In Focus

Duuuude... Meet Michael Dell!

by Chick Karin

NOTE: All this month in the Chicks' Eye View we will be featuring the richest of the rich from the Forbes List of the World's Richest People. Just who are they and how'd they get to be so filthy rich?

If you watch any TV, you've seen the Dell commercials. You know the ones, where the surfer guy exclaims to his buddy with two thumbs up, "DUUUUUUUUUUDE, you're gettin' a Dell!" I can't help but lip sync the whole commercial. All right, if you haven't seen the latest, it goes something like this:

A June Cleaver looking mother walks into a computer store with her teenage son. They run into the surfer guy (looks like one of Madonna's ex's) who says, "Hello Mrs. Johnson. Looking for a computer?" She says yes, with her nose checking out the fluorescent lights. Then he goes on to tell her all about Dell computers, their free direct to home delivery cutting out the middle man, and how they've won more awards than anyone; just call or go online and get the Dell delivered right to your door. Or something to that effect. June is impressed. "Really? Dell Computers? Thank you, Steven." That's when Steven Spumoni says to his buddy, "DUUUUUUUUUUDE, you're gettin' a Dell."

Now you can lip sync it, too.

Last week I told you about Tim our web guy and his best friend Michael Dull. It was all made up, but I promised to bring you "Mr. Computer" as one of our Forbes Highlighted Millionaires. Today's story is true, but it's not about a millionaire. Mr. Michael Dell, is a billionaire, and many times over.

Most of the information on Mr. Married Michael Dell can be found at his website. www.dell.com. But our dude, Dell, has a whole area of his website devoted to himself. True story. Michael has links galore to who he is, what kind of computer he uses, more pictures of him, what his childhood was like, and a question and answer with the Dellman.

Michael likes Michael. But how can you not? He's a duuuuuuuuuuuude from Texas.

Now just how did Michael develop his dudeness? It started very young.

In third grade he was sure he could graduate from high school. He responded to an ad in a magazine that said you could take a test and receive your diploma. Being a dude, he replied. When the man giving the test showed up at his house, well, you can imagine the surprise seeing an eight year old with a #2 in hand. His parents were not impressed, nor was the tester. (Why can't my kids think of something like that instead of calling 911 to see the police come over?)

At the age of twelve, he started his first direct home marketing campaign "business." He made a catalog of his and his friends' stamps and sent it out to other collectors. To think we could have had Dell Stamps instead of the laptop I'm typing on. Phew. It's a good thing his parents bought him a new Apple Computer when he was sixteen. Do you know what was the first thing he did when he got it? He took it apart. (My kids just take apart their closet looking for a pair of dirty jeans.)

At about this same time, he figured out that most new newspaper subscriptions came from new homeowners or newlyweds, so he decided to target them. (I'm telling you, this guy never stops thinking of ways to make money.) Make money he did. He netted $18,000 off of his newspaper venture. Duuuuuuude, that's some paper route. (Note to reader: My kids target the new homeowners looking for cute boys.)

In 1983, Michael drove off to start college at the University of Austin with two computers in his back seat. After months of making and fixing his computers from his dorm room and selling them to local businesses, he decided to leave college and start Dell Computers, Inc. He was 19. The next year, he founded Dell Computer Inc, the first company to sell computers directly to customer, eliminating the middleman.

From there, the story snowballs into a huge success story. He takes the company public in 1988 with 650 employees and sales of 159 million. He quickly becomes a Fortune 500 Company and one of the youngest CEO's in history to achieve this. From there, he becomes one of Fortune Magazines Most Admired Companies (#3 in 2000).

To date, Dell has done over 25 billion in sales and does over 20 million a day in sales over the Internet. Not bad for a dude from Texas.

I only wish my kids had as much gumption.