The Power of Serendipity
Inspired by on Lenny's Podcast
One of tech's most successful operators got his big break by wandering the office at 6pm and stumbling into a side project - a lesson in how curiosity creates opportunity.
Gokul Rajaram has had one of the most impressive careers in tech: Google, Facebook, Square, DoorDash, board seats at Coinbase and Pinterest. And he says one of his biggest breaks came from being nosy.
At Google, he was working on syndication. But at 6pm, he'd walk around the office. One day he found engineers working on a secret project from Sergey Brin.
'I was like, hey, do you have any PMs working with you? They said, no. Can I be your PM? They said, aren't you working on syndication? I said, yeah, but I can do this nights and weekends.'
That project became Google AdSense.
'It's very important to do a core job really well at any company, but it's equally important to have curiosity and be open to serendipity.'
Teach your kids to be curious wanderers. The best opportunities often aren't on the main path. They're found by the kid who pokes around, asks questions, and says 'Can I try that too?'
Serendipity isn't luck. It's curiosity plus availability.
PM Theme: Career growth through curiosity
Parenting Theme: Encouraging exploration
“I basically found a group of engineers in an office and they were working on something. I was like, 'What are you working on?'... 'Hey, do you have any PMs working with you?' They said, no. 'Can I be your PM?' They said, 'Aren't you working on syndication?' I said, 'Yeah, but I can do this nights and weekends.'”Gokul Rajaram · 00:04:21
“It's very important to do a core job really well at any company, but it's equally important to have curiosity and be open to serendipity.”Gokul Rajaram · 00:05:09
