My Conversation with Michael Dell

**David Senra** (0:00)
I have started a new show where I have conversations with the greatest living founders. That show is called David Senra. It will be on a separate podcast feed from Founders. So it is very important that you follow David Senra on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you're listening to this right now, so you don't miss future episodes. The first episode was with Daniel Eck, the founder of Spotify, and one of the wisest people that I know. That episode spread all over the world, and the response has been greater than anything I could have ever imagined. The next episode is with one of my personal heroes, Michael Dell. A few years ago, Michael was kind enough to send me one of the greatest messages that I've ever received in my life. He believes in what I'm doing with Founders, and thinks it's good for the world. And so I was thrilled that he immediately agreed to be one of the first guests. His career is singular, and he is one of the most impressive people on the planet today. I am posting our entire conversation on this feed, so you know what the new show is like. I hope you enjoy our conversation, and please don't forget to follow the new show, David Senra, now, so you don't miss future episodes. Oh, and by the way, nothing is changing with Founders. I am still doing episodes every week, and will work on Founders until I die.
I want to jump right into what we were talking about before we started recording. You said somebody was, you've been obsessed, you've been running Dell for 41 years. You've been obsessed really since you were like 11 or 12, so you've been running it for 50 years, because there was a Dell before a Dell, right? But you were saying somebody was telling you this story about you in middle school.

**Michael Dell** (1:26)
When I was in junior high school in the summers in Houston, there were classes at Rice University for young kids, okay? And so, you could go to Rice University and take these classes, and my mom kind of signed me up, and it was great. They had these college professors and they were teaching these classes.
And the way I would get to Rice University is, I would take the bus from our house, right? And it would like take you downtown. And I was curious, so I was like, okay, if I just stay on the bus, it takes me all the way downtown to where the really tall buildings are. So, I go down there, it's like really tall buildings, I'm like roaming around, I'm like 11 or 12 years old. And I see like they've got like the stock exchange there, and all these tickers go in. I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool. So, I just started learning about the stock market. So anyway, it's just something I remembered. And my parents were always talking about financial markets, and it just sparked sort of this interest really early in life.

**David Senra** (2:45)
There's a great line I've seen from both Ken Griffin and Larry Ellison describing you. They're like, this guy was manufacturing computers in America at a time when there was like thousands of other people doing the exact, very similar thing. And he was the only one that survived. And the reason I just thought about that is because I was watching this talk that Ken gave, I think, at Yale. And he said something, he's like, for reasons I can't explain. I don't know why. I've just been obsessed with the stock market, with business, since I was in the third grade. And 60 years later, however old he is, that obsession has not dulled. We were just in your office, and you were showing me one of your new unreleased products that we can't film or photograph.
But you were like, I was like, this is like a kid on Christmas. Like you're still-

**Michael Dell** (3:33)
A super cool product. Yeah, I'm very excited.

**David Senra** (3:36)
I told you I'll buy one of these. I think it's cool too. I'm gonna buy one of these as soon as it comes out. But I just love this enthusiasm that is just not dulling. What do you think? I was just with your son, Zach, last night, and we were talking a lot about his business. It's absolutely ripping. He's super intense, and he's just in it right now, right? And then it was like 95% of our conversation. Then he's like, all right, I have some things that you should talk to my dad about. And then it was so good, I was like, shit, he just did the outline better than me. So one of the things, he's like, you need to get on record what motivates him. He's like, it's one of the most fascinating things. He's like, just ask him what motivates him. So what motivates you?