I'm the son of a billionaire who forged my own career path.

Pete Ballmer, Alisa Solo/Getty Images, Abanti Chowdhury/BI

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 29-year-old Pete Ballmer, a standup comedian and former product manager in San Francisco and one of the sons of billionaire and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. It has been edited for length and clarity.

As a kid, I liked computers. I used to subscribe to PCWorld Magazine because I liked reading about new products. I took computer science classes at my high school and really enjoyed them.