Successful Entrepreneurs
Google -- Entrepreneurial Lessons from Larry Page
Written by Richard San Juan for Gaebler Ventures
Larry Page is an ambitious entrepreneur who co-created Google. What can we entrepreneurs learn Larry Page? Quite a bit, as it turns out.
Larry Page and his partner Sergey Brin revolutionized the way people around the world searched for information on the Internet.
As with Sergey Brin, Larry Page believed that in order to reap big rewards, one needs to take big risks.
From Google's early beginnings at a friend's garage in California to using the Google search engine to sell advertisements, the company embraced the idea that innovation and doing things differently were critical to success. This has always been something that Larry Page believed in.
This method has assisted them in creating Google into the company it is today--a large corporation which has become a giant in the Internet business. Even now, Google continues to strive for innovation. Recent new applications such as Gmail and Google Maps are evidence of this.
Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and other Google executives are hoping to get involved in other areas from alternative energy to artificial intelligence. The question is how to balance R&D in new innovations and generating revenue from the core business of the company?
According to Larry Page, the expense that goes to funding of these exploratory projects is not major. Google follows a 70-20-10 guideline when it comes to dividing up their financial resources. The 70% of resources, without a doubt, goes directly to the main businesses of the company. Next, the 20% represents funding for projects related to the main businesses. The remaining 10%, according to Larry, is devoted to miscellaneous projects.
He acknowledges that they might just be wasting their money on some projects, but it is through that small percentage of funding that all their new ideas have been able to become realized.
Keeping the company more dynamic instead of static has helped Google become progressive.
Larry Page is an optimist and believes that even though there are many problems in the world, the human capacity to overcome these world issues is possible.
It was never a question of ability, rather an issue of motivation to start a company or organization that deals with the problems.
Larry Page reflected once, "My experience is that when people are trying to do ambitious things, they're all worried about failing when they start. But all sorts of interesting things spin out that are of huge economic value. Also, in these kinds of projects, you get to work with the best people and have a very interesting time. They're not really taking a risk, but they feel like they are. It's hard to get people to work on those kinds of things because of the personal risk they feel they're taking."
From Larry Page's example, we learn that entrepreneurs need to find a way to overcome this fear of taking risks or failing, because they are limiting not only their own potential but also the potential to discover new innovations that would benefit the human race.
Developing a sound business plan and taking a loan will help mitigate those risks. This then hopefully will awaken the entrepreneurial spirit of many individuals to foster more innovation.
Richard San Juan is currently pursuing an MBA degree with an emphasis in Finance from DePaul University in Chicago. He is particularly interested in writing about business news and strategies.
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