After his failed Hollywood experiences, Ballmer finally enrolled at SBS in the fall of 1979 and immediately began to excel to the same degree he had at college.

After the first year of a two-year course, two different consulting companies offered $10,000 prizes to SBS’ most promising students and, in 1980, Ballmer won both prizes.

But, according to Manse, Ballmer had developed a desire to be in a leadership position and was disillusioned with many of his summer job offers from large corporations.

It was during this summer that Gates first approached Ballmer about working at Microsoft.

Ballmer needed little persuasion and it was a matter of days before he accepted the job on a full-time basis.

While there was a little wrangling over the details of Ballmer’s remuneration package, Ballmer finally accepted an offer of $50,000 and seven percent of the company.

Building an Empire

When Ballmer became General Manager, Microsoft was in shambles.

The accounting was being done in unorganized ledgers and the management hierarchy was almost non-existent—most of the 27 employees reported directly to Gates.

“Steve put the company itself on a business footing,” Manse says. “This was maybe Steve’s most important contribution to the company.”

Within several months, Ballmer had defined a clear organizational structure, introduced modern accounting practices, and begun to institute the rigorous recruiting practices that would become one of the key factors in Microsoft’s future success.

Ballmer’s next major contribution to the company came in late 1981, when he secured a deal with IBM to outfit all new personal computers with MS-DOS, BASIC and other Microsoft programs.

This was a huge breakthrough, as not only did it give Microsoft a steady and reliable revenue stream, but it also established its legitimacy as a software developer.