Larry Ellison Life is about 2 things with BIG subtitles
thank you for inviting me here today I’m
honored to be with you for your
graduation from the University of
Southern California this morning I’d
like to talk with you about how a few
experiences and a couple of ideas taught
me some important lessons and helped me
discover my dreams when I was your age
living and going to school in Chicago
back in the 1960s I used to dream about
this place the University of Southern
California back then this is all true
back then my dream was to go to the USC
Medical School get married raise a
family and practice medicine in Los
Angeles growing up in a lower
middle-class community on the south side
of Chicago medicine was considered the
pinnacle of professions noble and humane
virtually everyone important in my life
my family my teachers my girlfriend
wanted me to be a doctor over time their
dreams became my dreams they convinced
me I should be a doctor but as hard as I
tried I couldn’t do it after a few
difficult and unhappy years as a pre-med
student it became painfully clear to me
that I did not like the courses I was
taking I thought my comparative anatomy
class was a perversely pointless form of
psychological torture
especially the dissection labs and I
just could not make myself study
something that didn’t interest me at the
time I thought I lacked discipline and
that I was selfish maybe so but whatever
the underlying reasons I was unable to
make myself into the person that I
thought I should
so I decided to stop trying I was 21
years old when I dropped out of college
packed everything I owned jeans t-shirts
leather jacket guitar into my car and
drove from Chicago to Berkeley
California
I guess one small part of that
University of Southern California dream
was mine after all the California part
Berkeley in the 1960s was at the center
of everything the anti-war movement the
Free Speech Movement the human rights
movement it was the perfect place for an
undisciplined selfish 20-something to
begin his search for himself a righteous
cause and a job that he loved everyone
living in Berkeley in the 1960s opposed
the Vietnam War I was no different
it was the Age of Aquarius but I never
had long hair and I never wore love
beads I learned to play popular protest
songs on my guitar but I was never a
committed serious anti-war protester I
did find a cause however one I still
feel passionately about today a few
hours east of Berkeley are the Sierra
Nevada mountains I fell in love with
those mountains and the ineffable
natural beauty of Yosemite Valley I
cared about the wilderness and I wanted
to help preserve it I joined the Sierra
Club
I became an environmentalist
during my California Springs and summers
I spent most of my days in the High
Sierras in Yosemite Valley working as a
river guide and a rock climbing
instructor I loved at those jobs but
unfortunately they didn’t pay that well
so I also got a job working a couple of
days a week as a computer programmer
back in Berkeley I had learned a program
in college I didn’t love programming but
it was fun and I was good at it and
computer program programming gave me the
same kind of satisfaction as solving
math problems and playing chess both
things I enjoyed before before I became
a confused teenager at this point in my
life I thought I was making real
progress on my journey of self-discovery
I had found a cause I had a couple of
jobs that I loved and one that was fun
and paid the bills I was pretty happy
with my life my wife was not what she
saw was a college dropout who spent too
much time in the mountains doing foolish
things she wanted me to work full-time
as a computer programmer or go back to
college and finish my degree we
compromised sort of I started taking
classes at UC Berkeley I took several
classes but the only one I can remember
was a sailing class taught at Berkeley
marina
once again I fell in love and began a
lifelong affair with the limitless
omnipotent Pacific Ocean when my class
was over I wanted to buy a sailboat
my wife said this was the single
stupidest idea she had ever heard in her
entire life she accused me of being
irresponsible and she told me I lacked
ambition
she kicked me out and then she divorced
me this is a pivotal moment in my life
[Applause]
my family was still mad at me for not
going to medical school and now my wife
was divorcing me because I lacked
ambition it looked like a reoccurrence
of the same old problem once again I was
unable to live up to the expectations of
others but this time I was not
disappointed in myself for failing to be
the person they thought I should be
their dreams and my dreams were
different I would never confuse the two
of them again I had discovered things
that I loved the Sierras Yosemite the
Pacific Ocean these natural wonders
brought me great joy and happiness and
would for the rest of my life I had an
interesting job programming computers
and more money than I needed for the
first time I was certain that I was
going to survive in this world a huge
