English Original
Michael Dell's Two-Billion-Dollar Dream
One afternoon in 1977, as his parents and two brothers fished in the Gulf of Mexico, 12-year-old Michael Dell sat on the beach, painstakingly putting together a trotline, a maze of ropes to which several fish hooks could be attached. "You're wasting your time," the rest of the family called to Michael, as they pulled in fish. "Grab a pole and join in the fun."
Michael kept working. It was dinnertime when he finished, and everyone else was ready to call it a day. Still, the youngster cast the trotline far into the water, anchoring it to a stick that he plunged deep in the sand.
Over dinner his family teased young Michael about coming away empty-handed. But afterward Michael reeled in his trotline, and on the hooks were more fish than the others had caught all together!
Michael Dell has always been fond of saying, "If you think you have a good idea, try it!" And today, at 29, he has discovered the power of another good idea that has helped him rise in just a few years from teen to tycoon. He has become the fourth-largest manufacturer of personal computers in America and the youngest man ever to head a Fortune 500 corporation.
Growing up in Houston, Michael and his two brothers were imbued by their parents with the desire to learn and the drive to work hard. Even so, stories about the middle boy began to be told early.
Like the time a saleswoman came asking to speak to "Mr. Michael Dell" about his getting a high-school equivalency diploma. Moments later, eight-year-old Michael was explaining that he thought it might be a good idea to get high school out of the way.
A few years later Michael had another good idea, to trade stamps by advertising in stamp magazines. With the $2000 profit he made, he bought his first personal computer. Then he took it apart to figure out how it worked.
In high school Michael had a job selling subscriptions to the Houston Post. Newlyweds, he figured, were the best prospects, so he hired friends to copy the names and addresses of recent recipients of marriage licenses. These he entered into his computer, then sent a personalized letter offering each couple a free two-week subscription. This time Dell made $18,000 and bought a BMW.
The next year Dell enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin. Like most freshmen, he needed to earn spending money. Just about everyone on campus was talking about personal computers. At the time, anyone who didn't have a PC wanted one, but dealers were selling them at a hefty markup. People wanted low-cost machines custom-made to their needs, and these were not readily available. Why should dealers get such a big markup for so little added value? Dell wondered. Why not sell from the manufacturer directly to the end user?
Dell knew that IBM required its dealers to take a monthly quota of PCs, often more than they could sell. He also knew that holding excess inventory was costly. So he bought dealers' surplus stock at cost. Back in his dorm room, he added features to improve performance. The souped-up models found eager buyers. Seeing the hungry market, Dell placed local advertisements offering his customized computers at 15 percent off retail price. Soon he was selling to businesses, doctors' offices and law firms. The trunk of his car was his store; his room took on the appearance of a small factory.
During Thanksgiving break, Dell's parents told him they were concerned about his grades. "If you want to start a business, do it after you get your degree," his father pleaded. Dell agreed, but back in Austin he felt the opportunity of a lifetime was passing him by. "I couldn't bear to miss this chance," he says. After one month he started selling computers again—with a vengeance.
The quarters he shared with two roommates looked like a combat zone—boxes piled high, computer boards and tools scattered around. One day his roommates heaped all his equipment into a pile, preventing Dell from entering his room. It was time to come to grips with the magnitude of what he had created. The business was now grossing more than $50,000 a month.
Over spring recess, Dell confessed to his parents that he was still in the computer business. They wanted to know how classes were going. "I have to quit school," he replied. "I want to start my own company."
"What exactly is it that you want to do?" asked his father.
"Compete with IBM," he answered simply.
Compete with IBM? Now his parents were really worried. But no matter what they said, Dell stuck fast. So they made a deal: over summer vacation he would try to launch a computer company. If he didn't succeed, he would have to go back to school in September.
Returning to Austin, Dell risked all his savings and incorporated Dell Computer Corp. on May 3, 1984. He was 19. Under a deadline, his pace was frantic. He rented a one-room office on a month-to-month lease and hired his first employee, a 28-year-old manager to handle finance and administration. For advertising, he grabbed an empty pizza box and on the back sketched the first ad for Dell Computer. A friend copied it onto paper and took it to the newspaper.
Dell still specialized in direct marketing of stripped-down IBM PCs to which he added custom features. As orders came in, Dell rushed around gathering up the right parts to assemble each order. First-month sales topped $180,000; the second, $265,000. Dell barely noticed when the new school year arrived.
Within a year, he was selling 1,000 PCs a month and hired more staff. Customers phoned orders to an 800 number, and then the staff assembled the units. Parts were ordered only as needed, keeping inventory and overhead low. UPS trucks picked up daily that day's production for delivery. It was very efficient—and very profitable.
Just when it seemed the sky was the limit, and sales had topped $3 million, the manager Dell had hired quit. But, as Dell always told himself, "Every time you have a crisis, something good comes out of it." From necessity, he learned accounting basics—experience that would prove invaluable in the years ahead. "It's a lot easier to learn something if it's important to you," he says.
