'It's okay to not take advice from parents, but...': Dell CEO Michael Dell to young people

The founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, Michael Dell, has some advice for young people and techies looking up to him: your parents aren't always right, but they're not always wrong either. He further added that people's "mileage may vary on the parents."

Dell, who is 59, shared this advice during a recent episode of the "In Good Company" podcast. Dell is currently ranked 13th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a $115 billion valuation. On the podcast, he mentioned how his parents wanted him to become a doctor and constantly urged him to set aside his passion for building computers. However, he didn't believe their advice and followed his heart, which ultimately led him to building an $88 billion revenue company.

Despite his aversion to his parents' wishes, Dell recalled that one piece of parenting advice stuck with him. 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.

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."

Dell is a stern believer in working hard and putting in the hours at work, but he also emphasises the importance of downtime. "I learned a long time ago that there's a diminishing return to the number of hours worked in any given day, " he said, highlighting the importance of a balance between "working and playing and relaxing."

The personal-computer pioneer further talked about the importance of humour in the workplace. "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."