Michael Dell has some advice for people who want to start their own business and who dream to be a successful entrepreneur: “Go for it.”
The longer explanation from the founder and CEO of Dell Computer, once one of the most popular and best-selling PC makers in the world, goes like this: “Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Experiment. If you want to really make it big, you better come up with something unique, differentiated that nobody else is doing.” Adding a few words of caution, he said: “And if you go and ask people if it’s a good idea, most of them will tell you ‘no’. So don’t go ask.”
Today Michael Dell is giving that same speech to the 140,000 people working for the new Dell Technologies that came about through a huge $63 billion merger between Dell and EMC, creating one of the biggest hardware and software technology companies in the world.
Now as the Chairman and CEO of the giant enterprise, Dell needs to merge the two different cultures and get everyone aligned behind a common goal. What is he telling everyone? “You have to embrace risk and you have accept failure,” he says. “As an entrepreneur, this is very important to me, because big companies aren’t good at that. And if you don’t have risk, you don’t have innovation and failure is just around the corner.”
Michael Dell is counting on his leadership of “vision, inspiration, curiosity, and ultimately passion” to drive innovation at his new venture. Only time will tell.
