1490: Two Stories About Google We Can All Learn From by James Altucher on Leadership

[00:00:00] This complex financing talk is very stressful. Do I get my depot ever?

[00:00:06] But you already have a depot.

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[00:00:15] Now with the Vodafone Gigadepot and the data volume of the next month. Go on in the 5G network of Vodafone.

[00:00:22] Vodafone. Together we can.

[00:00:26] This is Optimal Work Daily. Two Stories about Google we can all learn from.

[00:00:31] From by James Altucher of JamesAltucher.com

[00:00:35] Story number one.

[00:00:37] One time Barry Diller was visiting Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

[00:00:41] The topic of the meeting was to see how the greatest media mogul could work with the greatest internet moguls.

[00:00:47] It was like two galaxies colliding to create something beautiful when seen from light years away.

[00:00:52] Larry Page was texting or doing something on his phone.

[00:00:55] Barry Diller was disgusted. Either choose me or the phone.

[00:00:58] Larry Page, without even lifting his head from his phone, said to the biggest media mogul in history,

[00:01:04] I choose this. Referring to his phone.

[00:01:07] So Diller spent the rest of the meeting talking to Sergey Brin.

[00:01:11] Story number two.

[00:01:12] It's very hard to get a job at Google.

[00:01:14] They're even making a movie out of the process.

[00:01:16] They used to make movies about things like the Vietnam War, or about preventing Mars from crashing into Earth,

[00:01:22] or about a young blonde boy being chosen by a wizened hermit with psychic powers to save the galaxy against his father who wears a black helmet all the time.

[00:01:30] Now they're making a movie about how hard it is to get a job at Google.

[00:01:33] A sort of Hunger Games for nerds, as Vince Vaughn says in the trailer.

[00:01:38] But in the early days, Sergey Brin would interview every candidate.

[00:01:41] Like, on a date, you immediately know within five seconds whether you want to have s**t eventually with the person you're on the date with.

[00:01:48] Sergey Brin would know right away if he was interested in hiring the person.

[00:01:51] If he wasn't interested, he said,

[00:01:54] I would try to spend the next hour trying to learn at least one thing from the person so that the meeting wasn't a waste for me.

[00:02:00] From story number one, I learned the most important rule of my life.

[00:02:04] Don't have meetings with someone you don't want to have a meeting with.

[00:02:07] Claudia said to me,

[00:02:08] Sounds like Larry Page was just being rude.

[00:02:11] I don't know.

[00:02:12] I don't want to judge.

[00:02:13] Who knows the dynamics of these billionaire meetings?

[00:02:15] Too complicated for me.

[00:02:17] But you are what you eat.

[00:02:18] I don't have meetings with people I don't like, ever.

[00:02:20] Or I can feel it somewhere in my body.

[00:02:22] I feel bad.

[00:02:24] Why feel bad?

[00:02:25] It's my choice to feel bad or good.

[00:02:27] If I ate glue, I'd probably feel sick.

[00:02:29] I won't do that either.

[00:02:30] Larry Page could have been busy kissing his wife instead of meeting with Barry Diller.

[00:02:34] Instead, he was probably texting his wife.

[00:02:37] He was probably texting,

[00:02:38] I hate Barry Diller.

[00:02:39] Texting?

[00:02:40] Kissing?

[00:02:41] Kissing?

[00:02:41] Texting?

[00:02:42] Of course, it's nice that he's so honest and blunt.

[00:02:45] Maybe I could learn that also.

[00:02:46] I feel I am pretty blunt.

[00:02:48] But the way to avoid being rude is not to be blunt to people you don't like.

[00:02:52] So it's simple again.

[00:02:53] Lesson number one, avoid people I don't like.

[00:02:56] Larry Page doesn't like Barry Diller.

[00:02:58] The second story is a little harder.

[00:03:00] Yes, it's good to learn from everyone you meet.

