3) Larry Ellison

The third wealthiest American is Larry Ellison. Before his wealth, Larry grew up in a working-class Chicago family. He attended college twice, and dropped out of college both times before moving to California and working odd jobs. Eventually Larry started teaching himself how to program, and became hired as a programmer for Ampex Corporation. He soon left Ampex to start a database management company of his own. The company would be called Oracle. The very first product Ellison ever released was the “Oracle Version 2”. The CIA was the first buyer of this product, and the success of Oracle took off like a rocket. To this day, Oracle is the most popular database ever sold, and Larry Ellison is one of the richest men in the world because of it.