Name:	Larry Ellison/ Lawrence Joseph Ellison
Born:	August 17, 1944
Nationality:	American
Age:	77
Net Worth:	$89 Billion
Business:	Oracle
Spouse:	Adda Quinn, Nancy Wheeler Jenkins, Barbara Boothe, Melanie Craft
Children:	Megan Ellinson, and David Ellison

Larry Ellison is a software engineer turned entrepreneur who founded Oracle Crop, and… No, I don’t want to tell his story that way. Everyone knows what he achieved. But this story is about how Larry achieved it and how he defines entrepreneurship and his approach to life.

Imagine you are 21 years old, you dropped out of college; you pack your bag, old jeans, t-shirts, and leather jackets and put them in your car, and drive from Chicago to Berkeley. For what? to become a rock climbing instructor. Sounds crazy? Well, It should.

Because it is the story of a guy who dropped out of college and went to the mountains and became a rock climbing instructor and a river guide. But, perhaps, it is where he became a force of nature that changed the world remarkably.

So, he did act and formed this giant company that the world Knows as Oracle. This biography is about how Lawrence Joseph Ellison became Larry Ellison and how Oracle came to be.

Who Is Larry Ellison?

Ellison was born to an unmarried teenage mom who gave him up to her aunt at the age of 9 months when he was suffering from Pneumonia. He was raised on the south side of Chicago. A long time passed before he met his biological mother at 48.

Ellison attended the South Shore High School in Chicago and was later admitted to the University of Illinois. He had a brilliant mind, and he was also the science student of the year, But Larry withdrew during his Sophomore year.

Unlike Mark Zuckerberg, who also left university during his Sophomore year, Ellison had a different reason for leaving. Mark left university to pursue his dream, Facebook. But Ellison left because his adoptive mother died. His memory of his adoptive mother was loving and warm.

Unless Larry had such a vision of life, he wouldn’t have discovered who he was and what he was going to do. So, he continued his journey in life.

Early Life & Education

Later, Larry Ellison went to the University of Chicago and learned Physics and Math. also this is where he came across computer design for the first time. In 1966 Larry moved to Berkeley. He was taking different classes at Berkeley, but the one he loved was a sailing class.

Driven by the deep love for the omnipotent Pacific ocean, Larry wanted to buy a boat. He thought that he should be a sailor instead.

This is where the hell broke loose. His wife called him irresponsible and kicked him out, eventually divorcing him. But Larry was aware of who he was. Perhaps that is why he says,

Entrepreneurial Achievements

The job of a rock climbing instructor did not pay well, and he also did not love all the jobs as software engineer he was getting. So, out of the fear of failure, he started his business venture to create Oracle. Here is how Larry Ellison describes the advent of his entrepreneurial journey which was borne out of fear

He was inspired by the research of Edgar F. Codd about the relational database. This is the crazy idea he took to start Oracle.

Larry Ellison started his own company to employ himself in a job that he likes. Ellison hired some of the genius minds in Silicon Valley and invested them in his crazy idea. The idea was to build the world’s first relational database. When he started, the experts started calling it a crazy idea. But, here is how he felt,

And the innovation was … Oracle.

Oracle 

Both for the medium and low-range systems, Oracle became the successful vendor of the database. Later, it went into competition with companies like Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server.

His idea was to organize a huge amount of data and make it easily accessible. While IBM was still in the research phase with this idea, Larry Ellison saw the potential and took it head-on. Unfortunately, he was criticized by the industry experts; First, they called him arrogant and then they called him crazy. Perhaps that is why he says,

But he was ready to challenge the status quo. Larry, with his former colleagues from Ampex Ed Oates and Bob Miner, formed Software Development Laboratories in 1977. Later the same came to be known as Oracle. He did exactly what he told later in 2016 during his USC commencement speech,

And Oracle was an innovation in the disguise of arrogance and insanity. The first landmark of success Oracle hit was in 1978. They struck a $50000 deal with the CIA (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency ). They developed a relational database management system for the CIA.

But, Oracle, too, had its share of decline and downfall. In 1996 Larry Ellison found the company in major turmoil. The first quarterly loss of Oracle was evident in 1990. But Ellison pulled through. In 1992, they released a database software named Oracle 7. This software became popular and was used by Banks, governments, corporations, airlines, automakers, and retailers.

This is where Ellison showed his business acumen.

In 2000 Larry Ellison was the highest-paid executive in the world. In 2009, the market cap of Oracle tripled in the decade to $98 billion. You may know about the Zoom Video Communication app. Zoom used the cloud infrastructure of Oracle to support the increased demand for usage in 2020 during the covid pandemic.

The company’s annual revenue is $44.44 billion, and 143K employees are working under them. From starting as an idea to becoming a billion-dollar global company, Oracle has come a long way.

Business Acquisitions

Larry Ellison is not only the founder of Oracle. He has also acquired some of the biggest business names that you might not know of. For example, he owns Bloomberg, Business Insider, The Hill, and The Wall Street Journal.

Charity

Ellison invested $5 million in Lawrence J. Ellison Musculo-Skeletal Research Center in 1992. According to the list of charitable donations by the 400 wealthiest Americans by Forbes, Ellison donated $151,092,103, which is 1% of his personal wealth.

Also, in 2007, he pledged to donate $500,000 to a community center in Sderot, Israel. Ellison is also among the 40 billionaires who have signed “The Giving Pledge.”

Personal Life

Ellison’s marriage life has been through many ups and downs. He married Adda Quinn in 1967, and it lasted until 1974. Later he married Nancy Wheeler Jenkins (1977 to 1978). His marriage with Barbara Boothe lasted from 1983 to 1986. But with her, he had two children named David & Megan. His marriage to Melanie Craft, a romance novelist, lasted for 7 years (2003 to 2010).

Larry Ellison loves winning, and he makes the most out of winning by getting what he wants.

Mr. Ellison is a licensed pilot and owns several aircraft. He has also invested in some luxury real estates. His Woodside California is modeled after feudal Japanese architecture and is worth $110 million. Elon Musk is not the only business tycoon to appear in Marvel’s Ironman. Larry Ellison also had a cameo in Ironman 2.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

Here are some popular questions people ask about Larry Ellison. I have given accurate answers to these questions.

Conclusion!

After staying the CEO of Oracle for years, Larry Ellison left the post of CEO in 2014. He is the current board chair and the chief technology officer. Larry was also listed by Forbes as one of the richest persons in the world. All of his achievements came from following what he dreamed of, and larry gives high regard to dreams.

His remarkable personality as a businessman inspires many rising entrepreneurs to dream. Are you dreaming? If not, it’s time you do.

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