Dell is other people

As Dagenham's sixth most prestigious IT dealer, I've always found it nigh-on impossible to balance work with my home commitments - until now. A reseller friend of mine who was down the Dog and Duck told me he'd posed a question concerning that very conundrum to Michael Dell himself when the Texan PC baron was in London recently.

Just how did the eponymous computer maker manage to create a firm with a net worth of $20bn before the age of 40, while at the same time raising a young family? His answer was that he simply replied "yes, dear" to everything his wife asked of him. Ah, a simple recipe for matrimonial and professional bliss. Just say "yes".

So it seems Michael Dell is a bit like Jim Carrey in that film where a man decides to answer every question in the affirmative - a Yes Man, if you will. (I forget what the movie's called.) Only with rather more lucrative - although arguably less hilarious - consequences.