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Founders: #124 Larry Ellison and Oracle

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What I learned from reading Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Matthew Symonds. ---- [0:01] Although much of my time with him coincided with a period of adversity for Oracle, I never once saw Ellison downcast. His unquenchable optimism and almost messianic self belief never faltered. [5:06] The single most important aspect of my personality is my questioning of conventional wisdom. My doubting of experts just because they are experts. My questioning of authority. While that can be very painful in terms of your relationships with your parents and teachers it is enormously useful in life. [12:19] People — teachers, coaches, bosses — want you to conform to some standard of behavior they deem correct. They measure and reward you on how well you conform — arrive on time, dress appropriately, exhibit a properly deferential attitude — as opposed to how well you do your job. Programming liberated me from all that. [16:34] I had always believed that at the top of these companies there must be some exceptionally capable people who make the entire technology industry work. Now here I was, working near the top of a tech company, and those capable people were nowhere t

[00:00:00] And what of Larry Ellison the man? Although much of my time with him coincided with a period of adversity for Oracle, I never once saw Ellison downcast. His unquenchable optimism and almost messianic self-belief never faltered. It is this aspect of Ellison that many people who either don't know him or know him only a little find most objectionable. For them, he is at best a bombastic showman, and at worst a false prophet and even a self-serving liar. Yet I am more convinced than I was at the [00:00:33] beginning of my journey with him that Ellison is an extraordinary person,…

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