Reading rank 109
Play Nice But Win: A CEO's Journey from Founder to Leader
, subject: Michael Dell's career, 2021
A founder’s account of the recurring work of rebuilding systems and teams as a company grows without making small plans.
116
Coverage Score
7
Scored evidence
About the book
The memoir, co-written with James Kaplan, covers Dell's 1984 founding of the company, the leveraged buyout that took it private, his conflict with activist investor Carl Icahn over the deal, and the company's return to public trading.
Why read it
Best if you are building, studying, or preparing to lead a rapidly growing company and want to think about the repeated rebuilding of teams and systems alongside long-term founder ambition.
Key themes
- Scale repeatedly changes the organization
- Ambition can set the founder’s direction
Evidence and original sources
This record is supported by 14 public evidence rows linked to original Founders episodes.
- Jim Simons Built The World’s Greatest Money-Making Machine — David draws a self-confidence founder theme from Michael Dell's autobiography.
- Ken Griffin: Founder of Citadel and Citadel Securities — David directly calls Michael Dell's second autobiography fantastic and highly recommends it.
- Michael Dell — David explicitly says Play Nice But Win is the book he is going to discuss today.