Unlike other manufacturers, Dell gave his customers money-back guarantees. He also realized that when a computer is down, the customer wants it back up and working right away. So Dell guaranteed next-day on-site service for his products and introduced a 24-hour-a-day toll-free line for customers to talk directly with computer technicians. Ninety percent of computer technical problems, according to Dell, can be solved over the phone.
Constant telephone contact with customers kept the company close to the market. Customers let Dell Computer know directly what they liked or didn't like about a particular model. "My competitors were developing products and then telling customers what they should want, instead of finding out what the market really wanted and then developing products," Dell says.
By the day Michael Dell would have graduated from college, his company was selling $70 million worth of computers a year. Dell quit dealing in souped-up versions of other companies' products and started designing, assembling and marketing his own.
Today Dell Computer has wholly owned subsidiaries in 16 countries, including Japan. The company has revenues of over $2 billion, employs some 5,500 persons, and Dell's personal fortune is between $250 million and $300 million. To encourage even greater productivity, Dell Computer gives its employees awards for ideas worth trying even if they don't pan out. "Our success has forced the giants to become more competitive," Dell says. "That's good for the consumer."
Dell, his wife and their two-year-old daughter lead a pretty normal life. His charity is generous but quiet. Recently the couple announced the donation of a parcel of land for a civic center to Austin's Jewish community. Dell also regularly lectures on entrepreneurship to MBA students at the University of Texas Graduate School of Business in Austin.
What concerns Michael Dell is that our country is losing its competitive edge. "There's too much of an entitlement attitude nowadays," he says. "'I deserve this' needs to be replaced with 'I earned this.'"
He credits his own success to the fact that his parents expected their three sons to learn and work hard—and draws a lesson. "The reason our schools are failing isn't because classroom sizes are too big. I can show you schools in Thailand where kids study in unbelievably crowded classrooms—and yet they're learning much more than our students. Why? Because they want to learn. Because they want to work hard. Because their parents and their teachers expect that of them."
Back when his firm was two people in one room, Dell told his friends his dream was to become the world's largest personal-computer maker. He was unrealistic, they said.
"Why would anyone want to be second or third or tenth?" he replied. His message to us all: why not at least try to realize your dream, what deep down you would truly love to achieve?
中文翻译
戴尔的20亿美元梦想
