Succeeding Against All Odds

Just about every startup business or entrepreneur faces tough odds, which at certain points can seem almost insurmountable. Achieving success is always gratifying, but when you achieve success against all odds, that satisfaction can feel even greater. Being able to overcome huge odds and obstacles is never easy, but many people have what it takes to keep pushing against those odds and eventually beating them. I recently spent some time visiting with one such person, who overcame great odds and helped Oracle become a huge success in the software industry. Noosheen Hashemi was a recent college graduate when she joined Oracle back in the 1980s. However, it didn’t take her long to establish herself as one of the company’s most valuable assets, despite her youth and inexperience.

Noosheen Hashemi

Currently Noosheen serves as the President of H.A.N.D. Foundation. She is also an Advisor at Atheer Labs, Inc. and is a Philanthropist with a passion for entrepreneurship and economic development. Noosheen is also an independent angel investor and advisor in the software industry. As mentioned, she also played a big a role in the successful turnaround of Oracle, where she worked and held various management positions between 1985 and 1995. Noosheen took an active part in the company’s rise in the industry. She was appointed Director of Finance and Administration in 1988 and named Vice President in 1990. She also led the expansion of Oracle services as VP of Marketing and Business Development for Oracle’s Worldwide Education, and in 1991, she won Oracle’s “Against All Odds Award.”

Keys to Achieving Success

So just how did Noonsheen overcome the odds and all the competing goals of the company in order to become successful? She explained to me that at one point she was running 12 departments at the same time. She worked 18 hour-days, seven days a week for seven years and even pulled all-nighters, where she would work till 5:00 am then be back at 8:00 am for her next round of meetings. So how did she balance all these responsibilities? “It was intuition.” It was also some very basic things, which included “always serve in the best interest of the company above all else. So the loyalties were always to Oracle and not to any one person. It was always in service of efficiency and constant, continuous process improvement. It was always to be ethical, proper and then you add a lot of hard work.”

Testing Your Limits

Noosheen said it was a lot of intuition and you just knew what you had to do. Oracle was a great place to work because they put a lot of trust in young people to figure it out. They didn’t sit you down and explain how it had to be done, they gave you the assignment then trusted you to figure it out on your own. “As the company tested its limits each individual was testing there’s.”