Dell started by a 19 year old with only $1,000

Michael Dell chose to start his own computer business rather than to become a doctor and dropped out of college i.e. University of Texas to pursue his dream of a direct-sales PC empire.

September 12, 2012 / 17:30 IST

Farha Khan

Michael Dell is one of the most successful executives in the highly competitive personal computer industry founded Dell Computers at the age of 19 with $1000 and created a net worth of $20 billion USD before the age of 40.

Michael Saul Dell was born on the 23rd of February, 1965 in Houston to an orthodontist father and a mother that worked as a money manager. Dell was interested in computers from a very young age and was already pulling them apart at the age of 15. When he was just 19 years old, Michael Dell chose to start his own computer business rather than to become a doctor and dropped out of college i.e. University of Texas to pursue his dream of a direct-sales PC empire.

In 1984, Michael Dell started PC's Limited in his university dorm room, with only $1,000 in his pocket; he began to assemble his own computers by using stock computer parts. He then sold what he created directly to customers. He had built his computers according to each customer’s unique specifications. He offered to sell his computers at a much lower price than his competitors.

By 1988, Michael Dell changed the name of his company from PC's Limited to Dell Computer Corporation. So far, Michael Dell is the youngest chief executive officer to ever head a fortune 500 company. Eventually, the Dell Computer Corporation was renamed to Dell Inc.