SPEECH SAVVY | LARRY ELLISON: Embrace Risk & Innovation (English Subtitles)

in this video we bring you a compelling speech from Larry Ellison at the University of Southern California he shared personal anecdotes including how dropping out of college led him to founding Oracle his speech emphasized the importance of following passion over conventional paths encouraging graduates to embrace risk and Innovation he highlighted the value of curiosity and perseverance urging students to pursue their dreams even in the face of uncertainty Ellison's message underscored his belief in taking unconventional routes to success and the power of learning through real world experiences good morning class of 2016 thank you for inviting me here today I'm honored to be with you for your graduation from the University of Southern California this morning morning I'd like to talk with you about how a few experiences and a couple of ideas taught me some important lessons and help me discover my dreams when I was your age living and going to school in Chicago back in the 1960s I used to dream about this place the University of Southern California back then this is all true back then my dream was to go to the USC medical school get married raise a family and practice medicine in Los Angeles growing up in a lower middleclass community on the south side of Chicago medicine was considered the Pinnacle of of professions Noble and Humane virtually everyone important in my life my family my teachers my girlfriend wanted me to be a doctor over time their dreams became my dreams they convinced me I should be a doctor but as hard as I tried I couldn't do it after a few difficult and unhappy years as a Premed student it became painfully clear to me that I did not like the courses I was taking I thought my comparative anomy class was a perversely pointless form of psychological torture especially the dissection labs and I just could not make myself study something that didn't interest me at the time I thought 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 I was 21 years old when I dropped out of college packed everything I owned jeans t-shirts leather jacket guitar into my car and drove from Chicago to Berkeley California I guess one small part of that University of Southern California Dream was mine after all the California part Berkeley in the 1960s was at the center of everything the anti-war movement the Free Speech movement the human rights movement it was the perfect place for an undisciplined selfish 20-some to begin his search for himself a righteous cause and a job that he loved everyone living in Berkeley in the 1960s opposed the Vietnam War I was no different it was the age of Aquarius but I never had long hair and I never wore love beads I learned to play popular Proto songs on my guitar but I was never a committed serious anti-war protester I did find a cause however one I still feel passionately about today a few hours East of Berkeley are the Sierra Nevada mountains I fell in love with those mountains and the ineffable natural beauty of yane Valley I cared about the Wilderness and I wanted to help preserve it I joined the Sierra Club I became an environmentalist during my California Springs and Summers I spent most of my days in the high sieras in yusan Valley working as a river guide and a rock climbing instructor I loved those jobs but unfortunately they didn't pay that well so I also got a job working a couple of days a week as a computer programmer back in Burley I had learned to program in college I didn't love programming but was fun and I was good at it and computer prog programming gave me the same kind of satisfaction as solving math problems and playing chess both things I enjoyed be before I became a confused teenager at this point in my life I thought I was making real progress on my journey of self-discovery I had found a cause I had a couple of jobs that I loved and one that was fun and paid the bills I was pretty happy with my life my wife was not what she saw was a College Dropout who spent too much time in the mountains doing foolish things she wanted me to work full-time as a computer programmer or go back to college and finish my degree we compromised sort of I started taking classes at UC Berkeley I took several classes but the only one I can remember was a sailing class taught at Berkeley Marina once again I fell in love and began a lifelong affair with a limitless omnipotent Pacific Ocean when my class was over I wanted to buy a sailboat my wife said this was a single stupidest idea she had ever heard in her entire life she accused me of being irresponsible and she told me I lacked ambition she kicked me out and then she divorced me this was a pivotal moment in my life my family was still mad at me for not going to medical school and now my wife was divorcing me because I lacked ambition it looked like a re reoccurrence of the same old problem once again I was unable to live up to the expectations of others but this time I was not disappointed in myself for failing to be the person they thought I should be their dreams and my dreams were different I would never confuse the two of them again I had discovered things that I loved the sieras yosee the Pacific Ocean these natural wonders brought me great joy and happiness and would for the rest of my life I had an interesting job programming computers and more money than I needed for the first time I was certain that I was going to survive in this world a huge burden of fear had been lifted I'll never forget that moment it was the time for rejoicing I bought the sailboat and lived on board just me and my cat in Berkeley Marina in the words of James Joyce I was alone and young and willful and unheeded but I was happy and near to the Wild Heart Of Life throughout my 20s I continued experimenting trying different things racing bikes and boats and constantly changing jobs it didn't take me long to discover that the most interesting and rewarding programming jobs were found at a cluster of companies located south of Stanford University in North of San Jose Silicon Valley was in its infancy I was still in my 20s when I went to work for my first Silicon Valley startup amdall where we developed the world's fastest Mainframe computer faster than anything IBM had next stop was aex where we built the world's largest digital data storage system then on to Precision Instruments where we built an even larger data storage system this time using lasers I was the Vice President in charge with software development it was all very Cutting Edge and challenging and cool I likeed my work most of the time but I didn't love it I searched and I searched but I just could not find a software engineering job that that I loved as much as I loved sailing so I tried to create one I put together a plan to start my own company that way I could completely control my work environment I would hire the most talented programmers I knew and we would all work together on the most interesting and challenging software projects my my goal was to create the perfect job for me a job I truly loved I never I never expected the company to grow Beyond 50 people so maybe I really did lack ambition or Vision back then I don't know it was a long time ago and I was very young anyway today Oracle employs around 150,000 people but when I started it was not my intention to build a big company what happened well at first we did exactly what we set out to do hired the most talented soft engineers in Silicon Valley we assembled an Allstar team of gifted programmers who were among the best in the world at what they did that team plus one crazy idea gave birth to a giant company I call it a crazy idea because