Larry Ellison’s speech here has always impressed me. In this talk where he tells his own story, he actually reveals one of the most interesting character developments in history. The last time I saw a character transformation like this was in Walter White from Breaking Bad.
There are many parts of the speech we could call important, but for me the most striking one is the period before he founded Oracle. All Larry wanted, as someone searching for a calm and peaceful life, was to buy a sailboat and either set out to sea or drop everything and roam the mountains. His wife thought these ideas were stupid. In the end, she couldn’t stand it anymore and left him, saying “you have no ambition.”
When you do a bit of research on this man, you’ll see that the things most frequently mentioned about him are his extreme ambition and competitiveness. You can now see the sharp character shift more clearly. The man who was left for being “unambitious” turns into the Darth Vader of the software world. This transformation has shocked me, made me think, and impressed me all at the same time.
So how did this happen? Having people around us who say “you can’t do this” is actually not such a bad thing. When used correctly, these can become serious fuel. I guess we can say Larry used it the right way.
