Scott Amyx - Strive: How Doing The Things Most Uncomfortable Leads to Success

k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 ffirs01.tex V1 - 02/21/2018 7:14am Page vi k k k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 ffirs.tex V1 - 02/21/2018 7:14am Page i Strive H O W D O I N G T H E T H I N G SM O S T U N C O M F O R T A B L E k L E A D S T O S U C C E S S k Scott Amyx k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 ffirs.tex V1 - 02/21/2018 7:14am Page ii Copyright 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 7508400, fax (978) 6468600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 7486011, fax (201) 7486008, or online at www.wiley .com/go/permissions.

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Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http:// booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Names: Amyx, Scott, 1973- author. Title: Strive : how doing the things most uncomfortable leads to success / Scott Amyx.

Description: Hoboken : Wiley, 2018. | Includes index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2017058809 (print) | LCCN 2018003858 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119387329 (pdf ) | ISBN 9781119387275 (epub) | ISBN 9781119387305 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119387329 (ePDF) Subjects: LCSH: Success. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / Business Development. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Business Communication / General. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Careers / General.

Classification: LCC BF637.S8 (ebook) | LCC BF637.S8 A49 2018 (print) | DDC 650.1dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017058809 Cover Design: Wiley Cover Images: Lily Pad image: Patrycja Polechonska/EyeEm/Getty Images; Frog image: Yuji Sakai/Getty Images Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 ffirs01.tex V1 - 02/21/2018 7:14am Page v To my heavenly Father for teaching me to have compassion for the world.My wife for seeing the diamond in the rough. k k k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 ffirs01.tex V1 - 02/21/2018 7:14am Page vi k k k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 ftoc.tex V1 - 02/15/2018 3:10pm Page v C O N T E N T S k k v k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 ftoc.tex V1 - 02/15/2018 3:10pm Page vi vi CONTENTS k k k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 ftoc.tex V1 - 02/15/2018 3:10pm Page vii Contents vii k k k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 ftoc.tex V1 - 02/15/2018 3:10pm Page viii viii CONTENTS k k k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 flast.tex V1 - 02/15/2018 3:10pm Page ix I N T RO D U C T I O N You are worthlessa good-for-nothing. Haveyoueverheardthosewordsorperhapsthoughtthem about yourself? There are few things more hurtful than think ing that you may have no value. Hurtful words were just a small part of the struggles in Larrys childhood. Larry never knew his biological father, a U.S. Air Force pilot, a serious setback for any k boy. However, Larry also struggled in other ways. He became very k ill with pneumonia when he was only nine months old, and his mother decided she could no longer care for him.

She eventually sought out relatives, Lillian and Louis Ellison, who could raise her son. She would not see him again until he was in his late 40s. Larry was raised on the tough south side of Chicago by his Jewish adoptive parents in a cramped two-bedroom apartment. He was an intelligent, rebellious kid who loved lefty ace pitcher Sandy Koufax and slugger king Mickey Mantle. Although his adoptive mother was warm and kind, Larry had a difficult rela tionship with his adoptive father. Part of this problem may have been due to the strain on Louis, who had lost everything in the Great Depression.

Whatever the reason, Larry and Louis did not have a strong relationship, and home life was not always pleasant. A bright student, Larry enjoyed science and math, pushing himself through self-guided study, but some of the most difficult ix k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 flast.tex V1 - 02/15/2018 3:10pm Page x x INTRODUCTION challenges in his life were still ahead. At first, it seemed that his hard work was paying off. During his freshman year at the University of Illinois at Champaign, Larry was named Science Student of the Year, an award that highlighted his commitment to his studies. In his second year of college, his adoptive mother passed away. It was too muchLarry failed his final exams and dropped out of U of I.

Larry eventually did get on his feet again and entered the University of Chicago. It was the first time he was exposed to computers, and it was a match made in heaven. But he didnt stay in Chicago much longer, instead choosing to drop out and move to California to work with computers. I never took a computer science class in my life, Larry noted later in an interview for the Smithsonian Oral History Collection. I got a job working as a k k programmer; I was largely self-taught. I just picked up a book and started programming.

His drive led him to take on a variety of jobs, but nothing that paid extremely well. He lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment for several years with his first wife. Despite marriage counseling, the relationship ended, thrusting Larry into the world again, alone. It was then that he obtained a new position working with computers, and eventually made the leap to start his own company. Perhaps the culmination of Larrys studies really occurred in 1976, when he was stunned after reading A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks, research by IBMs Ted Codd that dealt with the relational model for databases. It was a pivotal moment in his life.

Later, Larry would note that every once in a while, there are, you know, epiphanies. This epiphanycombined with his insatiable driveresulted in a k k Trim Size: 6in x 9in Amyx387305 flast.tex V1 - 02/15/2018 3:10pm Page xi Introduction xi life-changing risk: On the basis of this research, we could build a commercial system. And, in fact, if we were clever, we could take IBMs research, build the commercial system, and beat IBM to the marketplace with this technology, because we thought we could move faster than they could. Larrys struggles and risk-taking paid off: His tiny company grew in leaps and bounds by creating a database that could be used on any computer. Although his company, Oracle, has not had a straight upward line of success, Larry Ellison is now the fifth richest man in the world. Ellisons story is inspiring, not for what it has, but for what it is missing.