At Stanford University, Google and Alphabet co-founder Sergey Brin opened up about the mistake of thinking he was destined to be "the next Steve Jobs." During a motivational talk, he shared insightful advice with aspiring students, emphasizing the importance of forging one's own path.
During the engineering school's 100th anniversary, Sergey Brin addressed students, discussing the issue of hardware launch failures and advising them on when to avoid entering this field. A student from Stanford posed a question to him during the discussion "what mindset should aspiring entrepreneurs should keep in mind to avoid earlier mistakes?"
In response to this query, Brin reflected on the failure of Google Glass, advising aspiring entrepreneurs to fully refine a product and understand its commercial value before launching. Google Glass struggled with cost, design issues, and privacy concerns, earning users the nickname "Glassholes" due to the negative response. Brin admitted he rushed the product's release, saying, "I thought, 'I’m the next Steve Jobs, I can make this thing. Ta-da."
For students, the lesson here is not that failure is inevitable, but that momentum can become a trap. Moving fast can create pressure that limits careful thinking. For students exposed daily to founder success stories, this admission matters. Confidence is celebrated, but unchecked confidence can blur judgement. Brin's story shows how even experienced founders can be pulled along by expectations attached to their own reputation.
Google Glass, launched in 2013, was a wearable device developed by Google's X unit to display information via a head-up display. Users could interact with it using voice and internet commands. However, Google discontinued the device in 2015.