There seems to be a trend among tech execs: if you like technology, even from an early age, you tend to stick with it. This goes for Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, too. His first gig at 16 was as a computer programmer for TRW, an automotive company based in Michigan, when he was in high school.
In The Atlantic, Gates remembered his first job fondly: I was sort of infamous as a boy wonder of a certain type of programming[...] I was willing to work 18 hours a day and do hard stuff.
Today, Gates has since taken himself out of the programming side of tech, but is instead has dedicated the rest of his life to philanthropy with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — a family foundation created to help people live healthy, productive lives. The foundation is the largest private foundation in the world, and Gates has a net worth of $100 billion.
Source: Business Insider, The Atlantic