1977年的一个下午，当迈克尔·戴尔的父母和两个兄弟在墨西哥湾钓鱼时，12岁的迈克尔·戴尔坐在沙滩上，费力地组装着一根曳钓绳——一种可以挂上多个鱼钩的复杂绳网。“你在浪费时间，”家人们一边拉上鱼，一边对迈克尔喊道。“拿根鱼竿，一起来玩吧。”
迈克尔继续工作。他完成时已是晚餐时间，其他人都准备收工了。尽管如此，这个年轻人还是将曳钓绳远远地抛入水中，用一根深深插进沙里的木棍固定住。
晚餐时，家人们取笑小迈克尔会空手而归。但之后，迈克尔收回了他的曳钓绳，钩上的鱼比其他人钓到的总和还要多！
迈克尔·戴尔一直喜欢说：“如果你认为自己有个好主意，那就试试看！”如今，29岁的他发现了另一个好主意的力量，这个主意帮助他在短短几年内从少年成长为商业大亨。他已成为美国第四大个人计算机制造商，也是有史以来最年轻的《财富》500强企业领导者。
在休斯顿长大的迈克尔和他的两个兄弟，从小就被父母灌输了学习的渴望和努力工作的动力。即便如此，关于这个排行中间的男孩的故事很早就开始流传了。
比如有一次，一位销售女士前来询问“迈克尔·戴尔先生”关于获得高中同等学历文凭的事。片刻之后，八岁的迈克尔解释说，他认为早点解决高中学历可能是个好主意。
几年后，迈克尔又有了一个好主意：通过在邮票杂志上打广告来交易邮票。他用赚来的2000美元利润，买了他的第一台个人电脑。然后他把它拆开，研究它是如何工作的。
高中时，迈克尔有一份推销《休斯顿邮报》订阅的工作。他认为新婚夫妇是最好的潜在客户，于是他雇朋友抄录最近领取结婚证的人的名字和地址。他把这些信息输入电脑，然后给每对夫妇寄去一封个性化的信件，提供免费两周的订阅服务。这次戴尔赚了18,000美元，并买了一辆宝马。当17岁的他支付现金时，汽车销售员惊呆了。
第二年，戴尔进入了奥斯汀的德克萨斯大学。像大多数新生一样，他需要赚零花钱。校园里几乎每个人都在谈论个人电脑。当时，任何没有电脑的人都想要一台，但经销商以高昂的加价出售。人们想要根据自己需求定制的低成本机器，而这些并不容易获得。经销商增加的附加值微乎其微，凭什么获得如此高的加价？ 戴尔想。为什么不从制造商直接销售给最终用户呢？
戴尔知道IBM要求其经销商每月采购一定配额的电脑，通常超过他们的销售能力。他也知道持有过量库存成本很高。于是他以成本价买下了经销商的积压库存。回到宿舍，他添加功能以提高性能。这些改装后的机型很受欢迎。看到饥渴的市场，戴尔在当地刊登广告，以零售价八五折的价格提供他的定制电脑。很快，他开始向企业、医生办公室和律师事务所销售。他的汽车后备箱就是他的商店；他的房间变成了一个小工厂的样子。
感恩节假期期间，戴尔的父母告诉他，他们担心他的成绩。“如果你想创业，等你拿到学位后再做，”他的父亲恳求道。戴尔同意了，但回到奥斯汀后，他觉得一个千载难逢的机会正在溜走。“我无法忍受错过这个机会，”他说。一个月后，他开始更加卖力地重新销售电脑。
他和两个室友合住的房间看起来像个战区——箱子堆得老高，电脑主板和工具散落各处。有一天，他的室友把他所有的设备堆成一堆，阻止戴尔进入房间。是时候认真应对他所创造的庞然大物了。这个生意现在每月总收入超过5万美元。
春假期间，戴尔向父母坦白他仍在做电脑生意。他们想知道他的课程进展如何。“我必须退学，”他回答。“我想创办自己的公司。”
“你到底想做什么？”父亲问。
“与IBM竞争，”他简单地回答。
与IBM竞争？这下他的父母真的担心了。但无论他们说什么，戴尔都固执己见。于是他们达成了一个协议：在暑假期间，他将尝试创办一家电脑公司。如果他不成功，他就必须在九月份回到学校。
回到奥斯汀，戴尔冒险投入了他所有的积蓄，于1984年5月3日成立了戴尔电脑公司。他当时19岁。迫于最后期限，他的节奏疯狂。他租了一间按月租赁的单间办公室，并雇用了他的第一位员工，一位28岁的经理来处理财务和行政。为了做广告，他抓起一个空披萨盒，在背面草拟了戴尔电脑的第一个广告。一个朋友把它誊写到纸上，然后送到了报社。
戴尔仍然专注于直销经过精简的IBM个人电脑，并为其添加定制功能。订单进来后，戴尔四处奔走，收集正确的零件来组装每个订单。第一个月的销售额超过18万美元；第二个月，26.5万美元。戴尔几乎没有注意到新学年的到来。
一年之内，他每月销售1000台个人电脑，并雇用了更多员工。客户拨打800号码下订单，然后员工组装机器。零件只在需要时订购，保持库存和间接费用低廉。UPS卡车每天来取走当天的产品进行配送。这非常高效——也非常有利可图。
就在一切似乎无限可能，销售额突破300万美元时，戴尔雇用的经理辞职了。但是，正如戴尔常告诫自己的那样：“每次你遇到危机，总会有好事发生。”出于需要，他学习了会计基础知识——这一经验在未来的岁月中被证明是无价的。“如果某件事对你很重要，学起来就容易得多，”他说。
与其他制造商不同，戴尔向客户提供退款保证。他还意识到，当电脑出现故障时，客户希望它能立即恢复工作。因此，戴尔保证为其产品提供次日上门服务，并推出了24小时免费热线，让客户可以直接与电脑技术人员交谈。根据戴尔的说法，百分之九十的电脑技术问题可以通过电话解决。
与客户的持续电话联系使公司贴近市场。客户直接让戴尔电脑知道他们对特定型号的喜好或不满。“我的竞争对手是开发产品，然后告诉客户他们应该需要什么，而不是先找出市场真正想要什么，然后再开发产品，”戴尔说。
到迈克尔·戴尔本应从大学毕业的那天，他的公司每年销售价值7000万美元的电脑。戴尔不再经营其他公司产品的改装版本，开始设计、组装和销售自己的产品。
如今，戴尔电脑在包括日本在内的16个国家拥有全资子公司。公司收入超过20亿美元，雇佣约5500名员工，戴尔的个人财富在2.5亿至3亿美元之间。为了鼓励更高的生产力，戴尔电脑会奖励员工那些值得尝试的想法，即使这些想法最终没有成功。“我们的成功迫使巨头们变得更具竞争力，”戴尔说。“这对消费者有好处。”
戴尔、他的妻子和他们两岁的女儿过着相当正常的生活。他的慈善行为慷慨但低调。最近，这对夫妇宣布向奥斯汀的犹太社区捐赠一块土地用于建设社区中心。戴尔还定期在奥斯汀的德克萨斯大学商学院为MBA学生讲授创业课程。
令迈克尔·戴尔担忧的是，我们的国家正在失去竞争优势。“如今 entitlement（应得权利）的心态太重了，”他说。“‘这是我应得的’需要被‘这是我努力挣来的’所取代。”
他将自己的成功归功于父母期望他们的三个儿子学习和努力工作——并从中吸取了一个教训。“我们的学校失败的原因不是因为教室太大。我可以带你们去看泰国的学校，孩子们在难以置信的拥挤教室里学习——然而他们学到的东西比我们的学生多得多。为什么？因为他们想学习。因为他们想努力工作。因为他们的父母和老师期望他们这样做。”
早在他的公司只有两个人在一间屋子里时，戴尔就告诉朋友们他的梦想是成为世界上最大的个人计算机制造商。他们说他不切实际。
“为什么有人会想当第二、第三或第十呢？”他回答。他给所有人的启示是：为什么不至少尝试去实现你的梦想，实现你内心深处真正渴望成就的事情呢？