@entrepreneurs: Larry Ellison’s influence on Steve Jobs and Elon Musk came less from formal mentoring and more from the way he thought about risk, speed, and building products that dominate markets. Jobs applied a similar mindset at Apple by cutting distractions, focusing on fewer products, and making design central to the company’s comeback. Musk followed the same kind of aggressive execution in a different way, pushing Tesla and SpaceX through problems most companies would have avoided. The bigger lesson is that great companies are often built by people willing to simplify the goal, move faster than competitors, and ignore safe industry habits when they slow progress.