[00:03:03] But if I just hoard everything I learn, I might end up with a very big head.

[00:03:07] I feel bad for these guys being interviewed.

[00:03:09] They are probably scared sh**less.

[00:03:11] And here's Sergey already decided he's going to pick some fact from their brain.

[00:03:15] Like maybe the person Sergey is interviewing is an expert on whales.

[00:03:18] No need for whale people at Google.

[00:03:20] But can I eat whale flesh?

[00:03:22] Does whale loin make a good sandwich?

[00:03:24] Are whale fats healthy for my testosterone?

[00:03:26] Too many facts.

[00:03:28] I don't need to know so much about whales.

[00:03:30] I think Sergey's rule should be to do the opposite of what he does.

[00:03:34] Should I turn a rule on its head if it's a rule coming from the most successful,

[00:03:37] the smartest, and perhaps the sexiest man on the planet?

[00:03:40] People say, are you the signal or the noise?

[00:03:43] Huh?

[00:03:43] I don't need to be the signal or the noise.

[00:03:46] So I make my own rules for me.

[00:03:48] What if I try to give to each person I meet, even if I know there will be no further contact,

[00:03:54] even if I don't learn anything?

[00:03:55] Don't do it in a creepy way like, here are some chocolates, little boy.

[00:03:59] And you don't want to be patronizing either.

[00:04:01] Like, you should really be up on your Shakespeare, young man.

[00:04:04] But what if you really listen to that person?

[00:04:06] Not to steal away his few morsels of knowledge, but just to listen to him or just be kind.

[00:04:12] Maybe that's the gift he needs.

[00:04:14] Or heck, maybe he just needs his time back.

[00:04:16] Rather than spend an hour at Google, he can be walking around in the sun.

[00:04:20] He could be doing jumping jacks or putting his finger in his ear.

[00:04:23] Give him back his time.

[00:04:24] I don't know.

[00:04:25] What can you do to give to everyone you meet or everyone you see?

[00:04:29] It's hard.

[00:04:30] I'm going to try it.

[00:04:31] I admit, I'm jealous of Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

[00:04:35] I want to play with my phone while saying, I choose this to bury Diller.

[00:04:38] I want to make the world's biggest website and cure cancer at the same time.

[00:04:42] I want to be the cool guy on the subway with $18 billion and wearing the first wearable computing

[00:04:48] on the planet.

[00:04:49] I want.

[00:04:49] Give me.

[00:04:50] But maybe I also want to kiss instead of text, be quiet instead of meet,

[00:04:55] and feel like I have something to offer to everyone around me, even in the smallest of ways.

[00:05:00] That makes sense.

[00:05:02] I'll never have a job at Google.

[00:05:03] I'll never be the master of the galaxy.

[00:05:05] But I like having Sergey Brin and Larry Page as my reverse mentors.

[00:05:09] Thank you very much.

[00:05:15] You just listened to the post titled, Two Stories About Google We Can All Learn From, by James

[00:05:21] Altucher of jamesaltucher.com.

[00:05:23] This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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[00:06:25] And I want to give a big thank you to James Altucher.

[00:06:27] As always, James is an entrepreneur, a writer, investor, trader, and a podcaster.

[00:06:33] On his podcast, he has interviews with a bunch of talented people like Nancy Cartwright, Sarah

[00:06:38] Blakely, Tony Robbins, Ariana Huffington, and many more.

[00:06:42] That podcast, if you'd like to check it out, is called The James Altucher Show, and it's

[00:06:46] always in the top charts in the business category of Apple Podcasts for good reason.

[00:06:51] James has published 20 books and founded or co-founded over 20 companies.

[00:06:56] Come by jamesaltucher.com to learn more and read more.

[00:07:00] He's always got a unique take on things.

[00:07:02] But that should do it for today.

[00:07:04] Hope you are having a great one, and I'll be back here tomorrow reading to you.

[00:07:07] That's where your optimal life awaits.