There are famous thinkers who have little in common with what drives them to strive for their personal and professional goals. Some famous thinkers have creative ideas that create a solid foundation for the creative process. Many of these ideas revolve around finding a solution to a problem or changing the way people think about future problems. There are two particularly famous thinkers: Sam Walton and Bill Gates. These two men were able to use the creative process to change the way people looked at the issues of the day. They each made specific contributions to society during difficult times. Bill Gates (William Henry Gates III) William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955. His parents were William Henry Gates, Jr. and Mary Maxwell. Bill's father was a prominent attorney in Seattle, Washington, and his mother was a teacher, regent of the University of Washington, and president of United Way International. Bill Gates' upbringing was one of privilege and opportunity, lacking nothing growing up. Bill was naturally curious and highly intelligent, which led him early in life to turn to computer technology. While in seventh grade, at age 13, he wrote his first computer program. It was there that he met his best friend and later business partner, Paul Allen. Gates went on to train a group of programmers in high school who automated their school's payroll system and then started a company called Traf-O-Data (Bill Gates, 2014). Traf-O-Data has previously sold traffic counting systems to local municipal governments. he completed his high school education (Bill Gates, 2014). Gates is perhaps one of the most famous college dropouts. He may have been accepted to Harvard, which is no small feat, but he never graduated; he drove... middle of paper ... before they happened, then capitalized (Friedman, 2004). Gates would seize on already established trends and then send his troops to exploit those trends (Gates, B. 2012). That's not to say Gates hasn't been pushed. Gates and Walton were extremely motivated and both wanted to win. The main difference between the two successful men is that Sam Walton paid more attention to his own results, while Bill Gates devotes 95% of his results to the common good. Sam Walton and Bill Gates used similar creative processes. They both wanted to improve existing processes. Walton didn't invent discount retailing, but he mastered the art of chain discounting. Bill Gates didn't invent the computer operating system, but he did create a way to adopt the operating system from a mainframe into a microcomputer and then into a personal computer..