Oct 10, 2026
Author Spotlight: Michael Dell — The Dorm-Room Founder Who Refused to Quit
A deep dive on Michael Dell — the Houston-born entrepreneur who started PC's Limited in a University of Texas dorm room in 1984 with $1,000, took it public four years later, became the youngest Fortune 500 CEO in American history at 27, fought Carl Icahn to take his company private in 2013, and turned it into the AI-infrastructure giant behind the largest technology deal ever; his five defining reflections on playing nice but winning, on never being the smartest person in the room, on ideas as commodities and execution as everything, on failure as an ingredient of success, and on learning more from customers than from competitors; and the legacy of a founder who has given more than a billion dollars to his alma mater and pledged $6.25 billion to fund investment accounts for 25 million American children.