When you think about the forces that shaped Bill Gates into the tech titan he became, you probably picture competitive drive, obsessive work ethic, and maybe some sharp elbows in the software business. But according to Gates himself, there's another ingredient in that origin story: psychedelics, courtesy of his late Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) co-founder Paul Allen.

The Friend Who Changed Everything

In "Source Code: My Beginnings," officially released February 4, 2025, Gates gets unusually candid about his formative years. Allen wasn't just the guy who helped him see the future of personal computing. He was also the friend who got him drunk for the first time, handed him marijuana, played him Jimi Hendrix records, and introduced him to LSD.

"He got me drunk, he gave me pot. This guy was a problem, Jimi Hendrix, I mean, he made me listen to that music," Gates told GeekWire in February 2025, with what sounds like affectionate exasperation about his old friend.

While Gates' parents provided structure and discipline, Allen represented something different: the person constantly daring him to push boundaries and try new things. It's an interesting dynamic when you think about it. The same person challenging your intellect is also the one handing you substances and asking, "So, what do you think happens if we try this?"

Curiosity, Insecurity And Bad Decisions

Gates writes in the memoir that he tried LSD four or five times total, starting in his teens and stopping in his early 20s. In an interview with PEOPLE published in January 2025, he explained that those experiences were driven by the same traits that later defined his business career: curiosity and risk-taking. But there was also teenage insecurity mixed in.

He described getting drunk for the first time and passing out. He experimented with marijuana partly hoping it would impress girls. "It didn't work out," Gates admitted, noting that his attempts to seem cool fell decidedly flat.

While some moments felt profound at the time, Gates now views them with healthy skepticism. He eventually gave up drugs because he valued mental clarity and worried about long-term effects on his mind. Looking back, he cautioned against romanticizing those experiences, pointing out that what felt insightful in the moment rarely was.

There's a fascinating footnote here: Gates previously revealed that the late Apple Inc. (AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs once told him he should have tried hallucinogenic drugs to make Microsoft products more appealing. Apparently even tech rivalry extended to debates about chemical enhancement of creativity.

From Teenage Experiments To Tech Empire

Fast forward from those youthful experiments, and Gates currently has a net worth of $118 billion, ranking him 18th on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. He stepped down as Microsoft CEO in 2000, the same year he established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Steve Ballmer, then Microsoft's president, succeeded Gates as CEO. Ballmer had joined Microsoft in 1980 after being recruited by Gates and was elevated to president in 1998.

The journey started early. Gates launched his first company at age 15 with Paul Allen, who later went on to co-found Microsoft alongside him. During Gates' tenure as CEO, Microsoft experienced years of strong growth, delivering substantial returns to investors and helping propel Gates to the position of the world's richest person from 1993 to 2007.

Microsoft went public in 1986 at $21 per share. Gates became a millionaire after retaining a 45% stake in the company. Currently, Microsoft has a market capitalization of $3.60 trillion.

It's worth noting that whatever experimentation happened in Gates' youth, he clearly figured out how to focus when it mattered. The mental clarity he eventually prioritized over substances seems to have served him well in building one of the most valuable companies in history. And his willingness to be honest about those early experiences, including the failures and embarrassments, adds an unexpected human dimension to a figure often viewed as pure calculating ambition.

The takeaway isn't that psychedelics build tech empires. It's that even the most successful people have messy, experimental teenage years, and that sometimes the same friend who challenges you intellectually is also the one making questionable suggestions about what to try on a Saturday night.