Google co-founder Larry Page argued that it’s often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious, “crazy” dreams because few people are attempting them.
Quote of the day from Larry Page on mega-ambitious dreams: “I think it’s often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. Because no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition.”
What does this quote mean?
When one aims for “normal” or incremental goals, one competes with everyone else, but by setting a mega-ambitious goal, one enters a field with very few competitors. So mega-ambitious dreams make it easier to stand out and win, even if the goal itself is difficult.
The relevance of this quote in the current context
According to Larry Page, few people are “crazy enough” to chase huge dreams, so the competition is less fierce. This quote is relevant in today’s context because a strategic focus on mega-ambitious dreams allows for faster progress, while smaller, crowded goals often lead to wasting time on unimportant, minor improvements.
This philosophy suggests that an individual’s strategy should be to build things that don’t exist, rather than simply competing with existing companies.
The second richest person in the world, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Larry Page boasts a net worth of $281.9 billion as of April 25, according to Forbes. Although Larry Page stepped down as CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, nearly 7 years ago, he remains a board member and majority shareholder of the company.
Larry Page, who co-founded Google in 1998 with fellow Stanford PhD student Sergey Brin, invented Google’s PageRank algorithm, which powers the search engine. Page served as Google’s CEO until 2001 and was succeeded by Eric Schmidt. He took command again in 2011 until 2015, when he became CEO of Google’s new parent company, Alphabet.
On Saturday, April 25, Alphabet’s stake increased by 1.42% to $3.9 billion.
More motivational quotes from Larry Page
“You never lose a dream, it’s just a hobby.”
“Always deliver more than expected.”
“Good ideas are always crazy until they aren’t”
“Always work hard on something unpleasantly exciting.”
“You have to do one thing well or you’re not allowed to do anything else.”
“That’s why I see Elon as an inspirational example. He said, ‘Well, what should I really be doing in this world? Solve cars, global warming, and make people multiplanetary.’ I mean, those are pretty compelling goals, and now he’s got the business to do it.”
“Coming up with an idea is the least important part of creating something great. It has to be the right idea and have good taste, but execution and delivery are key. Any conversation about innovation starts with the end goal.”
“How exciting is it to come to work when the best you can do is beat another company doing roughly the same thing?”
“When you aim for the stars, you may get lost, but you’ll still reach the moon.”
“My job as a leader is to make sure everyone in the company has great opportunities and feels like they’re making a meaningful impact and contributing to the good of society. As a world, we’re doing a better job of that. My goal is for Google to lead, not follow.”
“Healthy don’t respect the impossible.”
