At 13, I realized that I could fix anything electronic. It was amazing, I could just do it. I started a business repairing radios. It grew to be one of the largest in Philadelphia.

Bose was awarded significant patents in two fields that continue to be important to the Bose Corporation. Bose first displayed his entrepreneurial skills and his interest in electronics at age thirteen when during the World War II years he enlisted school friends as co-workers in a small home business repairing model trains and home radios to supplement his family's income. In 2011 he was listed at #9 on the MIT150 list of the top 150 innovators and ideas from MIT.

In 2009 he had dropped off the billionaire list and made it back onto the list in 2011 with a net worth of $1. 8 billion. In 2011 he donated a majority of the company in form of non-voting shares to Massachusetts Institute of Technology to sustain and advance MIT’s education and research mission.