The Google Force - From Seed to Oak
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Larry and Sergei were not looking for a business; they wanted to sell their technology, but luckily for them, no one wanted it. Call it coincidence, but I do not believe in those.
In 1998 they decided to open a business after getting a $100,000 check from Andy Bechtolsheim, Sun Microsystems cofounder.
Month later Google opened its first bank account, and hired their first employee, Craig Silverstein.
At that point, Google was nobody in the corporate world. There was no business model, nor did Sergei or Larry know of one. All they had was PageRank and some servers.
Stop for a second.
Look back at the time when you were sure of something, but had no clue as to how you were going to get there. You knew you were going to get there eventually with your guts, you just didn't know how. There was a lot of mystery in tomorrow and one nasty question never left your mind: "What's next?" But your were sure of yourself and willing to gamble it all on your abilities.
Can you recall such a time? We've all had one like it; I bet you have bright memories associated with yours.
This was the situation Larry and Sergei were in. There was no certainty, but the founders staked everything on their abilities and took a shot. This is the time in our lives when we should let all the worries go and trust our own abilities; big G is the example.
Only after one more year of nurturing and uncertainty (remember, there's still no business model and a lot of hopeful investors on hand) did the seed the founders planted deliver another yield: $25 million in investments. It gave them more responsibility, but still no results.
In 1999, Google first tried advertisements alongside search results. Instead of showing banners, which was the dominant advertising model, Google sold text ads alongside search results. No bidding, no PPC, but manually placed text advertisements.
"It didn't generate much money." - Sergey Brin.
In the wake of this, they decided to outsource advertising to DoubleClick, but another "coincidence" occurred - the tech bubble burst in the spring of 2000, so a partnership was off the table. It's funny that breaking points are always followed by some sort of strange coincidence. It is as though a strange force is looking over our shoulders and guiding us to the right choices, as long as we're willing to be persistent and strong. Some call it God, some call it Infinite Intelligence, but it doesn't matter, we're all working with one force. What would've happened if Google outsourced to DoubleClick?
Moving on. In 2000 Google borrowed the pay-per-click model from Overture and launched AdWords. AdWords faced three temporary defeats, which could be viewed as failures if Sergei and Larry stopped and accepted the defeat. Their choice was to persist, and it was the right one. Five years later, after three re-launches, Google was worth $100 billion.
What if they had stopped after two attempts and said "It's OK, we tried." This is another lesson that can be learned. Never accept defeat. It is only temporary until one of your next shots brings glory.
Next: How much does Google make? >>
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