at the time everyone told me it was a crazy idea the idea was to build the world's first relational database several theoretical papers about relational databases had already been published and IBM was building a prototype in their research Labs but back then the collective wisdom of computer experts was that while relational databases could be built they would never be fast enough to be useful I thought all those so-called computer experts were wrong and when you 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 just might be on to the most important innovation in your life of course the other possibility is you're crazy this was one of those times when the experts were wrong arrogance and Insanity turned out to be innovation in Disguise the Oracle database proved to be a defining technology at the dawn of the information age the Oracle database also totally upend Ed my plans to build a small comfortable company a perfect place for me and a few of my friends to work as the information age moved from dawn to the full light of day technology Horizons were constantly shifting revealing a brave and exciting world of new possibilities and New Opportunities Oracle doubled in size year after year after year for 10 years I had set out to create the perfect programming job for me instead I created a job where I had to stop programming altogether I I attempted to create an environment that I could completely control instead I was running a company with thousands and thousands of people that was growing so fast that it was impossible for anyone to control it was like sailing in a hurricane and then we went public oh my God maybe I should have been a doctor I was constantly learning on the on the job training I think they call it every day I learned something new and interesting something that I did not know the day before I like that my new job was challenging captivating consuming I worked all the time but thinking back I'm pretty sure I didn't love it or maybe I was just too tired to even know how I felt but I had found a place in the world my family finally forgave me for not going to medical school and nobody ever accused me of lacking ambition again now I'd like to tell you one last story about my best friend a guy who had lots of crazy ideas and taught me an important lesson my 30-year friendship with Steve Jobs was made up of a thousand walks if there was something he wanted to talk about and there always was we'd go for a walk we climbed to the top of Windy Hill hike around Castle Rock or through the sands on on the beach at Kona Village over the years one particular walk stands out we had a lot to talk about that day so we jumped in the car put the top down and headed out to Castle Rock Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz mountains it was over 20 years ago back in mid 1995 Steve was finishing up Toy Story at Pixar and running next the computer company he founded after he left apple apple was in severe distress it had gone steadily downhill during the 10 years of Steve's absence the problems were now so serious people were wondering if Apple would survive it was all too pain ful to watch and stand by and do nothing so the purpose of that particular hike through the Santa Cruz mountains on that particular day was to discuss taking over Apple computer my idea was simple buy apple and immediately make Steve CEO Apple wasn't worth much back then about $5 billion we both had really good credit and I had already arranged to borrow all the money all Steve had to do was say yes Steve proposed a somewhat more circuitous approach first persuade Apple to buy next computer then Steve would join the apple board and over time the board would recognize that Steve was the right guy to lead the company I said okay that might work but Steve if we don't buy Apple how are we going to make any money suddenly Steve stopped walking and turned toward me we were facing each other when he put his left hand on my right shoulder and his right hand on my left shoulder staring unblinkingly into my eyes Steve said Larry this is why it's so important that I'm your friend you don't need any more money I said yeah I know I know then I came then I said but we don't have to keep it we could give it all away I was whining Steve just shook his head and said I'm not doing this for the money I don't want to get paid if I do this I need to do this standing on the moral High Ground the moral High Ground I said well that just might be the most expensive real estate on Earth but I knew I had lost the argument Steve had made up his mind right there and then at Castle Rock in the summer of 1995 to save Apple his way at the end of the hike right before we got back into the car I said Steve you created Apple it's your company and it's your call I'll do whatever you want me to do I went on the apple board and then I watched Steve build the most valuable company on Earth the lesson here is very clear to me Steve was right after a certain point it can't be about the money after a certain point you can't spend it no matter how hard you try I know I've tried hard but it's impossible in the end the only practical option is to give nearly all of it away so why did Steve go back to Apple why did he devote so much of what remained of his life to his job why do I I believe the answer is that deep inside of all of us all of us there's a primal desire to do something important with our lives and Freud said there are only two things important in life love and work he did not say love and work were the same thing I'm passionate about my work it continues to give me great satisfaction and a sense of who I am but passion and love are different at least for me they are I love my family a few precious friends four cats two dogs cherry blossoms in Japan Pacific Island beaches and bays and the Majestic Sierra Nevada mountains where it all began for me my feelings about work are very intense but quite different there's a TV advertisement for the United States Navy that says it's not just a job it's an adventure that's exactly how I feel about my years in Silicon Valley an interesting challenging all consuming Adventure like any ongoing Adventure I have no idea how it ends but I know it will for me and a long long time for now now for all of you but today graduates you are beginning your great adventure your generation will change the world as every generation does you will invent new technologies and create new types of art impossibilities will be transformed into possibilities and unexpected opportunities will present themselves you will change the world and the world will change you as you learn and grow and discover more about yourself remember this graduates in a constantly changing world what is possible is a moving Target don't be afraid to experiment and try lots of different things and don't let the experts discourage you when you when you challenge the status quo like Mark Twain says what's an expert anyway just some guy from out of town each of you has a chance to discover who you are rather than who you should be a chance to live your dreams not the dreams of others each of you has an obligation to commit to a righteous cause one that elevates you and improves the conditions of humanity and the planet soon many of you will begin a new job I hope it interests you and challenges you and rewards you with a sense of purpose and satisfaction but if it doesn't keep searching it's out there it might take a while but keep searching until you find a job that ignites your passions like I did even better you just might find one that you love thank you and congratulations thank you for watching please subscribe and press the Bell icon for more updates