{{B}} DELL BOY MADE GOOD{{/B}}
Some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs cut their business teeth on the playground. Michael Dell is no exception. At 12, he made $ 2,000 (￡ 1,255) selling his stamp collection, and by 14, he had come up with a marketing scheme to sell newspapers. This earned him ￡11,200--more money than some of his teachers made--and led to the creation of the Dell Computer Corporation, the industry's fastest-growing company. He is now the ninth-richest man in the world, with a personal fortune of ￡12.5 billion, from seed capital of just ￡627 in 1984.
{{U}} (8) {{/U}} He says, "I thought it was marvelous that this little device could do my math homework much faster than I ever could, and it really started me thinking about electronics. I loved taking things apart and putting them back together again, although I could not always get them working. I quickly became interested in personal computers when I was given an Apple II, and set up computer bulletin boards to trade ideas with other enthusiasts. I wanted to own every gadget possible."
Dell attended a computer convention in Austin, Texas, and was astonished at the huge profit margin on the sale of electronics. {{U}}(9) {{/U}}This discovery set him thinking, as a customer, about finding a feasible way to get the gadgets without buying them directly from stores, as they charged so much money.
Dell began a degree at the University of Texas in 1983, hoping to study medicine. {{U}}(10) {{/U}}.
"I decided to leave college and set up a business full time. I started with a simple question: how can we make the process of making a computer better? The answer was. sell computers directly to the end customers, eliminate the profit made by stores, and pass those savings on to the customers."
{{U}} (11) {{/U}} An expert helped him to build his computers while Dell concentrated on finding cheap components. In the company's first nine months it earned gross sales of ￡3.76m, and then ￡20.7m within two years.
Dell says you cannot learn how to be an entrepreneur. "{{U}} (12) {{/U}} I have always looked at problems in a different way, realized what I am good at, and surrounded myself with a successful team. "
A This, Dell did at a frightening pace.
B I had to make a decision about what I was going to do with my life.
C He found that he could buy a disk drive for ￡500, which would sell in the shops for￡1,882.
D Some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs cut their business teeth on the playground.
E It comes from somewhere deep inside.
F Dell first tried his hand at electronics at the tender age of 15, when he was given a calculator by his father to help him in the math club he attended after school each day.
G While there, he absorbed himself in his computers, away from the eyes of his disapproving parents.