Weidel recounting a chance encounter with Bill Gates at an early computer convention in Atlanta. The speaker explains that he is the cousin of Ed Roberts (founder of MITS and credited here with inventing the Altair personal computer) and describes how invoking Ed Roberts’ name caused Gates to stop and ask questions, illustrating how early supporters can change the trajectory of young talent. The piece emphasizes the moral: encourage and support emerging talent — those who help early are remembered. The story includes brief historical details about MITS, the Altair, and the early Microsoft founders (Paul Allen and Bill Gates).
It was Atlanta, Georgia Convention center, walking from the big CNN Omni Hotel. We were walking over there, a bunch of us walking together, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Actually, there wasn't that many. It was essentially three of us. It was me. And we're hustling. You know, you're, how. You know, when you're late to these meetings, conventions, you always hustle. So we're hustling. I guess I was a faster walker. I caught up in these two guys together. Turned out one was Bill Gates and the other one was his bodyguard. Yes, Bill did travel, but it was only one bodyguard. And so caught up with him, you know, we. By the time it came time to go down the escalator, I was right there with him. And so we had a little chat. I said, started talking to him and glad, glad you're here. Didn't know you came to Atlanta to these computer shows. Computer. It was one of these early computer shows. And I don't know if they had new products or he was just checking it out. And we were chit chatting back and forth and he was not, of course, really interested in chatting with me. We get down the bottom of the escalators and we start to walk off again. And I said, by the way, I said the reason I wanted to stop and say hello is that I'm Ed Roberts cousin. And immediately he stopped in his tracks because me, he didn't know Ed Roberts. Oh, yeah, he knew Ed Roberts. And I told him I was actually out in Albuquerque a couple of years before you guys showed up there, back when Ed was just doing the desktop calculator. And, you know, he smiled and everything. See, what happened was my cousin Ed is the guy who founded it, was the guy invented the personal computer at his company called mits M I T s Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry System. And his next big product was the personal computer. And Paul Allen and Gates were the guys at 19 years old, won the contract. Moved from Harvard, Boston out there, won the contract. And that's where Micro Soft, they were in charge of putting the software on this little Altair computer, which was the first personal computer, the Altair, I think it's 8,800. And they tell me they've got one under glass in the lobby of Microsoft out there in Seattle. Always have, have. So Anyway, micro instrumentation ba ba ba software for that Microsoft, 19 years old. See, my cousin was the guy who had believed in Gates early on and gave them the contract for this revolutionary thing now of course, Gates deserves all the credit. Marketing genius, every other kind of genius, but my cousin was the one who believed in him early. And even though they only stayed together working for a few years, he'll never forget the name Ed Roberts. And they kind of kept in touch over the years. And my cousin was very demanding. In fact, he's 6 5, brilliant intellect and very aggressive. Gates, at 19 years old, was known as the only one with enough backbone to stand up to him. They butted heads a lot, but my cousin was determined to get the most out of Gates and Gates was determined to be able to match him. They brought out the best in each other. In fact, one time Gates got down as a 19 year old and he was so disillusioned he wanted to sell Microsoft for $6,000. Because in the early days, everybody would just pass the software around each other and make copies and nobody would ever buy a new copy. So he said, this is never going to work. Software will never fly. I want to give you the company, but my cup. My cousin at that point came up with the idea. He said, I don't want you to do that. He said, son, you know you've worked too hard. He said, what I'm going to do starting immediately, I'm going to charge, put an extra $10 on the price of these things, load it before we ship it. And on that moment he created licensing of software and put that on there. And that gave Gates a reason not to sell. But see, all these are the early days. Little technical, sorry to bog you down, but here's the main thing. As soon as I said Ed Roberts, bam, stop in the tracks, ask questions. What's he doing now? Here he's in George. Is he doing well? You know, chat, chat, chat, chat, chat. And see, you remember, here's why I brought that out. I'm not saying this, that Bill Gates and I became lifelong buddies. No, that was the only time we ever talked. That was only Theo. But for this point, no matter how long you live, when you're helping young people out, you don't know what they're capable of. But you can know one thing. No matter how long you live or no matter how successful you get, you always remember the people who believed in you early because those were the difference makers and encouraged you when nobody else saw what you were capable of doing. Folks, be that person who helps those on the way up, be the one who encourages them when nobody is really looking out for them and encourage them to keep on going, maybe spend a little while, help them figure out some ways to work through the problem. They're at that, right? Because I tell you, if you help them when they need help the most, they, they'll remember you the rest of your life. You will be a special, special person. And folks, that's worth a whole lot more than just making money. All right. Let me know if you've got any experiences along that line. Leave it in the contact box. Subscribe to the videos if you haven't already, and come see us@whitelonwinning.com it.
