Ross: Paul Allen was an idea man, and much more
Oct 16, 2018, 6:00 AM | Updated: 9:44 am
Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Bill Gates before becoming a billionaire philanthropist who invested in conservation, space travel, arts and culture, and professional sports. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Microsoft Founder Paul Allen died Monday at 65, but he had known since 1982 that he was on borrowed time.
PHOTOS: Paul Allen throughout the years
That’s when he was first diagnosed with Hodgkins and made two crucial decisions: to leave Microsoft, and to turn down Bill Gates offer to buy him out for five bucks a share.
That left him very wealthy and free to focus on his dreams. And his dad ran the University of Washington library, he grew up with a lot of dreams.
He knew the names of the Mercury astronauts by heart. So as an adult he bankrolled SpaceShip One – the first private vehicle to put a man into space.
He was hooked on Jimi Hendrix. So he built the Museum of Pop Culture. He loved concerts, so he bought Ticketmaster – expanding it into an online service that allowed customers to print tickets at home.
He grew up with a stack of National Geographics in the basement and loved fishing with his dad, so he built a ship to explore the oceans.
He wrote that he never forgot how great it felt to write that first version of BASIC for the company he called Microsoft. And spent his fortune trying to recreate that feeling – whether it made him richer or not.
It occurs to me that a lot of kids are born with Paul Allen’s obsessive curiosity.
Imagine if we educated every one of them as if they were going to have $20 billion someday. You never know.
RELATED: Allen teaches us to get busy living
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