As agency owners we sometimes have access to some pretty nice perks. One such perk happened a few weeks ago when we got to visit Google headquarters in California.
The first thing we saw as we pulled up in the bus (there was a group of us) was the driverless car making its way around the sprawling campus. As the agency folks all jumped out of the bus we instantly turned into nerdy tourists pointing at and snapping pictures of the Google sign and once inside, the magical staircase that highlights what is currently trending.
To be invited, we had to sign a non-disclosure agreement promising not to divulge any of the secrets that were about to be shared. So, I will need to be somewhat vague and incomplete in reporting details. But I can say this much, as we already know and suspect, Google is becoming, has become, way more than a search engine company.
A very wise, very wealthy, elderly friend once told me that if you have enough money you can reach a point where you can do really fantastic things because you can afford to fail. You can take risks that others can’t and the pay off, when it pays off, is huge. This seems to be part of what is happening at Google. They are taking risks and pursuing ideas that are so far out of the box, the box for them has never existed. They are thinking big on purpose and it was inspiring just to be around this if only for a few hours. A lot of these risks will fail, but some will succeed and they could change they way we live in ways we cannot yet imagine.