Tech legend Michael Dell says workers need to laugh and play — and parents’ advice can be hit or miss

Dell Technologies CEO and founder Michael Dell.

Getty Images

Michael Dell says humor is vital and workers need to laugh and play and relax sometimes.The Dell Technologies chief said people shouldn’t always listen to their parents’ advice.Dell said he goes to sleep 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 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 $115 billion fortune at Thursday’s close.

The personal-computing pioneer said humor plays a key role at his company.

“If you can’t laugh, joke around, play tricks on people, you’re doing it wrong, right?” he said. “You have to be able to laugh at yourself.”

Dell said he toiled tirelessly as a young man to build his company, which generated $88 billion of revenue last year. But he warned against overworking and burnout.

“I learned a long time ago that there’s a diminishing return to the number of hours worked in any given day, ” he said. “And if you’re going to do something for a long time, you better find the [right mixture of] working and playing and relaxing.”

Dell said he goes to bed at about 8:30 or 9 p.m. each night and wakes up around 4 or 5 a.m. to exercise.

“You won’t find me at the nightcap,” he said. “I’ll be asleep.”

Barbecue and bad advice

The Texan businessman also voiced 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 am not cooking a lot of barbecue, but I’m definitely eating barbecue,” he said.

Dell also offered some general advice for young people: “Experiment, take risks, fail, find difficult problems, do something valuable, don’t be afraid, and, you know, be bold.”

He recalled his parents encouraging him to become a doctor and urging him to set 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 his company’s guiding philosophy and the title of his 2021 book.

“Well, yeah, your parents aren’t always right, but they’re not always wrong either,” he said, adding people’s “mileage may vary on the parents.”