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Oracle founder shares secrets of success

February 13, 2009

Lawrence Joseph 'Larry' Ellison has been CEO of Oracle Corporation since he founded the company in 1977. He also races sailboats, flies planes and plays tennis and the guitar.

He founded Oracle by investing $2,000 of his own money. The initial release of Oracle was Oracle 2; there was no Oracle 1. The release number was intended to imply that all of the bugs had been worked out of an earlier version. Today, he owns 22.59 per cent of the enterprise software giant.

A bright but inattentive student, Ellison left the University of Illinois at the end of his second year. Later, he attended the University of Chicago for one term, where he first encountered computer designing.

Ellison is listed by Forbes magazine as the fourth richest person in the world and the third richest American. Here are some of his mantras for success.

Image: Ellison delivers the keynote address at Oracle OpenWorld in California. | Photograph: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

Also read: Meltdown: Thousands of jobs to go globally!

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