Dumb Stuff I Did: Chapter 1 - Dell Stock

Back in the 90s....

You know, 10 years ago, right? Or was it 15? No matter. In the mid 90s, back when I was living in Austin, I was stocking groceries in a local HEB (as mentioned in my last post) and I was looking to find some work where I actually made some decent money.

I had always been good with computers. I have been programming since I was a little kid on my Atari 800. However, I have also suffered from an extreme case of imposter syndrome. At that time in my younger days, I never thought I deserved to get paid for doing something that I actually enjoyed, so I never really tried to get a job working with computers.

Also, as you can see by the photo, I was a bit of a scraggly dude and somewhat irresponsible. I would probably smack that dude in the back of the head.

The Dell Saga...

One day while driving home from my shitty job, I was feeling a bit froggy. I always passed by the Dell computer manufacturing plant just off I35 in north Austin and thought it would be really cool to work there. On this particular day, for some reason I decided to just walk in there and try to get a job.

Little did I know it at the time, but you weren't supposed to be anywhere near the building unless you were a badged employee. Through a freak series of events, I was able to drive right past the security booth, walk right up to the side of the building and go inside. The stars were aligned in such a way that none of the security guards were at their posts.

I found an unmarked open door in the side of the building and just walked inside, as you do. It led right to a mini office where there was no one seated. There was another door that led directly into the factory floor which I almost made it through, just as I was finally caught by a security guard.

Guard: How did you get in here?
Me: I walked in the door.
Guard: How did you get in the parking lot?
Me: I just drove in and parked.

He looked somewhat confused, then let me know that I wasn't supposed to be there and asked if he could help me. I then proceeded to request information on how to apply for a job. He started to give me the contact number for a temp agency. Apparently, you can't even get a job there unless you start off as a temp. Only then, after a couple of years, they might hire you full time.

Just as I was about to leave, another really lucky thing occurred. One of the line leads was walking by when he overheard me talking to the security guard. He must have been feeling generous that day, because he walked through and asked the security guard to give me a temporary badge. For whatever reason, he decided to give me a tour of the factory.

As we walked through the assembly lines he began pointing at things and asking me questions.

Manager: What do you see?

Me: Well, that guy is installing a power supply into a chassis. That woman is putting some RAM modules into static bags. That guy is carrying what looks like a box full of video cards.

Manager: Wow! You know what all those parts are. Consider me impressed. Most people here only know them by their part numbers.

Keep in mind that this is the 90s. It was kind of unusual for some rando from the street to know what the inside of a computer looked like, much less what its individual parts were. He hired me on the spot.

Stock Options

Let's get this out of the way. In the 90s, I had no idea what a stock was. I knew it had something to do with shares in a company, but that is about the end of it. My fresh new job at Dell came with stock options. Dell stock was worth very little at the time that I was hired. I don't remember the exact details, only that I was being paid options as well as stock matching for any shares that I bought.

I amassed a shit ton of stock over the time that I worked there. Being the little shit that I was, I didn't value my job at Dell very much. I was more interested in hanging out with my buddies in Mexico and living like a hippie. At some point, I decided to leave my job. I remember my boss commenting to me that my options weren't 'vested' yet and I had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently, if I had just staying like 3 more weeks they would have been.

As for the regular stock, I had could have received it as shares, or cashed them out. Of course when I saw that it was going to be a few grand of money, I said, "hell yeah! I'll take the cash bro"

Party Time in Mexico!

With all that fresh cash and no job, I did what any 22 year old would do. I went to party in Mexico! I was gone for quite some time. Eventually I came home and got another job working at Solectron Texas, which was another tech company. I couple of years passed and I totally forgot about my stock that I had sold for a few grand.

One day I was sitting at home watching TV, and this goofy kid came on a commercial saying "Dude! Buy a Dell"

I was like, WTF. Dell are making commercials? You see, up until recently, you couldn't buy a Dell as an individual. You had to be a company. All of our orders were for 100s of machines.

It still didn't click to me what was to come...

My Boy Jaime

One Friday night I was out at the club getting wasted when I ran into my buddy Jaime who I used to work with at Dell. Jaime was a 5 foot dude who was nice, but not what I'd call a playboy. However, tonight, he had two really hot girls with him.

I thought it was weird, but kind of shrugged it off. He invited me to a big party at his house, and I was like 'hell yeah dude!'

An hour or so later we were driving up to his house in... West Lake Austin. I was like OMG.. How the hell is he living here in this mansion?

We go inside, and there are a bunch of my old friends from Dell. His bro was in a hot tub on the back porch with a bunch of hotties. I was completely stunned.

I went back into the livingroom and set next to Jaime.

Jaime: What do you think about my place dude?

Me: It's fuckin' awesome man. Wow! I love it.

Jaime: So what did you do with your money?

Me: My money? What money?

Jaime: Dude.. Your Dell stock money. What did you do with it?

Me: What? That was like a few grand. I spent it in Mexico.

Jaime looked at me really confused. You see, Jaime is what came to be know as a Dellionaire. It turned out that most of the people I worked with were now Dellionaires. Just after I left, Dell stock when through the roof and a shit ton of employees got really rich. I expect they had to hire a lot of new people after everyone quit.

I peered around the room quite alarmed. Wow, all of my friends are millionaires, and I went to Mexico. How dumb could I be? In that moment, I realized that I had made the greatest mistake in my short life.

It took me many years to get over that insane blunder. At least it got me to spend some time learning about stocks and how they worked. In fact, you could say that this experience is the whole reason that I got into crypto. Funnily enough, even though I'd like to say that I learned my lesson, the losses I incurred are dwarfed by the losses I made selling my BTC for Steem a few years back. But all we can do is get up, dust ourselves off and try again!