Larry Ellison net worth: A resurfaced video of Larry Ellison, the overnight billionaire and the man behind Oracle, provides insight into his personality trait that eventually made him the richest man on earth. Competing with giants like Microsoft, Ellison surpassed Elon Musk’s net worth, briefly removing the Tesla CEO from his long-held spot, earlier this year. However, the SpaceX megamind was quick to reclaim his crown.
Explaining the “single most important aspect” of his personality, Ellison shared that it has helped him determine his success. He described this tendency as “questioning of conventional wisdom.” “Don’t simply conform to conventional ways of thinking,” he advised.
Doubting experts’ expertise
Condemning conforming, Ellison shared he has doubted “experts just because they’re experts, and questioned authority.” He also warned that while this way of thinking may be “very, very painful” for someone’s relationship with their parents or teachers, Ellison emphasised the importance of curiosity.
“We as human beings are endlessly curious about ourselves. And we love to test ourselves constantly,” Ellison said. Giving the example of his sailboats and investment in racing, he believes that it is a form of self-discovery. However, he quashed a popular saying and negated what it stood for.
The Oracle founder said, “There’s a wonderful saying that’s dead wrong that says, you know, why did you climb the mountain? I climbed the mountain because it was there. That is utter nonsense. It’s ludicrous and absurd.” Presenting his logic, Ellison added that he felt that some would ‘climb the mountain’ only because they reached there, and there was a sense of curiosity around it.
Larry Ellison on success being directly correlated to questioning limits and conventional wisdom pic.twitter.com/gD87fTVxP8
— prayingforexits 🏴☠️ (@mrexits) October 24, 2025
“You wondered what the view was up from the top. And that’s how we explore the thing that we’re most interested in,” Ellison added. His motivational words also added that one needs to explore their limits and relationships.
Putting work into exploration
He led with interest and spoke fondly of his career. He said, “I discover all sorts of things about me every day as Oracle competes with Microsoft for supremacy in the software world.” However, the underlying theme being the willingness to work. He then questioned its entire stature. “What is work? Is work something you get paid for, and play something you don’t?”
At the end, though, it was attaching hard work with exploration. “I put a lot of work into my career, into my job where I get paid. But they’re all kind of in pursuit of the same thing, in pursuit of this self-discovery,” Larry Ellison concluded.
