Betting It All: The Entrepreneurs of Technology [Paperback]

Michael S. Malone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 26, 2001

An intimate behind-the-scenes look into the personal triumphs and tragedies of sixteen famous and infamous industry titans
From the garages and kitchen tables across America, the technology entrepreneurs have built great companies, reaped unimaginable wealth, and endured challenges to the very core of their personal beliefs and confidence. Now, Betting It All looks directly into the hearts and minds of sixteen of these extraordinary business people. It strips away the legend and gives readers a true glimpse into the very human side of each entrepreneur-including what motivates them, inspires them, and pushes them to continue in the face of crisis. From Bill Gates, Scott McNealy, and Kim Polese to Steve Wozniak and Larry Ellison, this remarkable book reveals what personal and professional price success brings, along with their controversial views on business and society. Readers will hear how these famous and successful business people stay strong when the inevitable crisis comes.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

From garages and kitchen tables across America, courageous men and women have built the great technology companies that define modern life. Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Wozniak-the names are as familiar as movie stars; their every move captures headlines and their decisions affect the lives of millions.

But behind the well-crafted personae these men and women present to the world, what are they really like? What makes them tick? What enabled them to make, often in a few short years, the leap from everyday person to industry titan? What drives them to stay at the top? What keeps them from walking away with their riches to a long and easy life?

Betting It All has the revealing answers. Based on the popular PBS series, and containing added material never shown, this book takes a unique, behind-the-scenes look at the lives of sixteen legendary American entrepreneurs. It offers new insights into the hearts and minds of Gates, Ellison, Wozniak, Gordon Moore of Intel, Carol Bartz of Autodesk, Tom Siebel of Siebel Systems, T. J. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor, and others. In intimate interviews, Michael S. Malone, Editor at Large of Forbes ASAP magazine and long-time Silicon Valley chronicler, strips away the myth and exposes the human side of business, digging deep to find the individual beneath the entrepreneur.

You'll hear, in their own words, how these brave people weathered their personal tragedies and savored their triumphs . . . why they take such daring risks . . . and how their deep levels of commitment drove them to reach such lofty goals. You'll be there as:
* Candice Carpenter, cofounder and Chairman of iVillage.com, talks about being a survivor, how living in the mountains prepared her for the Internet, and how sisterhood is now the focus of her life
* Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple Computer Inc., tells how a particular book in sixth grade set him on his life's path and led him into the world of computers
* Larry Ellison, founder, Chairman, and CEO of Oracle Corporation, revisits old wounds from childhood, which sparked his relentless ambition and his need to live out the dreams of his youth

Provocative, personal, and, above all, inspirational, Betting It All reveals surprising and compelling details about each industry giant with every turn of the page.

From the Back Cover

"I realized I was willing to die for Java."
-- KIM POLESE, MARIMBA

"I was the opposite of a party animal. I had this thing where if I was signed up for a [college] class, I wouldn't go to the class, ever."
-- BILL GATES, MICROSOFT

"I don't know what made me decide that my life should always be about making love standing up in a hammock, but this is the way that my life has worked out."
-- JERRY SANDERS, ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES

Beyond the media hype and mystique, the high-tech entrepreneurs of our time are just as human as the rest of us-even though they carefully guard their words and maintain their corporate images, making it almost impossible to get a real glimpse of the people behind the legends. Now, Betting It All takes you inside the minds of sixteen of the most famous industry titans-Scott McNealy, Bob Metcalfe, Carol Bartz, Philippe Kahn, and more-through a series of intimate and remarkably candid interviews. You'll be the fly on the wall as these business leaders explore memories from childhood, their dreams, their inspirations, and their unwavering ambition to achieve their goals-no matter the risks involved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471201901
• ISBN-13: 978-0471201908
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #860,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars About tech entrepreneurs, November 5, 2008

By 

Herve Lebret (Lausanne, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Betting It All: The Entrepreneurs of Technology (Paperback)

After reading Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston, I dived into an older book by Michael Malone. It has the same concept, i.e. interviews of 16 famous technology entrepreneurs. And it is worth reading.

I loved it so much I put a post on my blog, www.startup-book.com and here are again some quotes form the book that I hope will convince otehr people to become readers:

Larry Ellison about uncertainty:

"When everyone said a relational database would never be commercially viable, the reckless guy said "maybe everyone's wrong - maybe I will take a chance with my career and with my cash." It's not a rational process."

Larry Ellison again about entrepreneurs: "I saw outside managers brought into a lot of companies who then made things dramatically worse. I think I was the best person for the job, I knew the company better than anyone else. I knew the technology, the products and the markets. My heroes are people who do not follow convention. It's difficult to innovate when you are like anybody else."

T. J. Rodgers about Silicon Valley: "One of the things that Silicon Valley successful is companies think just about wanting to succeed. It is also a meritocracy. What makes us so special and different is no Java code or biotechnology, it is that we're truly capitalists. About Europe and Japan: We're moving at light speed relative to the Japanese, who probably still have a committee working on the problem and the Europeans, who are trying to work it out politically. "

Tom Siebel about luck: "If you look at the core of many success stories, it's not great visionaries, not great technology, not great entrepreneurs, it's pretty bright people who found themselves in the right place at the right time and managed not to foul up the opportunity."

Gordon Moore about Silicon Valley. "I really measure the thing that's become Silicon Valley from Shockley in 1956. There were earlier technology companies - Hewlett Packard and Varian - but they were more like established companies on the East Coast. Shockley introduced some instability in the system. "

If you want to learn more, read it...