Michael Dell's Understated Demeanor

Andrew Wilkinson shares a story about meeting Michael Dell and being surprised by how understated and normal he was despite his massive wealth.

"Chris and I got to meet Michael Dell this year. Michael Dell is worth $65 billion, and we sat down with him. I'm going like 'okay I'm gonna crack this guy open.' You read his book, it's all very tame, his public persona is very serious and calm and nice. His book is literally called 'Play Nice But Win.'

So we go into this huge gray office park, we're in this boardroom, and he sits down with us. Chris and I just walked away thinking 'oh my god, he's like the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter of billionaires.' He's just steady Eddie, super nice.

We're asking 'What do you do with your money? Do you own 20 houses? Do you own a bunch of planes? Do you do anything crazy?' And he's like 'Nope, I just love operating my business and growing it over time.' I think he owns 2 or 3 nice houses - obviously they're very nice houses - one plane, and that was it.

He told us this anecdote - this is how much of a baller he is. He goes 'About 20 years ago I took $200 million and started a family office. I wanted to make like a 10% return, so I hired these really smart guys and they started doing private credit.' One of the people he lent to was a billionaire who owned a hockey team in Dallas. Then one day he just got a call saying 'Well, you own the Dallas Stars now' because the guy had defaulted. That's how much of a baller Michael Dell is."