40 quotes from Larry Ellison from the new episode "How Larry Ellison Thinks" 1. They were mistaking the present for the future. It’s the worst mistake a tech company can make. 2. I just can’t accept defeat until I’ve been carried dead from the field. 3. The more you win, the more you want to win. 4. I apply engineering discipline to our entire business, not just product development. 5. A 100 percent perfect solution exists only in the imagination. 6. In marketing, simple messages always win. 7. I’ve always been more motivated by fear of failure than by greed. 8. It’s win or die. 9. I am a sprinter. I rest, I sprint, I rest, I sprint again. 10. The brain’s primary purpose is deception, and the primary person to be deceived is the owner. 11. I have a lot of endurance: intellectual, emotional, physical. 12. You can’t get rich by doing the same thing as everyone else. 13. It’s in my nature to go for the highest-risk/highest-reward option. That’s my cross to bear. 14. Once a course has been plotted, I sail a long way off and burn my boats. 15. People reflexively resist change. 16. Silicon Valley is a killing field. Very few technology companies survive. 17. It never ceases to amaze me how the product name can be the difference between success and failure in the technology industry. 18. I never had the discipline to do things I didn’t like. 19. My father had told me that I would never amount to anything. 20. I thought it would be smart to avoid very competitive markets. 21. I liked the fact it was risky. The bigger the apparent risk, the fewer people will try to go there. 22. Whenever you travel an untraveled path there’s risk. 23. The first version of our database was called Oracle Version 2. I didn’t think anyone would buy Version 1 of a database from five guys in California. 24. If we built the right products the right way, we would win. That was my view of the world then, and that’s my view of the world now. 25. The most effective way to grow sales is to make the product better. 26. [On Oracle almost going out of business in 1991] I couldn’t run away. I had to save Oracle to save myself. I had no choice. 27. You cannot run a company without strong checks and balances. 28. I believe that every process within an organization—marketing, sales, service, everything—should be carefully engineered. 29. I hate losing. 30. If customers don’t believe you’re going to survive—you won’t. 31. If you work in Silicon Valley long enough, you can’t help noticing how much the technology industry resembles the women’s clothing business. Both are fashion-driven. Fashionable ideas are hot, while the others are not. 32. Writing checks is easy. Writing software is hard. 33. We pick our enemies very carefully. It helps us focus. 34. Most people are so in love with their own ideas that it confines their thinking— it creates boundaries and limits their ability to solve problems. 35. People are more interested in personalities than technologies. 36. If you’re a fighter, the only way up is through the top fighters in your division. 37. You cannot lead if you’re filled with uncertainty. 38. Whenever I got too close to a goal I’d raise the bar for fear of actually clearing it. 39. What we want to do with our lives is the most important question we all have to answer. 40. It took me a long time to understand that we all want to be loved. Even me.