I, Cringely relates some of the backstory on the rise of Microsoft.

In the Boys’ Club that was Microsoft in those days, maybe the concept of mortality was too abstract, maybe Allen’s poor health wasn’t as obvious to those around him every day as it was to the IBM team that visited from time to time. To his credit, Allen stayed long enough to finish the job, delivering DOS 2.0 then leaving the company forever, eventually to have a bone marrow transplant that cured him completely.

But during one of those last long nights of working to finish-up DOS 2.0, something happened. I have heard this story from two people, each of whom was a friend of Allen’s and in a position to know. Each told me the same story the same way. I am not staking my reputation on the accuracy of the story, but I am saying I have it from two good sources. Paul Allen certainly won’t confirm or deny it, so I’ll just throw it out for you to consider.

During one of those last long nights working to deliver DOS 2.0 in early 1983, I am told that Paul Allen heard Gates and Ballmer discussing his health and talking about how to get his Microsoft shares back if Allen were to die.

I imagine the boys at PBS are just shocked and appalled by such behavior--I am not. What is missing from this story is the all important context.

Most of you reading this probably have a job. You get paid every couple of weeks, minus withholding and when you want to leave, you give two weeks notice and you're outta there--no harm, no foul. You put time in, and you got money out.

You may be considering becoming a business owner at some point, so it might be helpful to know what that is like, or at least some aspects of it.

You don't get a check every two weeks.

You work for years investing your body, soul and mind (Allen finished DOS 2.0 while deathly ill with Hodgkins disease), never knowing if its going to pan out or not. Meanwhile you buddies from school are getting promoted and buying BMWs.

You risk everything you have and often what you don't have in the hope of getting over the lip and finally making big money.

Even if you are successful, you proceed with the knowledge that you could lose it all at any time because of an economic downturn, a change in technology, government, resource costs, or any other turn of fortune.

From this perspective, it might be a little easier to understand Gates and Ballmer's concern about a third of the company's stock floating around with unknown passive partners. It bears recalling that Microsoft was not the industry titan that it is today--they were on the verge of closing a good deal that would only slightly reduce the ambiguous future the company faced. In new companies, stock in the "bright future" is the only thing one has to attract the talent to drive the company forward. You take out a third of the company and you have a serious problem.

Building a company is a choice to live in survival mode for many years and survival has its own logic and morals.

Bear that in mind when you consider handing over national security to Democrats...