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Larry Page’s response to Steve Jobs’s critique that Google lacks focus

“I mean he was right. He did fine as well… but I worry about that.”

In the clip below, Page explains that he chose this path for Google because he wanted to build a company for engineers and entrepreneurs.

“You’re looking at the business benefit you might get [from trying all of these different ideas]. But I also think in terms of motivating ourselves, potential employees, and entrepreneurs. We want to be doing things that are exciting and that are really going to make a difference.”

One of the things that inspired Page to create the Alphabet org structure was the observation that companies—in general—have bad reputations.

“Most people don’t wake up and say ‘Oh, I wish I could go work for a company.’ They do it because they have to… I think that’s something we should work to change.”

He suggests we change this:

“I think we need to be more ambitious. We’ve got to do things that matter more to people. We’ve got to do fewer things that are zero-sum games, and more things that really cause a lot of benefit.”