In business, many words and phrases are overused to the point that they lose all of their original meaning. “Paradigm” has to be one of the worst. What comes to mind when talking about Dell is "revolutionary." Dell is one of the few examples where such a strong word is actually applicable. Taking $1,000 in startup capital to build custom PCs in a dorm room to become the world's leading computer manufacturer and the company with the highest return on investment in history (ROI = 14,000%) is impressive, but there have been many similar businesses in the basement Success stories from the boards. The game-changing part was building the first manufacturing operation that relied on mass customization of an extremely complex product, and succeeding at it. Before Dell, such a technique was considered impossible. I was impressed by Dell's Randian lifestyle. Regardless of the critics who laugh at his seemingly naive attempt to challenge the large, dominant, established players in a complex and technical industry, Dell proceeds to create an entirely new business and ultimately dominates those same critics. Dell is a real, modern Henry Rearden, a promoter whose success benefits the whole world. He makes the impossible seem natural, and his modest demeanor masks an unimaginable and limitless drive to succeed. Readers expecting a Michael Dell autobiography may be disappointed; he glosses over his own life in just half a chapter and gets straight to the point, so to speak. I was slightly disappointed by this, as Dell seems like a very interesting guy. This was the right choice, however, and considering Dell's budget personality it seems appropriate. It seems that Dell has always been an extraordinarily direct person, starting in the third grade when he purchased a high school diploma from a mail order company in an attempt to save himself another 9 years of unnecessary education. This was a child destined to succeed. He was born with dollar signs in his eyes and was all about Benjamins before most of us even knew what a Benjamin was. This pattern continued when he earned $2,000 selling stamps on consignment through an ad in a stamp collectors' newspaper. At age 16 Dell made more than $18,000 in one summer selling newspaper subscriptions targeting newlyweds from lists compiled county court polls (the really funny part of that story was that when he told his math teacher high school, she got angry because it was more money than she earned).