The Dream that lead to Google

I've been working my way through a book about the history of Google called "Googled" - by Ken Auletta. I figure it's a good thing to know as much as I can about the company whose products and services I work so closely with!

Anyway - I came across this really interesting paragraph.

And here it is....

" Larry found an academic mentor in Terry A. Winograd, a computer science professor who had won a National Science Foundation grant to explore the future of online information. Larry bolted upright one night from a dream, he said many years later when describing how he suddenly had a vision for search. “I was thinking: What if we could download the whole Web, and just keep the links .... I grabbed a pen and started writing!" He told Professor Winograd, “lt would take a couple of weeks to download the Web.” Winograd nodded, he said, “fully aware it would take much longer but wise enough to not tell me.” Larry downloaded the entire link structure of the Web, not quite knowing what he’d do with it. He realized that links weren’t organic; they were the result of conscious effort. In a sense, users were voting for the best links when they chose to visit a site, or when they included a link on their own site. He had a bold idea to craft a different kind of search engine that would use these links to catalogue not just an island of the Web but the entire ocean.

His new friend Sergey was intrigued......"

Got me thinking.

How often do we have ideas and visions for things - but dont make them real?

The key I think to making dreams real - is to take the first step.

And that's often to simply tell someone else about your dream. Just as Larry Page did with his professor. In doing so it made it real for him, and more importantly got the idea out there to others. And one of these people just happend to be Sergey Brin........ The rest is history

So - if you've got a moment of clarity, an idea so fresh and tangible inside you, or a dream waiting to escape - I'd like to challenge you to tell someone else about it. Make it real - and get it out there.

The rest could well be history too (and yours!)