June 6, 2001: Steve Jobs: Hero
There are a ton of big names in the computer industry but one of the biggest is Larry Ellison. Like Gates and Jobs, the founder of Oracle is a billionaire many times over but has his problems with public perception. In Ellison's case, he is considered just a little bit arrogant.
Arrogance aside, when asked about Steve Jobs, Ellison can be effusive. In a San Jose Mercury News interview Ellison laid out his thoughts about Steve Jobs:
"Steve Jobs is my best friend, and I love him dearly, and he's one of the most remarkable people on this planet. You watch him create Apple, then in one of the worst human-resources mistakes in the history of Silicon Valley -- the only thing worse was when the French fired Napoleon -- they fire Steve Jobs and Apple almost completely disintegrates. Then he comes back and he saves a company that was on life support."
Which paints a pretty positive picture of Steve, but Ellison wasn't done yet:
" You know, we live in a very egalitarian world. We don't like heroes. And Steve is one of these heroic guys whose accomplishments are of such epic proportions, and it gnaws away at our egalitarian sense of the world."
Steve got mad props from his best buddy this week in 2001.
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Very revealing that Ellison thinks highly of Bonaparte. You know, that guy who took the reins of a revolution originally based on libery, equality and fraternity then turned around and had himself crowned emperor for life.
Hmm, after three years since the article and comment was first posted, I might add that the reason the French fired Bonaparte was he was losing the war, very badly at that. Actually, they should have gotten rid of him three years earlier, right after the Russian debacle.