This week will have me read into the lives and psyches of the world's richest men. We begin this journey with the founder and CEO of Oracle - an infamous man that sounds like the ever-so-slightly more responsible younger brother of John McAfee. Larry was left by his parents and raised by his aunt and uncle, who claimed he wouldn't amount to anything.
It wasn't until his early 20s and lots of starvation that he understood what customer service meant, and boy did he learn. He programmed, but found the work not challenging enough. He then took over sales and marketing for Oracle, a position he very much excelled at and found challenging. I like the book: it's easy, fast and informative.
There's no magic to what makes Oracle or any other Silicon Valley company work - it's not brilliantly gifted wunderkids, it's not the books they read or the schools they go to. It's lots of late nights, frustration, hard work and gruelling deadlines. Larry gets this and he plays Silicon Valley masterfully. There is no free lunch, but if you work smart and hard, you can have all the lunches you ever need and buy lunch for those who need it.
8/10