Michael is 12:  Michael embarks upon his very first business venture. Fascinated with stamps and commercial opportunities they offer, Michael creates his own stamps auction. He wants to bypass traditional auctioneers, learn more about stamps, and collect a commission in the process. Michael gets a bunch of people in the neighborhood to consign their stamps to him; advertises "Dell's Stamps" in Linn's Stamp Journal; types, with one finger, a twelve-page catalogue and mails it out. He earns $2,000 and learns an early, powerful lesson about rewards of eliminating the middleman. He also learns that if you've got a good idea, it pays to do something about it.

Michael is 16:  Michael gets a summer job selling newspaper subscriptions to The Houston Post and learns the power of market segmentation. The newspaper gave Michael a list of new phone numbers issued by the telephone company and tells him to cold call them. Michael soon notices the pattern, however, based on the feedback he is getting from potential customers during these conversations. There are two kinds of people who almost always buy subscriptions to the Post: people who have just married and people who have just moved into new houses or apartments.