10 Great quotes from the billionaire and the mechanic

by Bob Evans on 10 Jul 2013 In Julian Guthrie’s riveting new book about Larry Ellison’s quest for the America’s Cup, readers are treated to not only a gripping tale of world-class competition and strategic gamesmanship, but also an intimate look inside two men from two very different worlds whose stories reveal that it truly is the man who makes the times, rather than vice-versa.

Guthrie’s The Billionaire and the Mechanic depicts in remarkable detail the unlikely alliance between the high-profile Ellison and radiator-mechanic Norbert Bajurin, and the resulting decade-long partnership that resulted in the America’s Cup victory in 2010.

The book will be a delight for anyone interested in sailing, high-stakes competition, advanced design, audacious goals, radiator repair, decision-making, psychology, leadership, philosophy, or any mix of those subjects.

In the course of researching the book, Guthrie received extraordinary access to Ellison, to the Oracle ORCL -0.41% Racing team and its operations, and to the designers, builders, planners, and dreamers who all combined to bring America’s Cup back to America, where the stage is now set for the 2013 competition now underway in San Francisco.

In that context, the book currently has special relevance and significance. But on a broader scale, it will have enduring value as a great story in its own right—a blurb on the back cover from author Ken Auletta says that The Billionaire and the Mechanic offers 'an assemblage of characters worthy of Dreiser' and 'shoals of deceit worthy of Dickens'.

Plus, for those interested in Ellison and his achievements in not only sailing but also technology and business, the book provides unprecedented insights into the man, his drive, his vision, and his sense of life as an ongoing series of tests and adventures.

To give you a flavor of that, I’ve pulled out 10 of my favorite Ellison quotes from Guthrie’s book, and have provided a bit of context for each.

1) After the tragic 1998 Sydney to Hobart sailing race, in which an unexpected hurricane killed six sailors and sunk five boats: 'Why do we do these things? George Mallory said the reason he wanted to climb Everest was because ‘it’s there.’ I don’t think so, I think Mallory was wrong. It’s not because it’s there. It’s because we’re there, and we wonder if we can do it.' (page 13)

2) On his 2001 selection to host his America’s Cup challenge out of the blue-collar Golden Gate Yacht Club rather than the more-prestigious St. Francis Yacht Club: 'I was never comfortable with the ambiguity in dealing with the St. Francis. I want to understand precisely what the deal is. Uncertainty and indecision drive me insane. Some people think I’m a control freak. They’re right.' (page 72)

3) His reaction, immediately after September 11, to the suggestion that Oracle should close temporarily out of respect for the fallen: 'Oracle can never close. We’re not Macy’s, and we’re not NASDAQ. The Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the CIA, all rely on our systems working all day, every day. Everyone dealing with this crisis—the police, fire departments, and hospitals—works twenty-four hours a day seven days a week and they expect us to do the same.' (page 86)

4) In 2002, asked by a former employee who’d moved to Yahoo YHOO +4.51% whether a Yahoo collaboration with Disney would make any sense: 'Gee, let me think. They have the most valuable film library in the world, the most-valuable TV channels in the world, and successful theme parks everywhere. Disney makes tons of money and they’re probably the most beloved brand on the planet. Now, what have you got? A web page with news on it and free e-mail. Has everyone gone crazy?' (page 112)

5) Announcing what would be an unpopular racing-team management shakeup after poor performances in a 2002 competition: 'All of you can see that we made too many mistakes out there on the boat. Those mistakes caused us to lose races we should not have lost… I think you always learn more from losing than from winning, so I’ve had the opportunity to learn a lot these past few days. I’ve learned that we need to make a leadership change in our team’s afterguard. I’m done learning through losing.' (page 119)

6) From that same conversation with the team: 'Fun? You think we’re here for fun? Do you think losing is fun? I don’t. This is professional sports, not a third-grade T-ball game. Is sailing fun? Yes, if you want to sail to Sausalito and sit and do a little fishing or sunbathing out with your family, that can be fun. If you’re sailing in the America’s Cup, if it’s your job, you are supposed to work very hard. We are here to win. Winning, that’s my idea of fun.' (page 121)

7) 'Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. Sure, there’s the talent, but there also has to be the will. Give me human will and the intense desire to win and it will trump talent every day of the week.' (page 122)

8) After losing the America’s Cup final in 2007, responding to a question about whether winning the Cup was worth his investment: 'I don’t know. I’ve never won the America’s Cup. But I can tell you this: it certainly isn’t worth a hundred million dollars to lose the American’s Cup.' (page 178)

9) After a game of tennis with Larry in 2007, his friend Rafael Nadal asked Larry about the secret to his success. Larry started with a long answer about how innovation always trumps conventional wisdom, and about the need to defy traditional approaches, and so forth, and then he stopped abruptly and said this: 'Forget everything I just said. The answer is simple. I never give up.' (page 185)

10) On his 2008 plan to build a new type of sail that author Julian Guthrie described as 'by far the largest wing ever built—longer than the tip-to-tip wingspan of a Boeing BA +0.3% 747 jet': 'I know that most people think trying to build a hard wing of this size is crazy. But that’s the beauty of the idea. The other side isn’t trying to build one. So we’ll have a wing, and they won’t.' (page 236)

And as a bonus, here’s a glance into a side of Ellison that’s rarely seen:

11) On his plans to build a private high school in San Francisco along the waterfront: 'For a long time, I’ve wanted to build a private college preparatory academy… My education foundation has opened a lot of schools in India, but that’s a lot different from opening a school in San Francisco. Think of a high school that’s two-thirds Stanford and one-third Naval Academy. It would have been a private school, but with 80 percent of the kids on full scholarship, a student recruiting program to ensure high academic and athletic standards plus diversity, a student orchestra that would make Juilliard proud, and a superb athletic program—the kind that wins state championships. The kids would wear uniforms, and of course, everyone would learn how to sail. We’d go out and find talented kids, get them taught, coached, mentored, and off to college… I wanted to build a great high school. I wanted to go to their basketball games and maybe teach a sailing class. That would have been fun. I was quite excited about building the school. I’m still excited about it.' (page 308)