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Michael Dell says that humor is essential and that workers need to laugh and play and relax sometimes.
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The Dell Technologies boss said people shouldn’t always listen to their parents’ advice.
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Dell said he goes to bed early, works out around dawn and enjoys Texas barbecue.
Laugh and play pranks, balance work with downtime and don’t always listen to your parents’ advice, Michael Dell says.
The Dell Technologies the founder and CEO shared the colorful life advice during a recent episode of the “In Good Company” podcast. Dell, 59, ranked 13th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a fortune of $115 billion at Thursday’s close.
The personal data pioneer said humor plays a key role at his company.
“If you can’t laugh, joke, play pranks on people, you’re doing it wrong, right?” he said. “You have to be able to laugh at yourself.”
Dell said he worked tirelessly as a young man to build his company, which generated $88 billion in revenue last year. But he warned of overexertion and burnout.
“I learned a long time ago that there are diminishing returns to the number of hours worked in a given day,” he said. “And if you’re going to do something for a long time, it’s better to find (the right mix of) work and play and relax.”
Dell said he goes to bed around 8:30 or 9 p.m. every night and wake up around 4 or 5 to work out.
“You won’t find me at the nightcap,” he said. “I’m going to sleep.”
Grilling and bad advice
The Texas businessman also expressed his love for one of his home state’s delicacies, even if he doesn’t prepare it himself.
“I believe in the theory of labor specialization, so I personally don’t cook a lot of barbecue, but I definitely eat barbecue,” he said.
Dell also offered some general advice for young people: “Experiment, take risks, fail, find hard problems, do something worthwhile, don’t be afraid and, you know, be brave.”
He recalled that his parents encouraged him to become a doctor and urged him to put aside his passion for building computers. On the other hand, he remembered his mother telling him and his two brothers when they were little to “play nice but win,” which became the guiding philosophy of his company and the title of his 2021 book.
“Well, yes, your parents aren’t always right, but they aren’t always wrong either“, he said, adding that people’s “mileage can vary depending on the parents.”
Read the original article at Business Insider