burden of fear had been lifted I’ll
never forget that moment it was a time
for rejoicing
I bought the sailboat and lived on board
just me and my cat in Berkeley marina in
the words of James Joyce I was alone and
young and willful and unheeded but I was
happy and near to the wild heart of life
throughout my 20s I continued
experimenting trying different things
racing bikes and boats and constantly
changing jobs it didn’t take me long to
discover that the most interesting and
rewarding programming jobs were found at
a cluster of companies located south of
Stanford University in north of San Jose
Silicon Valley was in its infancy I was
still in my 20s when I went to work for
my first Silicon Valley startup Amdahl
where we developed the world’s fastest
mainframe computer faster than anything
IBM had next stop was Ampex
where we built the world’s largest
digital data storage system then on to
precision instruments where we built an
even larger data storage system this
time using lasers I was the vice
president and charged with software
development it was all very cutting-edge
and challenging and cool I like my work
most of the time but I didn’t love it I
searched and I searched but I just could
not find a software engineering job that
I loved as much as I loved sailing so I
tried to create one I put together a
plan to start my own company that way I
could completely control my work
environment I would hire the most
talented programmers I knew and we would
all work together on the most
interesting and challenging software
projects my group my goal was to create
the perfect job for me a job I truly
loved I never expected the company to
grow beyond 50 people so maybe I really
did lack ambition or vision back then I
don’t know it was a long time ago and I
was very young anyway today Oracle
employs around 150,000 people but when I
started it was not my intention to build
a big company what happened well at
first we did exactly what we set out to
do hired the most talented software
engineers in Silicon Valley we assembled
an all-star team of gifted programmers
who were among the best in the world at
what they did that team plus one crazy
idea gave birth to a giant company I
call it a crazy idea because at the time
everyone told me
it was a crazy idea the idea was to
build the world’s first relational
database several theoretical papers
about relational databases had already
been published and IBM was building a
prototype in their research labs but
back then the collective wisdom of
computer experts was that while
relational databases could be built they
would never be fast enough to be useful
I thought all those so-called
computer experts were wrong and when you
start telling people that all the
experts are wrong at first
they call you arrogant and then they say
you’re crazy so remember this graduates
when people start telling you that
you’re crazy you just might be on to the
most important innovation in your life
of course the other possibility is
you’re crazy
this is one of those times when the
experts were wrong arrogance and
insanity turned out to be innovation in
disguise the Oracle database proved to
be a defining technology at the dawn of
the Information Age the Oracle database
also totally upended my plans to build a
small comfortable company a perfect
place for me and a few of my friends to
work as the Information Age moved from
dawn to the full light of day technology
horizons were constantly shifting
revealing a brave and exciting world of
new possibilities and new opportunities
Oracle doubled in size year after year
after year for 10 years I had set out to
create the perfect programming job from
me instead I created a job where I had
to stop programming altogether I I
attempted to create an environment that
I could completely control instead I was
running a company with thousands and
thousands of people that was growing so
fast that it was impossible for anyone
to control it was like sailing in a
hurricane and then we went public oh my
god maybe I should have been a doctor
I was constantly learning on on-the-job
training I think they call it everyday
learned something new and interesting
something that I did not know the day
before unlike that my new job was
challenging captivating consuming I
worked all the time but thinking back
I’m pretty sure I didn’t love it
or maybe I was just too tired to even
know how I felt but I had found a place
in the world my family finally forgave
me for not going to medical school and
nobody ever accused me of lacking
ambition again now I’d like to tell you
one last story about my best friend a
guy who had lots of crazy ideas and
taught me an important lesson my 30-year
friendship with Steve Jobs was made up
of a thousand walks if there was
something he wanted to talk about and
there always was we’d go for a walk we
climbed to the top of Windy Hill hiked
around Castle Rock or through the sands
on on the beach at Kona Village over the
years one particular walk stands out we
