A lot of people were born into a similar situation as Gates. Very few achieved what he did.
This was written in the time of Microsoft invincibility, where everyone was afraid that Microsoft would enter their market with a free offering. Now it's the opposite - Mircosoft's stock has been flat since then, and they're the ones more concerned about cheaper competitors. It takes a little of the hating edge off of Gates.
The question is: Could Gates have achieved what he did had he not been born into a similar situation?
So the person born in the current Gates' situation would prolly have achieved what Gates did - given that Gates is who he is because he won the ovarian lottery.
If he had a twin brother he's be, say Larry Ellison or Warren Buffet?
No doubt knowing that daddy is there for you if you fail and that Harvard will take you back is a huge relief and fall back strategy but Gates did make some amazingly good decisions. Some forty years later his company is worth close to $300 Billion and makes over $20 Billion in profit, year after year.
I know another child entrepreneur, self-taught programmer who read encyclopedias front to back as a kid... elon musk.
No. But we're talking about having access to that machine in the first place.
I don't begrudge him his wealth even though a bulk of ti comes down to luck. Someone had to end up with the desktop OS monopoly.
Contrast to Enron today.