Dan Young is not afraid to look silly, and he is fond of saying that he is not "extremely" smart.
So how, exactly, has he become founder and chief executive officer of a company that, according to some market studies, sells 25 percent of all computers sold in Utah?
Simple, Young will tell people who ask: he made the right choices, listened to his mentor and stuck to the idea that computer customers will pay more to — and buy their future computers from — the company that gives them the best service.
Young is the son of Chinese immigrants and grew up in a tough neighborhood in Southern California. While some of his friends succumbed to gang-dominated and criminal lifestyles, Young's parents enrolled him in after-school programs that sparked his interest in computers.
His entrepreneurial side was nurtured working weekends selling Ginsu knives at swap meets and sunglasses and T-shirts at the beach.
While attending the University of Utah, Young worked at a chain electronics store to support himself. When the store went out of business, Young asked his manager if he could keep a customer list. He offered to honor the store's warranties and service those customers' computers, and he launched his first computer business.
In 1994, Young opened his first retail location, and Utah customers quickly got to know "Dan the Laptop Man" from his free-flowing, often wacky TV commercials. But the silly man on the commercials allowed everyone who passed a PC Laptops store to know exactly what they could find inside.
Young has continued his service-first approach by honoring the customer warranties of defunct companies and implementing a computer-recycling program that wipes hard drives clean and recycles usable hardware.
The company's reputation for service is so strong, in fact, that PC Laptops has in recent years started to handle tech support and computer servicing functions for hundreds of companies throughout the country, including many Fortune 500 firms.