Practice What You Preach: Being Successful in Life

Are You Experienced?

Surely, you will use some of the school stuff you pick up along the way.

But is that all there is to it? Can you walk into a meeting and blow them away with your ideas? Of course not – you need to know each member well and play your cards right in order to emerge without losing your dignity.

Chances are that you will be able to open up your toolbox and choose from several tools. In order to become a master at your craft, you have to understand when an electric drill is needed and when a traditional screwdriver will not cut it.

This is the people component of the yin-yang: the intangible element that no one can put a price on.

When Do You Use This Stuff Anyway?

If ever there was a case of a business student dropping everything to apply what was being taught in class it was Michael Dell, founder, Chairman and CEO of Dell Computer. Dell dropped out of the University of Texas in Austin to commercialize his dream.

What Dell did was sell computers out of his dorm room before he realized that there was a great opportunity to start a business.

At a time when other PC makers bled money and saw inventory levels rise, Dell took sound business theories and revolutionized an industry.

Dell never believed in inventory. So his computers were built to order, known as the Just In Time inventory model. JIT reduces carrying, holding and storage costs. Dell passed some of the saving to the consumer. He reduced expenses and improved his cash flow so well that financial managers salivated at his liquidity. When Dell received an order via phone or through the Web, the client credit card was charged right away. Dell then chose the components and had one person assemble the PC. This meant that Dell would have the money in his account before the client had the product.

While competitors would borrow money for inventory and space, Dell would collect first and then worry about putting together the computer. It is because of his ingenuity and brilliance that Michael Dell has managed to retain considerable ownership without diluting his stake with additional equity financing. In addition, good cash flow management that required little capital avoided debt and interest expense made Dell a success.

In the New Economy you need to learn and improve as you go, build from your mistakes and adapt on the fly. Only then will you be ahead of the pack. Why do you think that Bill Gates and Michael Dell never finished school? Why did Oracle's Larry Ellison never attend in the first place? They were itching to get the job done their way knowing that it would make it into textbooks for future students to study. Read about another great entrepreneur here.