“Those who say it can’t be done need to get out of the way of those who are doing it.” Unknown
The entrepreneur of today’s world can be compared to the legendary Don Quixote: chasing windmills in search of great fortune.
The entrepreneurial journey that I would like to share with you in this article may come as a little surprise. I find it remarkable, but have hardly seen it mentioned in the press over the years.
Imagine the following scenario. The year is 1983. You are a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin, sitting in your bedroom playing on your computer.
1983. Before the Internet. Precomputers on every desk, in every room of the house. These were the days of PONG, where very few people sat around playing personal computers. (If you don’t know what PONG is, ask someone much older than you.)
Go back to your bedroom. You’re supposed to be in class. Instead, he’s sitting around playing on his computer and has a brilliant idea: the proverbial “light bulb” goes off in his head.
“I think I’ll start a computer company and compete with IBM!” Since no one is around to listen and tell you how ridiculous you sound, you continue.
You have no employees. No manufacturing facilities. No family in the computer business. You haven’t even worked for a computer company. Sure, you’ve been taking computers apart and putting them back together since you were 15, but come on! Compete with IBM? Everyone around you thinks you’ve lost your mind.
However, you think you have a better way.
You develop a passion for the idea of making better computers and selling them for less going direct to the consumer.
The story goes that mom and dad heard that their son was skipping a lot of classes so he could play on their computers. Mom and Dad decided to pay him a visit one day and caught him red-handed. After reading Michael the Riot Act, Michael’s father asked him what he wanted to do with his life. He told his dad that he wanted to compete with IBM.
Imagine that conversation!
And so it was that 19-year-old techno-teen boy genius Michael Dell, armed with just $1000, abandoned his plans to become a doctor and dropped out of college after his freshman year to take on the big boys: IBM, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard et al.
He believed he could outsource everything: manufacturing, distribution, sales, and service. Remember now, this was before the Internet. Global pre-subcontracting. He believed he could bypass costly traditional distribution channels and go directly to consumers, giving them exactly what they wanted: higher-quality, lower-cost computers made specifically for them.
He knew what his consumer wanted because he was his own consumer, frustrated by poor customer service, poor quality, nonexistent customization, and high prices.
The rest is history. Modern American business history, that is.
By the time Dell was 22 years old, his company had achieved annual sales of about $150 million. Starting with just $1000 and growing the company to a $1 billion public company (with a B!) in less than 10 years is a record few companies can match.
Today Dell, Inc. is a $57 billion company with the leading market share in the United States with more than 46,000 employees, including more than 16,000 in Central Texas. Dell is listed as the eighth richest person in the United States according to Forbes magazine (August 2007). Dell first entered the Forbes 400 Richest People in the United States list at the ripe old age of 26. It is said that he was worth over $20 billion by the age of 40.
Dell has been named “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Inc. magazine; PC Magazine “Man of the Year”; Worth magazine’s “Top CEO in American Business”; “CEO of the Year” from Financial World and Industry Week magazines.
Not bad for a college dropout.
Michael Dell. At 19, he realized that he could build a better mousetrap and sell it for less.
Simple form. Brilliant execution.
The first time I heard this story, I frankly didn’t believe it. A college freshman takes on IBM and wins? No way, my logical left brain said. There has to be more to this story!
No, this one falls into the “truth is stranger than fiction” category.
Michael Dell was just a brilliant kid with a brilliant idea. Driven by passion. Too young, too dumb, and certainly too focused to listen to the naysayers who said it couldn’t be done.
According to Dell, “Nobody told me we couldn’t do it, and if they did, I wasn’t listening.”
Good thing he wasn’t listening. In addition to revolutionizing the personal computer industry, Dell has donated more than $1 billion in stock to the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, now one of the largest foundations in the country. The foundation focuses on child health and education initiatives.
Although today’s story is about a mega-millionaire with a billion-dollar company, never forget that Michael Dell was once a lot like you and me. Just a boy with a dream that wouldn’t die.
