Action Computers: A Computer a Day
In 1994 I walked away from a corporate job — briefcase, suit, sack lunch and all — because I wanted to build something I chose, not something I had to do. So I started a used computer business called Action Computers. Computers were expensive back then, often $400 to $1,200, and it wasn’t long before people started coming in asking for help. We gave local police discounts so they’d keep an eye on our stores, and giving quickly became part of how we did business. My thinking was simple: if we could put a computer in front of a kid who didn’t have access to one, and change even one life so they learned computing instead of getting pulled into something worse, the whole thing would be worth it. So we made it a mission — give away at least a computer a day, every day, for 25 years. That’s 365 computers a year, minimum, from 1994 until we sold the company in 2019.
The program grew after I made a pitch to a company about to sign with a big recycling firm: let me handle 90% of your recycling for free, wipe your data to federal standards, and donate the refurbished computers in your name — a fully documented charitable write-off for you. He gave me 100 computers to prove it, and from there the donations kept scaling, eventually partnering with a nonprofit called TechForAll that put disabled workers to work refurbishing machines alongside ours. People still call me today to tell me their kid was on a bad path until they got one of those computers, and some of the kids we helped ended up working for us as sales reps and technicians. You can get good by doing good. If you find a way to help somebody along the way, it comes back around.