My top 10 highlights from the book:
1. Was I a little full of myself at nineteen? Sure, I was. I think you have to be to do anything important.
2. Explosive growth is never about stability.
3. Many people don't reach their greatest potential because they fear failure. In avoiding failure, they deprive themselves of a great teacher.
4. Customers are always the ultimate judge and jury.
5. My roommate was a member of the US Olympic cycling team. He spent every day, all day, training. He literally just used the room to sleep in. Every evening he'd return from his training sessions and drop onto his bed, exhausted; every morning he'd vanish before I was awake.
6. Being underestimated by IBM and Compaq was a powerful motivating force.
7. We didn't start building to the customer's order because we saw some massive paradigm in the future. We started that way because we didn't have the capital to mass-produce. Many of the biggest lessons we learned in the company's formative years came about in the same seat-of-the-pants way. We experimented and improvised our way to success.
8. She understood my laser focus on the company, my frequent distraction: If you want to win Olympic gold, you have to be fanatical.
9. We were talking about buying back all of Dell's stock, we were talking about a great deal of money. $25 billion. I knew in my gut that it was time to make a big move.
10. I will care about this company after I'm dead.
My favorite blurb of the book: Michael Dell is the gangster protagonist. Never looking for a fight, but relishing every brawl once he's in it. — Matthew McConaughey
Listen to #385 Michael Dell on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
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