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BEA Systems, September 2001

An excerpt.

From "Largo ai Giovani" (Make Way for the Young) — coming soon


I signed the offer on September 12, 2001. The day after September 11. The world had just collapsed and I was signing for a new job.

But I had set a condition.

Carl had done a phone interview with BEA and it had gone badly — the General Manager told me they wouldn't hire him.

I replied: "If you don't take Carl, I'm not coming."

I wasn't bluffing.

If you don't take Carl, I'm not coming.
I wasn't bluffing.

They flew him to Seattle, eight hours of interviews with the whole team. The feedback was unanimous. Peter Horadan — one of the toughest in the group, ex-Microsoft — wrote: "I hate this guy. How can someone be this smart and this sharp at his age? We need to take him off the market."

Carl joined BEA.

Two weeks later I wrote my resignation letter to Larry Ellison.

And there was another irony. Carl — whom I had brought with me — had arrived in Seattle weeks earlier. I had to sell the house in Boston, sort out the visa, move the family. He had a backpack. When I landed, I discovered he already had my job: Adam Bosworth had given him Workshop, the role I had been hired for.

For me, another project. Was I angry? Not for a second. Carl was better than me for that role — and I had brought him because he was good, not to have a subordinate. The right answer was to make way for him.

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