Fortune has revisited his advice now that his company is valued at $302 billion as of October 30.
Speaking in an interview with Fortune, Dell said that breakthrough businesses are often built on ideas that others initially dismiss. Entrepreneurs should focus on creating something unique and differentiated instead of seeking validation from people who may not share their vision, according to the billionaire executive. His point is that most people will dismiss anything unfamiliar, so he says to trust your own instincts about whether a product or business will succeed over the long run. Dell also told Fortune that to make it big, an idea has to be unique, and differentiated from anything others are doing.
Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies and one of the biggest contributors to the Trump Accounts initiative, has a simple piece of advice for entrepreneurs and business leaders: don’t ask other people whether your big idea is a good one.
Dell took up pre-med at the University of Texas in 1983 to please his parents, according to Entrepreneur, but he had long been fascinated by computers. He took apart an Apple II at 15 to see how it worked, according to the 1999 biography Direct From Dell. At 19, he began selling PC upgrade kits to other students in his dorm, which launched his business.
“If you go and ask people if it’s a good idea, most of them will tell you no,” Dell said. Entrepreneurs should trust their instincts and vision rather than relying too heavily on external opinions, especially in the early stages of building a business, according to Dell. His strongest advice, however, was directed at founders looking for approval before launching a product or business. “So don’t go ask. Like Apple’s Steve Jobs, he was a college dropout.