Co-founder of Google Larry Page argued that it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious, “crazy” dreams because few people attempt them.
Quote of the Day by Larry Page on mega-ambitious dreams: “I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. Since 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, they compete with everyone else but by setting a mega-ambitious goal, the individual enters a field with very few competitors. Hence, mega-ambitious dreams make it easier to stand out and win, even if the goal itself is difficult.
Relevance of this quote in present context
According to Larry Page, few people are “crazy enough” to chase huge dreams, making it less fiercely competitive. This quote is relevant in present context as the strategic focus on mega-ambitious dreams allows for faster progress, whereas smaller, crowded goals often result in time wastage on unimportant, minor improvements.
This philosophy suggests that an individual’s strategy should be to build things that don’t exist, rather than merely competing with existing companies.
The second-richest person in the world, just after Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Larry Page boasts a net worth of $281.9 billion on 25 April, as per Forbes. Even though Larry Page stepped down from the position of Alphabet CEO, the parent company of Google, almost 7 years ago but he remains a board member and a controlling shareholder of the company.
Larry Page, who cofounded 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 over the command again in 2011 until 2015, when he became CEO of Google’s new parent firm Alphabet.
On Saturday, 25 April, Alphabet’s share climbed 1.42% by $3.9 billion.
More motivational quotes by Larry Page
“You never lose a dream, it just incubates as a hobby.”
“Always deliver more than expected.”
“Good ideas are always crazy until they’re not”
“Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting.”
“You need to get one thing done well, or else you don’t have permission to do anything else.”
“That’s why I find Elon to be an inspiring example. He said, ‘Well, what should I really do in this world? Solve cars, global warming, and make humans multi-planetary.’ I mean those are pretty compelling goals, and now he has businesses to do that.”
“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 the execution and delivery are what’s key. Any conversation I have about innovation starts with the ultimate goal.”
“How exciting is it to come to work if the best you can do is trounce some other company that does roughly the same thing?”
“When you aim for the stars you may come up short, but still reach the moon.”
“My job as a leader is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, and that they feel they’re having a meaningful impact and are 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 that.”
“Have a healthy disregard for the impossible.”
