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Michael Dell Quotes

Article Overview: Michael Dell Quotes

Michael Dell Quotes

It's through curiosity and looking at opportunities in new ways that we've always mapped our path at Dell. There's always an opportunity to make a difference.

There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don't like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don't spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities.

Our business is about technology, yes. But it's also about operations and customer relationships.

20 years and $40 billion. They seem like good round numbers.

The interesting thing is when we design and architect a server, we don't design it for Windows or Linux, we design it for both. We don't really care, as long as we're selling the one the customer wants.

We have enormous potential to keep growing. It provides lots of learning opportunity for me and it's fun to see how so many people, so many communities are affected in a positive way by what we're doing here. I love my job and I'm not giving it up.

At the root of it, I was probably just opportunistic. I had and still have a great interest in computers. There was a business opportunity [with] this product that I really liked, and it all kind of lined up together.

I saw that you'd buy a PC for about $3,000, and inside that PC was about $600 worth of parts. IBM would buy most of these parts from other companies, assemble them, and sell the computer to a dealer for $2,000. Then the dealer, who knew very little about selling or supporting computers, would sell it for $3,000, which was even more outrageous.

Well, we started the company by building to the customer's order. And interestingly enough, we didn't do it because we saw some massive paradigm in the future. Basically, we just didn't have any capital [to mass-produce].

One of the things I benefited from when I started this business was that I didn't know anything. I was just instinct with no preconceived notions. This enabled me to learn and change quickly without having to worry about maintaining any kind of status quo, like some of my bigger competitors.

I had to give it a full go and see what happened. I couldn't resist the opportunity. The deal was, I would start into business full time in May, and at the end of August we would take a look and decide if it was doing well.

Sometimes you just have to belly up to the bar and take a chance. We made some mistakes, but we also had the strength to work our way out.

I think the '90s are going to see a greater integration between the human mind and the computer. Today, you have to communicate with a computer by a keyboard that is somewhat awkward and clumsy. We are working on other ways to do this. The best computer is the one you don't even know is there.

Don’t spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity, that you miss the right opportunity.

Recognize that there will be failures, and acknowledge that there will be obstacles. But you will learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others, for there is very little learning in success.

Whether you’ve found your calling, or if you’re still searching, passion should be the fire that drives your life’s work.

The key is to listen to your heart and let it carry you in the direction of your dreams. I’ve learned that it’s possible to set your sights high and achieve your dreams and do it with integrity, character, and love. And each day that you’re moving toward your dreams without compromising who you are, you’re winning.

They were probably $800 or something like that, not super expensive and not very powerful either. They had cassette drives instead of hard-disk drives. It was even before the floppy disks. (I'd) largely do programming with Basic. I was kind of fascinated with the computing power and what that could do and what that would mean. It was just an enchanting device for me.

I dropped out of college because that's what I thought would happen. So, that for me was in 1984 and I started a company around that idea, believing that more and more people would know how to use PCs, that they would become easier to use, that even people could buy them without going to a store. We had a sense for it in the early '80s but certainly couldn't say we imagined it. It is just the way it happened

I was, you know, rebellious--an 18, 19-year-old and just did what I wanted to do and all worked out OK.

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Article Tags: architect, business opportunity, curiosity, customer relationships, instinct, job, linux, michael dell, new ways, paradigm, preconceived notions



Related Forum Posts
Re: How many computers do you have? - [quote="OmnivoreInk":1dnp9mfb]Here's a question... I'm just curious... how many computers do each of us have? I've got a desktop computer - a Dell... about 4 years old now, I think, and a laptop, a Sony Vaio...which I bought when I hoped to be doing a lot of travelling around the country...that never came to pass (and looks even less likely now with gas prices!) but it's still fun to be able to carry from room to room of my house... I don't own any fancy palm pilots...not even an Ipod...[/quote:1dnp9mfb] Hi Barbara, I only have one 4 year old Dell Inspiron 8600 (15.4" monitor). On the other hand, my father has a very old desktop, but a new 20" monitor... while my brother also owns a Dell notebook, but it's a Vostro and is much better value than an Inspiron or Studio model. The only drawback of the Dell Vostro is that it's really ugly looking.
Dropped Out Of School To Startup! - I wanted to announce it here first that I dropped out of my university program to start my own business! I finished reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad and some of the other success stories of Bill Gates and Michael Dell and now it's my turn! I know my business idea is better than everyone else in my industry and I'm going to prove everyone wrong. Does anybody have other drop out stories of big entrepreneurs that you can share with me? Thanks!!! It's day #1!
Re: Bye Bye Vista - I was hesitant to replace the Vista OS with XP because Dell claims to void any service support if I made changes to the OS. I was held hostage until I finally made the decision to drop the Dell support (if I have too), hopefully I can persuade them to assist me if I have troubles that I can't troubleshoot.
Re: How do you back up your computer? - After deciding not to go with BackBlaze because they couldn't back up all of my files within the trial period (what's the point of a trial period of you can't actually try it out??) I have now given Dell a chance. I bought my new Dell laptop about 6 months ago and never initialized the Dell DataSafe Online application - until yesterday afternoon. My favorite thing about it so far is that before you back up it shows you how many files you have in different categories - ie documents, financial information, email files, videos, music, and photos. From there you can set your preferences as to what you want to back up. For me I have a large number of videos, photos, and music on my computer but I deselected them for the backup - To make the backups go more quickly I only chose the documents, financial information, and email files. This might be why my BackBlaze trial backup never completed. It works on the same premise that if you change a file it will recognize the change and only backup those changes. I have a free one year account that came with my Dell and so far I'm happy with it. You may want to consider looking into the program if you haven't found a suitable backup system yet!
Dell service contract - Hi Kevin, I've been with Dell for years and have also always purchased the 3 year plan with laptops. Desktops are easier to fix if something goes wrong but laptops are more complicated. In 10 years I've had to take my laptop in once (it was over a year after I purchased it) - so I was happy to have purchased the extended service. My wife is now looking at a Dell as she has a 20% off coupon and they are offering a free Flip video camera with some of their new laptops so we might have a new addition to the computer family tonight!


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