Listen to Imagination House

In 2019 Lee Walker published his first book, Imagination House: An Entrepreneurial Life. As author Stephen Harrigan has written, “Lee Walker’s memoir of entrepreneurship is not just a business book…it’s also a kind of handbook about how to live a life that makes room for daring and modesty.”

Lee recently began recording the audio version of Imagination House and hopes to release the completed audiobook in late 2021. In this audio excerpt from the book, the scene is set for Lee to become the first president of Dell Computer Corporation.

Imagination House

an entrepreneurial life

When twenty-one-year-old Michael Dell asked E. Lee Walker to be the president of his fledgling computer company, PC’s Limited, Walker, in his mid-forties, immediately thought about all the people who had helped him through life—as an undergraduate at Texas A&M (Class of ’63), a graduate student at Harvard, and a once young entrepreneur himself. As he and Dell created the foundation of what would become one of the most successful companies in the world, Walker was guided by the lessons of his past business ventures, by his belief in the power of imagination, and by his relationships with people who had provided encouragement when he most needed it. When he left Dell Computer Corporation to teach, Walker discovered that the stories he took with him—of his aspirations, of his failures and triumphs, and of his friends and mentors—were the key to engaging and inspiring his students.

Here, Walker records those stories in a memoir that spans five decades and reveals a man whose curiosity, resourcefulness, and luck led him out of South Texas and into corporate boardrooms, university lecture halls, and community activism. In fast-paced tales about life as a high-tech entrepreneur, adjunct professor, civic leader, and environmental advocate, Walker manages to convey the importance of creative thinking and communal effort in all his endeavors.

Originally offered to a small group of college students in Italy for study abroad, this affecting memoir will introduce to a wider audience not only a seasoned executive and philanthropist but also a wise and delightful storyteller.