Larry Ellison is one of the few of my mentors that did not have an astronomic rise right from childhood. But his life has shown the results from dedication, hard work, resilience and believe in oneself. Tipped by most around him growing up a likely MD, he dropped out of premed after discovering in his lectures that medicine was not for him. He began a new journey of rediscovery travelling away from his birth region to rediscover himself. Naturally athletic, he spent most of his rediscovery phase exploring endurance sports. His then girlfriend happen to part ways from him due to her inability to understand fully the ensuing years. His path led to his securing a job with a software firm where he helped write code for the company. As hardworking and foresighted as he was, he decided to venture into entrepreneurship. With the little savings he had accumulated, he sought two external hands and Oracle was birthed: originally, Software Development Laboratories. Then, there was only one other database firm managing the new found industry of computers. The company grew steadily from the 80s and saw an astronomic rise in the 90s. My fondest memory of him was the story about the second coming of Steve Jobs to Apple. His relationship with the visionary Steve Jobs had grown maturely, then Apple began to shake. Their path to recovering Apple, Together with Jobs: his directive was to borrow money, acquire shares, he gets back on the board of Apple, then Steve is brought back to the company. Their stance was somewhat exacting but apple got hold of Next Computers and got Steve back. The rest has been history. His life teaches us the end is of much importance than the beginning thereof. Today his company powers several medical centres and although he couldn't become a medical doctor himself, his company is the backbone of several medical institutions and research centres. To ice the cake, the Ellison Institute of Technology at Los Angeles and Oxford University is to train others in the fields of science, education and technology. Curious about this? Ask me on Ensurance or visit eit.org
