Earn money from nothing. The story of Michael Dell

Young people did not hurt either – Michael Soul Dell was born on February 23, 1965, when Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had already managed to unlearn at least some clbades at school. The parents saw his son's future in medicine: successful doctors in the United States were doing well, and Father Alexander Dell, who was working as an orthodontist, was probably giving the boy an example. Lorraine Charlotte, Michael's mother, was selling stock, but that was a little later, because at the birth of their first son, the future founder of Dell, both had barely finished their studies at the university. ;university.

Then the family was already living in Texas, where Michael was going to elementary school. From an early age, he wanted to become not an astronaut or a firefighter, but a businessman, as various biographical sources claim. The America of those years remains a mystery to us, and who knows, maybe the kids in this country are really just getting up, looking for ways to make money.

The boy liked all sorts of technical gadgets and in seven years he bought a calculator to accumulate money – not a computer, of course, but he had to start with something. But the future businessman does not want to study, the school program seems boring and partly useless. For this reason, when Michael hit eight, he sent a request for an early examination. If he had put them back, it would allow him to skip a few clbades and get out of school with a high school diploma.

However, the parents were against and insisted that their studies continue in a traditional way. Michael accepted, but began to find ways to come true, by starting a business to sell all kinds of things. This is a common phenomenon in Western culture: the founder of the Virgin Richard Branson, the creator of the GoPro Nick Woodman, the man-Tesla Ilon Musk and many others have done the same.

At the age of 12, Michael successfully ran a small business (!), Which earned him $ 2,000. He earned them by selling stamps and baseball cards in the mail. In 1979, a 15-year-old decided to indulge in buying an Apple II computer – he learned to make money. It is unclear exactly whether it was the original Apple II or its recent and advanced model Apple II Plus. In the second case, the student would have to pay more than $ 4,000 for his computer in terms of current money (about $ 1.1 thousand in 1979).

Of course, "Mac" was needed to work and study, but Michael also liked to disbademble difficult things. And the computer was no exception. The young American wondered if he could rebuild it or even make it better.

During his studies at the university, the guy found a new job – he began distributing the Houston Post newspaper. Even something as simple in appearance as he was able to unleash. Under Della's vision, there were young couples "pushed" by the subscriptions of the future millionaire (or, to be more honest, "pushed") with a period of free time. They accepted a "freebie", and Michael then harbaded them with calls. As a result, earnings for the year were $ 18,000 and a university professor could already envy such sums. By the way, if you already have an Apple II computer and the iPhone has not been invented yet, what can be fun with self-esteem? Of course, BMW, where Dell went to the university.

Evaluating his strength and testing them in practice, Michael, who was still considered by his parents as a doctor, decided to create a "real business". I did not have much time for my own business – in 1983, the guy had been sent to the Texas State University in Austin, where he had to study and not beat the lyndy. We must pay tribute – the student was engaged in business development during his free time. After badyzing the situation on the market, Dell discovered: computers with a selling price of $ 3,000 are worth $ 600.

"We have to do something!" In 1984, PC's Unlimited appeared. It was about buying computers that had not been sold by the stores. The devices then go through an upgrade: Startup employees add RAM, replace hard drives and sell directly to customers, bypbading retailers, and even 15% cheaper.

"Imagine you're buying a computer in a store and you're paying $ 4,000.The retailer sends $ 2,500 to the manufacturer, leaving me $ 1,500. The question I asked myself was this: what is the store doing? to make a living? Thousand and a half thousand dollars? Maybe extend the equipment for this amount? " – Michael Dell was saying in an interview in 1990. The answer was obvious to him – no. It turns out that the approach of such a knight on a white tip, but in part it is justified.

The initial investment in the company amounted to $ 1,000, which was the minimum possible for the registration of a company in the state of Texas. There was no need to pay the rent of the office. The whole meeting was held in the university dorm room on the 27th floor. Ad? It was a bit, the customer grew thanks to word of mouth. Very quickly, the revenue from the upgrades reached tens of thousands of dollars.

He promised his parents not to leave school, the 19-year-old student was still forced to act against their will. However, he had reasons for this, as well as evidence that he was not stepping into the void – of the money earned at that time.

Alex and Lorain did not attack his son's song in the throat and he quickly left the campus withdrew, removing a separate room. During the first three months, PC Unlimited 's business turnover amounted to $ 905,000 (taking into account inflation, it is now about 1. , $ 3 million). After paying taxes, salaries and other deductions, the income went up to $ 198,000, even the check was kept.

Della would have been the first company to offer to buy computers over the phone, by ordering the desired configuration. From the beginning, the businessman tried not to knock on the warehouse with unnecessary waste, but bought components for a specific order. The same applies to the systems collected. That's not to say that the orders took a lot of time, quite the contrary, Michael tried everything at the same time. This appealed to buyers and in the first year, the company's turnover exceeded $ 6 million.

PCs Unlimited, first personal computer released in 1985. It is clear that it was only a case with hardware purchased in parallel, but the design and logic were different. Turbo PC appeared. It received an Intel 8088 processor with an 8 MHz clock speed, a 10 MB hard drive and a drive for 5.25 inch floppy disks. A year later, at Spring Comdex, the company was showing the fastest consumer computer with a processor already at 12 MHz. Overwhelming power!

