YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki helped start Google. She worked in advertising and gave Larry Page and Sergey Brin a place to work in her parents’ garage. She has grown with Google and is now the CEO of social media YouTube, a position she has held since 2014. In this role, she makes sure that the platform stays relevant in a world that is always changing.
Wojcicki worked on Google Doodles and did some of the company’s early viral advertising. She also designed the company’s classic logo. Since then, he’s left behind some important lessons about growth and being a leader. Through these points, we tell you more about this woman, who is just as important to Google as Sergey Brin or Larry Page.
Create the best possible product
After starting Google Doodles, Wojcicki was chosen to work with engineer Huican Zhu to make Google Image Search in 2000. The two worked on the idea, concept, and execution of the product with user needs in mind. They also thought about how they could have the largest image bank in the world.
More than 250 million images were indexed before the product came out in July 2001. By 2010, there were already 10 billion pictures on it.
Trust your product
Wojcicki was the first person in charge of one of Google’s most important advertising products, AdSense, which places ads in different types of interactive media that are meant for a specific audience. Her job was to spread the word about the product and help it grow. She got an award from the company for her work, and she eventually became a senior vice president in Google’s advertising department, in charge of other kinds of advertising products.
Admit when there is a better player
As Vice President of Advertising, Wojcicki was in charge of Google Video when she realized that YouTube was becoming a strong competitor. She decided not to try to compete with a player that was growing much faster, and instead suggested that Google buy this new platform. In 2006, she was in charge of the $1.65 billion buyout. After a few years, she would become the company’s CEO.
You don’t have to work all the time
People think that to be successful, you have to work your whole life. Susan Wojcicki has said, “If you work all the time, you won’t come up with any good ideas.” To learn about other things and come up with new ideas, you have to leave your workspace. We all need a break, and it will help us see things we might have been ignoring. Larry Page, who works with him, says the same thing.
You don’t need a plan
Wojcicki has said that she was four months pregnant when she joined Google, which made her wonder if it was the right choice. He told a conference, “It was a bit of a jump, but sometimes you have to do what’s best for you at the time.”
“Don’t overplan your life,” he said, meaning that sometimes you can have too many plans, which can make you afraid of change, even though you need to make those leaps. For her, it led to a successful career with a high value and a special place in one of the world’s biggest companies.
