He is Thomas Edison and Henry Ford rolled into one -- except that William Henry Gates III maybe smarter and more successful than either. He is America's richest man, and on the corporate landscape, he may well be the most feared. In less than a generation, Bill Gates has done nothing less than change the way we live and work.

Here is Bill Gate's story, taking you inside the mind of this brilliant visionary and inside the rise of Microsoft, the world's most succesful corporation. What unique combination of historical factors and personal qualities made Gates the right man at the right time? How did he invent an industry from scratch, and what choices -- from people to products -- made Microsoft the resounding success it has become? How has the company faces Apple, Netscape, and its other competitors and partners? From Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus to Gates' relationships with women and with other business people, like fellow billionaire Warren Buffett, here is a compelling portrait of a unique American citizen at the dawn of the twenty-first century: a man whose career, and his effect on our world, has only begun.