Poignant memories. Born in 1967, Xavier Niel discovered a passion for computers as a teenager, when he received from his father a Sinclair ZX81 computer. Fascinated by programming and software development, he began his entrepreneurial career in 1984 with the creation of services on the Pink Minitelpeep shows and sex shops, until becoming a renowned businessman with the launch of the Free Internet service provider. “Is it true that the happiest day of your life was when your father gave you your first computer at 15?” Léa Salamé naturally asked him in a new issue of What an era!, broadcast on France 2 Saturday December 16. A question which did not fail to upset his guest.
“I’m not saying that It’s the most beautiful day of my lifeit’s a moment…”, began Xavier Niel before seeing his words cut off by emotion and his eyes clouding over with tears. And to continue, his voice trembling: “He died a month and a half agopardon…” It must be said that the other half of Delphine Arnault was deeply marked by the man who raised him and who gave him the chance to develop his potential with this symbolic gift. “This is the moment when he gave me incredible luck.[…]He bought me a computer for 1,000 francs, he fought to get it, and he told me: ‘You don’t have the right to just use it, you need to understand how it works.‘” A little sentence which marked the beginning of Xavier Niel’s great epic in the IT world.
“It gave me an incredible curiosity”
During his childhood, Xavier Niel carefully observed this father who never stopped hanging around the university benches. “My father studied for eighteen or twenty years After the baccalaureate. I was 6 years old, he was still a student, and in fact, he gave me an incredible curiosity”, he revealed with admiration to our colleagues from France 2. And added mischievously: “He was a doctor of science, a doctor of law… I always knew him as a student. When he was 60 years old, he retired and he said: ‘I’m going to resume my studies‘. And my mother told him: ‘Now, I’m getting divorced, I can’t take any more of your bullshit.‘”
Article written in collaboration with 6Medias
Photo credits: Screenshot France 2