David Cheriton is the richest Stanford University professor in history. David Cheriton currently has a net worth of around $10 billion.
The teaching profession or professor, if it were in our country, there would be people who would say that it would definitely be impossible for this profession to be rich or create wealth. But if it is possible to be rich, it might be because some teachers or professors already have good capital, such as coming from a family that is already a millionaire or having a side business.
But David Cheriton ‘s case is not like that at all. He did not come from a wealthy family. He is where he is today because of the opportunity that came his way.
The beginning and journey of a professor from the world’s richest university
David Ross Cheriton (David Rose Cheriton) was born on March 29, 1951. He was a boy born into a family of engineers. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a musician. But his dreams were crushed because he was rejected from the Faculty of Music, University of Alberta, causing him to pack his bags and return home immediately.
“When our dreams are destroyed, we can build new ones to take their place.”
People can’t get stuck with one or a few rejections, right? David thought so too. He found a new dream and fell in love with it. That dream was “computer”.
He seems to be crazy about and has a great interest in computers because he holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and started working as an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia for 3 years before moving to Stanford University later.
“Because if we do what we love, not only will we do it well, it will also bring us good opportunities.”
After working at Stanford University, David set up a team that developed a microkernel, or system management that divided the work into different sections. For example, we often hear the term “application software management”. This system was called V, which later was used to transfer data within the network and communicate with computers through images, such as clicking on the image icon to command the desired command instead of ordering the computer by typing the command in letters.
As a professor teaching PhD students, David met Andy Bechtolsheim, a student who rarely attended school but had a big hobby: working on “The SUN,” or Internet networking at Stanford University. His passion for this hobby led Andy to drop out of college and found Sun Microsystems , a company that would go on to generate $1 billion in revenue just nine years after its IPO.
But after the huge success of Sun Microsystems, Andy decided to leave the company to become the co-founder of a new company called Granite Systems. Now, who is Andy’s other co-founder?
From 100,000 to 22,000,000 US dollars
David Cheriton co-founded Granite Systems with Andy. A year later, they raised $220 million from Cisco, a company that manufactures and distributes networking hardware and high-tech equipment. Of this success, Andy made $132 million for his 60% stake.
And of course, our Professor David also made money from this shareholding because behind this success, our humble professor made $22 million from investing just $100,000 or holding only 10% of the company’s shares. And of course, he never invested more than this amount.
The principle of the law of attraction is that like things will attract each other.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford University students, were drawn to each other. Larry was interested in revitalizing search engines because he saw a problem with the spam-ridden Internet search engines. So, they wrote a thesis called “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine.” And of course, the co-author of this thesis was none other than Sergey.
Larry has an idea that the quality of this thesis will depend on the number of times this thesis is cited in other research. From this idea, it has been adapted into a concept in research that the quality of a website depends on the number of links it receives from other websites, which means how many links on his website link to other websites. That is the quality of the website that can be measured.
It must be because the world will always attract the same things. In this case, there is no such thing as coincidence. The thesis advisor of Larry Page and Sergey Brin was Professor David Rose Cheriton!
When opportunity knocks on your door….
Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to turn their thesis into a business. They knocked on the door of their thesis advisor, Professor David, and proposed the idea for a search engine, initially called “ Googo ” (which they said stood for “10 to the power of 100,” which was worth a lot of money). The name eventually became corrupted into the “ Google ” we know today.
Professor David wondered why he shouldn’t take up such a great opportunity. David and Andy decided to write Larry and Sergey a check for $100,000 after listening to their idea for only 10 minutes.
Professor of Computer Science with expertise in investment
Even though Professor David was so successful that he could spend his entire life without spending a fortune, David still invested in VMware , a technology for making server virtualization systems, which is part of the program for controlling and creating virtual computers. After that, David and Andy co-founded a video streaming company called Kealia, which generated revenue from Sun Microsystems of 120 million US dollars.
David and Andy also co-founded a networking technology company called Arista Networks , which currently has a market capitalization of $30 billion.
“From Computer Science Professor to the Richest Professor in History”
When it comes to Google’s success, $1.7 trillion is its current market capitalization. Of course, that makes Larry and Sergey, the creators of our idea, the sixth and seventh richest people in the world, respectively. They have a combined net worth of at least $100 billion each. And if we’re talking about his thesis advisor, Professor David, he currently has a net worth of $10 billion. But that’s more than enough to get him into the top 250 richest people in the world.
Throughout his life, David’s modesty never changed with the money or wealth he had. David is still a person that students admire because he is still a professor at Stanford University, still in the same office. Even though he is now an emeritus professor, he still drives the same car, lives in the same house, nothing has changed. But what has changed is probably only the actual amount of his assets that has changed.
Conclusion
When an opportunity is presented to you, don’t hesitate, step out and grab it. Because we never know when the opportunity will come back to us again or if it will come back to us again. From Professor David’s story, we can see the story of living life from many perspectives, whether it is dreams, living life or always being ready to accept opportunities.
Professor David teaches us not to give up just because your first dream was crushed. Whether you continue on your old path or start a new life, everyone has their own path to success. Don’t waste time feeling sad about it being crushed, but be glad that you learned from your mistakes today. Because when you step out again, you will be sure that you won’t make the same mistakes again.
“No matter what career you are in, we all have our own path to success.”
Professor David has always lived a simple life, untouched by the ever-increasing fame, success, or wealth. He is still the same David he was when he first started working at Stanford University. These are the things that have made him successful and beloved to this day.
Professor David never refuses opportunities that come his way. He is ready to accept them and do their best, whether it is in terms of work or investment. In addition to accepting opportunities, he is also ready to give opportunities to others, which has truly rewarded him beyond his expectations.
“Opportunities don’t come often, so don’t let them pass you by without doing something about them.”
Who knows, the opportunity we throw away today may be the last chance that will lead us to the highest success. So, be a homeowner who is ready to accept every opportunity that comes your way. Who knows… you may be the next richest person in your career.
Source:
Professor Billionaire: The Stanford Academic Who Wrote Google Its First Check