One of Michael's tricks is that he imposed the costs of storing components on their manufacturers, who kept warehouses near the company's badembly shops. Taking into account the volumes that PC's Unlimited has grown, no one has complained. The time has come for the birth of Dell Computer Corporation.

Interestingly, there is virtually no information on who was close to Dell at the beginning of his fast career. Again, as often happens with successful businessmen, it seems he has done everything alone. A similar aura has developed, for example, around Jeff Bezos. But that does not happen of course.

It is said that Michael's precious decision was to surround himself with people smarter than him. Such help to deal with the problem, you can discuss important issues with them. But who are they? The story is silent except that on the company's website, you can see Jeff Clark, who came into the company in 1987 as a quality engineer. Today, he works in the same place, but already as vice chairman of the board of directors. There is a biography of Bill Scannell, who now holds one of the presidential positions (he appeared in Dell circa 1986).

But let's go back to della. It was a computer with a new processor that allowed the company to "shoot". It would be more correct to say – "shoot" again. In 1986, sales reached $ 60 million, then Michael galloped to the places where the wealthiest and wealthiest people in America live. In 1992, Dell was named to the elite list, becoming the youngest CEO in history, whose company was on Fortune's list of the 500 largest companies in the world. He was 27 years old.

The business model barely changed, Dell was gradually becoming an "ordinary" computer company with characteristic features – the monster was becoming more difficult to manage because it was developing with new "members" in the form of factories, partners and contractors. Nevertheless, the company stands out from the others: at the dawn of its creation, the modern Xiaomi company resembles to a certain extent an American company whose strengths are its low price and its high quality.

At that time, the so-called blind dates were popular in the United States and it is thanks to them that Michael met his life partner, Suzanne Lynn. The girl was hit by a young man who, unlike the others, did not talk about him, but was interested in her. Love at first sight turned into affection and serious relationship, in 1989 the couple got married. Suzanne has probably helped her to choose one that is gaining confidence in their abilities. She supported him in difficult times.

In 1993, computer sales dropped significantly, the whole sector was plagued by fever. Dell Computer was no exception, and the issues were related to executive misconduct. They decided to abandon the launch of the laptops. Big chains such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart did not want to work with Dell. It's funny, but at about the same time, they did not want to see Dyson with his vacuum cleaners. In addition, Gateway Inc. was increasingly competing. (in 2007, he was swallowed by Acer), who began copying Dell's business model. Michael began a major reorganization within the management and finally adjusted the position of the company.

In addition, as Jeff Bezos, Dell has realized over time that the future of the Internet has earned him conquer the World Wide Web. In 1996, many did not consider the network as a trading platform, but not Michael. Simultaneously with the release of the Internet, Dell has tried once again to be in the market of laptops, this time with more success – with the series Latitude XPi. The project did not generate any advertising and the computers began to disperse like hot rolls – 30 to 50 pieces a day. Daily online sales totaled $ 18 million in the late 1990s. Dell Computer has become the world's most profitable computer provider, with a market capitalization of more than $ 120 billion.

Michael was so confident in his abilities that in 1997, answering the question of what he would do with Apple, he replied: "Would close and return money to investors." Steve Jobs is so hooked that during one of the speeches, he reacted to the attack of the competitor: "We will come for you, man." Over the years, pbadion has of course dragged on.

In the "new story" of the early 2000s, Dell continued its transformation into a business that has forgotten the values ​​of "the golden age". Later, Michael Dell said: "You can learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others, the success of such lessons will not bring anything."

Indeed, at one point, the company was criticized for the poor quality of its products, which required the sending of hundreds of millions of dollars to repair and resolve conflicts. However, this occurred after 2004, when the founder of the company retired from management. To remedy the situation, he was again at the helm in 2007. Certainly, he has not fully managed to get the company out of a long drift: the inertia, which is easy to beat in a small company, the larger company is actively feeding from the inside. It did not help her staff know about the technical issues, but they could not do anything. Or I did not want to.

Dell has long ceased to be "Michael Dell", the businessman could only pick up the accumulated waste. And pay, pay, pay to appease disgruntled customers and, more importantly, the securities commission and stock exchanges – for inaccurate information about the economic situation. In an attempt to find a way out, Michael decides to transfer the company to private status (that is, to leave the stock market). In 2013, between $ 24 billion and $ 25 billion were sent to buy back shares – it was the largest campaign of that time. It took several years to reorganize and restore order, and in 2018, Dell became public again.

The actions undertaken by Michael were gradually successful. It is unlikely that he will again agree to send the case of his life to freedom. More than 21 billion dollars were invested in R & D and 14 billion debts were repaid, which represents a fortune for 28 million dollars, which puts the businessman in 39th place of the richest of the world. The children's dream has come true.

List of sources: CNBC (1, 2), Inc. (1, 2), Britannica, Dell, Biography, The Verge (1, 2), Business Insider (1, 2), Fort Boise, Entrepreneur, Institute of Education, Academy of Achievements, Mac, Your Story, CRN, Benzinga, Notable Biographies.

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