The Microsoft Millionaires Come of Age
By Julie Bick

An inspiring article from The New York Times. I would consider it a birthday gift.

Rich Tong said he knew that it was time to leave Microsoft when he made a presentation to its chief executive, Steve Ballmer, and was no longer scared. "I realized that if I could confidently tell him how I thought the company should be organized, then I was qualified to run my own business," Tong said. In his 12 years there, he led several marketing tea One helped raise sales of Windows to about $400 million a year, from $50 million, in two years.