had a lot to talk about that day so we
jumped in the car put the top down and
headed out to Castle Rock Rock State
Park
in the Santa Cruz Mountains it was over
20 years ago back in mid-1995 Steve was
finishing up Toy Story at Pixar and
running next the computer company he
founded after he left Apple Apple was in
severe distress it had gone steadily
downhill during the ten years of Steve’s
absence the problems were now so serious
people were wondering if Apple would
survive it was all too painful to watch
and stand by and do nothing so the
purpose of that particular hike through
the Santa Cruz Mountains on that
particular day was to discuss taking
over Apple Computer my idea was simple
by Apple and immediately makes Steve CEO
Apple wasn’t worth much back then about
five billion dollars we both had really
good credit and I had already arranged
to borrow all the money all Steve had to
do was say yes Steve proposed a somewhat
more circuitous approach first persuade
Apple to buy next computer then Steve
would join the Apple board and over time
the board would recognize that Steve was
the right guy to lead the company I said
okay that might work but Steve if we
don’t buy Apple how are we gonna make
any money suddenly Steve stopped walking
and turned toward me we were facing each
other when he put his left hand on my
right shoulder and his right hand on my
left shoulder staring unblinkingly into
my eyes Steve said Larry this is why
it’s so important that I’m your friend
you don’t need any more money I said
yeah I know I know then I came and I
said but we don’t have to keep it we
could give it all away I was whining
Steve just shook his head and said I’m
not doing this for the money
I don’t want to get paid if I do this I
need to do this standing on the moral
high ground the moral high ground I said
well that just might be the most
expensive real estate on earth but I
knew I had lost the argument
Steve had made up his mind right there
and then at Castle Rock in the summer of
1995 to save Apple his way at the end of
the hike right before we got back into
the car
I said Steve you created Apple it’s your
company and it’s your call I’ll do
whatever you want me to do I went on the
Apple board and then I watched Steve
build the most valuable company on earth
[Applause]
the lesson here is very clear to me
Steve was right after a certain point it
can’t be about the money after a certain
point you can’t spend it no matter how
hard you try I know I’ve tried hard but
it’s impossible in the end the only
practical option is to give nearly all
of it away so why did Steve go back to
Apple why did he devote so much of what
remained of his life to his job why do I
I believe the answer is that deep inside
of all of us all of us there’s a primal
desire to do something important with
our lives and Freud said there are only
two things important in life love and
work he did not say love and work were
the same thing I’m passionate about my
work it continues to give me great
satisfaction in a sense of who I am but
passion and love are different at least
for me they are I love my family a few
precious friends four cats two dogs
cherry blossoms in Japan Pacific island
beaches and bays and the majestic Sierra
Nevada mountains where it all began for
me my feelings about work are very
intense but quite different
there’s a TV advertisement for the
United States Navy that says it’s not
just a job it’s an adventure that’s
exactly how I feel about my years in
Silicon Valley in interesting
challenging all-consuming adventure like
any ongoing adventure I have no idea how
it ends but I know it will for me and a
long long time for now from now for all
of you but today graduates you are
beginning your great adventure your
generation will change the world as
every generation does you will invent
new technologies and create new types of
art impossibilities will be transformed
into possibilities and unexpected
opportunities will present themselves
you will change the world and the world
will change you as you learn and grow
and discover more about yourself
remember this graduates in a constantly
changing world what is possible is a
moving target don’t be afraid to
experiment and try lots of different
things and don’t let the experts us
courage you when you when you challenge
the status quo like Mark Twain says
what’s an expert anyway just some guy
from out of town each of you has a
chance to discover who you are rather
than who you should be a chance to live
your dreams not the dreams of others
each of you has an obligation to commit
to a righteous cause one that elevates
you and improves the conditions of
humanity and the planet soon many of you
will begin a new job I hope it interest
you and challenges you and rewards you
with a sense of purpose and satisfaction
but if it doesn’t keep searching it’s
out there it might take a while but keep
searching until you find a job that
ignites your passions like I did even
better you just might find one that you
love thank you and congratulations
[Applause]