Oracle (ORCL, Financial) founder Larry Ellison delivered a speech to the class of 2016 earlier this year at the University of Southern California. I thought it was a great speech, and I learned a lot from it.
You can watch the full speech here.
In the speech Ellison spoke about how his family, his teachers and his girlfriend wanted him to become a doctor and live their dream.
"Over time, their dreams became my dreams," Ellison said. "They convinced me that I should be a doctor. But as hard as I tried, I couldn’t do it. After difficult and unhappy years as a premed student, it became painfully clear to me that I did not like the courses that I was taking. I thought my comparative anatomy class was a perversely pointless form of psychological torture, especially the dissection labs. And I just cannot make myself study something that doesn’t interest me. At the time, I thought that 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 be so I decided to stop trying."
Ellison was 21 years old when he dropped out of college. He packed everything that he owned and drove from Chicago to Berkeley, California.
During his California springs and summers Ellison spent most of his days in Yosemite Valley working as a river guide and a rock-climbing instructor. He loved those jobs, but they didn’t pay well so he also got a job as a computer programmer working a couple of days per week. At this point Ellison had a couple of jobs that he loved and one that paid the bills.
Although Ellison was happy with his life, his wife was not. She saw him as a college dropout who spent too much time in the mountains doing foolish things. She wanted him to work full time as a computer programmer or go back to college and finish his degree. Ellison began taking classes at UC-Berkeley, and the only one that he remembered was a sailing class taught at Berkeley Marina. He then fell in love with sailing and began a lifelong affair with the limitless, omnipotent Pacific Ocean. Once Ellison had completed his class, he wanted to buy a sailboat, and his wife told him that “this was the single stupidest idea she had ever heard in her entire life.”
She then accused him of being irresponsible, and she told him that he lacked ambition. She then kicked him out and divorced him.
It was at this time that Ellison realized that other people's dreams were different from his own, and he would never confuse the two of them again.
He discovered things that he loved: nature, the Sierras, Yosemite and the Pacific Ocean. These natural wonders brought him natural joy and happiness. I can relate because I was on a 102-day RV trip with one of my best friends earlier this year. I got to see the Sierras as well as Yosemite, and both were truly breathtaking.
Ellison continued to work as a computer programmer, and once he had saved enough money he purchased the sailboat he wanted despite what his ex-wife had previously told him. He lived on the sailboat with his cat.
It was shortly after this that Ellison moved to Silicon Valley where he worked for various startups helping to create the world’s fastest mainframe computer at the time, the world’s largest digital data system, then he helped create an even larger digital data system using lasers.
He liked his job, but he didn’t love it. He searched for a job that would give him the opportunity to sail. He couldn’t find anything so he formulated a plan to start his own company. Ellison founded Oracle without the intention of creating one of the largest companies in the world.
At the time that Ellison started Oracle he had the “crazy idea” to create the world’s first relational database. Although back during this time the collective wisdom of computer experts was that relational databases could be built. They would never be fast enough to be useful. Ellison thought that all those so-called computer experts were wrong.
He then went on to say:
“When people 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 might just be onto the most important innovation in your life.”
I learned a lot from Ellison. Following your heart, being courageous and not living someone else's dream are three keys to a fulfilling life.
Ellison has a net worth of $49.9 billion, according to Forbes.com.
Disclosure: Author does not own any shares of Oracle.
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