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The only way to get ahead is to find errors in conventional wisdom.

Larry Ellison

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Larry Ellison
Age: 80
Born: 1944
Born: August 17
Actor
Aircraft Pilot
Businessman
Computer Scientist
Entrepreneur
The Bronx
New York City
Lawrence Joseph Ellison
Lawrence Ellison
Lawrence J. Ellison
Lawrence Joseph Larry Ellison
Larry
Conventional
Ahead
Errors
Wisdom
Inspirational
Find
Way

More quotes by Larry Ellison

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What can a sales person say to somebody to get them to buy a product that they already use every day if they don't like it? Nothing.
Larry Ellison
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I think about the business all the time. Well I shouldn't say all the time. I don't think about it when I am wakeboarding. But even when I am on vacation, or on my boat I am on email everyday. I am always prowling around the internet looking at what our competitors are doing.
Larry Ellison
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So what makes me happy? I was really happy to build this house. That's it building things. The trouble with software is that it's very hard to show your aunt in Florida what you've done.
Larry Ellison
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If your cash is about to run out, you have to cut your cash flow. CEOs have to make those decisions and live with them however painful they may be. You have to act and act now and act in the best interest of the company as a whole, even if it means that some people in the company who are your best friends have to work somewhere else.
Larry Ellison
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You cannot innovate by copying.
Larry Ellison
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The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women's fashion.
Larry Ellison
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If I were 21 years old, I would go into biotechnology or genetic engineering.
Larry Ellison
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To model yourself after Steve Jobs is like, 'I'd like to paint like Picasso, what should I do? Should I use more red?'
Larry Ellison
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You have to believe in what you do in order to get what you want.
Larry Ellison
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Being first is more important to me [than earning money]. I have so much money. Whatever money is, it's just a method of keeping score now. I mean, I certainly don't need more money.
Larry Ellison
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In some ways, getting away from the headquarters and having a little time to reflect allows you to find errors in your strategy. You get to rethink things. Often, that helps me correct a mistake that I made or someone else is about to make.
Larry Ellison
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The most important aspect of my personality as far as determining my success goes has been my questioning conventional wisdom, doubting experts and questioning authority. While that can be painful in your relationships with your parents and teachers, it's enormously useful in life.
Larry Ellison
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There's a wonderful saying that's dead wrong. 'Why did you climb the mountain?' 'I climbed the mountain because it was there.' That's utter nonsense...You climbed the mountain because you were there, and you were curious if you could do it. You wondered what it would be like.
Larry Ellison
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Those that believe this is merely a downturn are mad. Our industry is going to mature and as something matures, the rate of innovation does slow.
Larry Ellison
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We saw — we conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.
Larry Ellison
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I have had all the disadvantages required for success.
Larry Ellison
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I wish HP nothing but the best. I think HP is an icon. Those of us who had their careers in the Valley think of Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett as role models. We would love to be half as good as they were.
Larry Ellison
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When you're the first person whose beliefs are different from what everyone else believes, you're basically saying, I'm right, and everyone else is wrong. That's a very unpleasant position to be in. It's at once exhilarating and at the same time an invitation to be attacked.
Larry Ellison
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Because software is all about scale. The larger you are, the more profitable you are. If we sell twice as much as software, it doesn't cost us twice as much to build that software. So the more customers you have, the more scale you have. The larger you are, the more profitable you are.
Larry Ellison
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When you write a program for Android, you use the Oracle Java tools for everything, and at the very end, you push a button and say, Convert this to Android format.
Larry Ellison