It's not easy being the world's richest man.
Just ask Steve Sires, who isn't, but looks enough like Bill Gates to fool folks by the roomful.With his wire-rimmed spectacles, tousled hair and boyish expression, Sires draws stares in restaurants and gets requests from strangers for tips on Microsoft stock. Some cut the formalities and come right out with it: "How about a million?"
Sires' wife, Pam, pointed out his uncanny resemblance to Gates 10 years ago. As Gates became better known, she encouraged her husband to turn it to his advantage. She called Entco International, a company based in Lynnwood, Wash., that helps corporations plan meetings and other events and was seeking a Gates look-alike.
Sires began working with Entco in February and has made a handful of appearances so far at business parties and ribbon-cutting ceremonies. But he's one of the agency's star attractions, along with a George Burns look-alike and a Paul Allen clone, with whom Sires made a recent appearance at a grand opening event.
"Everyone was convinced it was (Bill)," said Entco president Terry Quick.
And the pay, while small by Gatesian standards, isn't bad: $800 to $2,000 per appearance.
John Pinette, a Microsoft spokesman, said the company had no comment on Sires.
Sires, 40, of suburban Bothell, is low-key about the resemblance to Gates.
"There are a lot of similarities, but we're not the same," he said. At 5 feet 8 inches tall, Sires says he's shorter than the 43-year-old billionaire, who's about 5-10. "And my face is chunkier."
There's also the difference between their bank balances - a point Sires says he's often ribbed about. And although he uses computers in his civil engineering design job at Reid Middleton, Sires says he doesn't write code.
Sires says he's still amazed by people's reaction to him. At a suburban ribbon-cutting last week, he was accosted by a representative of a California artist vying for a contract to produce works of art for Microsoft's headquarters.
But like the real Gates and his antitrust woes, Sires may soon be facing stiff competition: Entco has a Leonardo DiCaprio look-alike in the wings.
"I'm not quitting my day job yet," said Sires.