This story is from March 19, 2018

How Dell founder convinced parents to let him drop out of college

How Dell founder convinced parents to let him drop out of college
Key Highlights
  • Dell founder and CEO, Michael Dell took to Twitter to post the first financial statement of his company
  • He said that the statement helped him convince his parents of his decision to drop out of college
  • Dell, 53, has a net worth of $21 billion and features among the top 50 in the Bloomberg Billionaires' Index
NEW DELHI: Michael Dell, the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dell Technologies, on Sunday took to micro-blogging site Twitter to post the first financial statement of his company. The statement, dated July 31, 1984 -- that shows a gross profit of nearly $200,000 -- Dell said, helped convince his parents of his decision to drop out of college. Dell dropped out the University of Texas in Austin in his very first year at the age of 19.

More than three decades later, Dell, 53, has a net worth of $21 billion and features among the top 50 in the Bloomberg Billionaires' Index.
To put the numbers in perspective, from $888,821 in revenues back then to $21.9 billion for the last reported quarter in 2018, Dell sure has come a long way.
In a recent interview, Michael Dell revealed that as a 19-year old, he started his company from a 'dorm room' at University of Texas. The fortunes of the company took off instantly, as it went public with a market capitalisation of $85 million in 1988, just four years after launching. Another four years down the line, he would become the youngest CEO with a Fortune 500 company.
While Michael Dell's story is indeed extraordinary, he's not the only tech billionaire to drop out of college and make it big. Apple co-founder founder Steve Jobs, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg too dropped out of college to start their iconic companies.
Read here: 9 tech moguls who made it big without a college degree
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