Okay Geek Farm
Big mistake turning down a job at Google... in 1998
Brandon Davenport
Every once and a while, Reddit manages to coax a rare, special piece of internet history, into the public eye. Why it’s special is because of the fact that the information arrives first hand from individuals who experienced it, and why it’s rare is because it’s usually really embarrassing. A while back on an AskReddit thread, the question was posed: “What’s the most expensive mistake you’ve made at work?” and someone gave an answer that sparked huge conversation.
I met both Carl Page and Larry Page at a party hosted by a Stanford friend of mine in 1998. Carl gave me his card for eGroups and said “we’re hiring”. Larry gave me his card for Google—a flimsy bit of paper obviously printed by bubble jet—and said “we’re hiring”.
I said, “Nah, who needs another search engine?” and went to graduate school.
I still have the card.
So there you have it. Some dude thought it would be dumb to join a tiny startup in a garage that wanted to compete in a niche market and called themselves “Google!” with business cards printed on flimsey paper. In the end, he didn’t make a bad decision but man oh man it really came back to bite him! — So from now on, when you think back on something dumb you’ve done, just think of this guy…
