What is Sergey Brin’s current net worth?
| Net Worth: | $66 billion |
| Age: | 46 years old |
| Born: | August 21, 1973 |
| Country of Origin: | Russia |
| Height: | 5 feet 8 inches |
| Source of Wealth: | Co-founded Google |
| Last Updated: | 2020 |
Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin founded Google with Larry Page. As of July 2020, Brin is the 7th wealthiest man in the world, mainly due to the successful search engine. The Moscow-born computer scientist was able to make great strides in the four decades that he had lived in the United States.
It was his steady application as a student that became the primary ingredient to his success. He met Page at a Stanford orientation, and the two regarded themselves as “intellectual soul mates.” One of the strengths of Google is in the partnership between the two co-founders.
Brin also follows his own tips on success. He has experienced failure and continues to overcome challenges. However, because data science and mathematics are his true passions, Brin continues to find solutions. He has learned that it is best to focus on what people really want.
Early Life
Brin was born on August 21, 1973, in Moscow, part of the then-Soviet Union. His parents were both Jewish and both Moscow State University alums. Though both intellectuals, his parents had trouble keeping jobs in the Soviet Union. The family was also persecuted for being Jewish.
When they migrated to the United States, his dad worked as a mathematics professor, and his mother became a NASA researcher. However, it was Brin who would best benefit from the move. As an immigrant child, he first found out a passion for computers when he first owned one.
Brin later on studied at the University of Maryland, where his father taught, and received his Computer Science bachelor’s with honors at only age 19. He specialized in both computer science and mathematics. Sergey then went on to work on his graduate studies in the same field at Stanford University. By 2008, he went on to leave his Ph.D. studies to focus on his partnership with Larry Page, whom he met at a Stanford orientation for students.
Career
The beginning of the career Brin became known for is arguably the time he met Larry Page. Though still graduate students at that time, they bonded over the intersection of their interests. Brin was focused on data mining, while Page was interested in being able to judge a paper based on its citations. Both seemed to be excited about data in their own way.
Together, Brin and Page worked on a research project involving a search engine. The algorithm that he made for this project became the foundation of the Google search engine that we know today.
The term Google comes from the mathematical term “googol,” which means 1, followed by a hundred zeroes. The ones and zeroes generating codes are the ones that will help people find information at their fingertips. This was the main goal of the Brin-Page duo.
In 1998, the company was launched after the two were able to raise a million dollars from family, friends, and other investors. In August 2004, the company made its first initial public offering (IPO), raising Brin and Page to billionaire status.
Of course, Google continued to expand its horizons while rising on top of the search engine most popular lists. In 2006, it bought YouTube. By 2012, the company introduced Google Glass, a wearable computer in the form of eyeglasses.
As of 2020, Sergey Brin’s net worth is estimated to be $66 billion.
Advice
After learning about Sergey Brin’s net worth and career path, here are some advice you can take away from his success:
Find your passion
For Sergey Brin, science and mathematics were his passion. He steadily applied and improved himself since childhood. Because of this, the road that he continued to take afterward might not have been easy, but it was logical.
The success that he gained from being the other half of the Google team stemmed from his personal interest in data mining. He wanted to know how anyone can access and utilize the right data from the growing database of the World Wide Web.
He was able to do so. Even after achieving big with Google, he and his partner continued looking for further innovations.
Find good partners
Having a good partner does not mean you will agree about everything. This is what Sergey Brin discovered when he met Larry Page, his intellectual soulmate. The two are not in tune when it comes to everything, but they both have a passion for data mining.
Being close friends, as well as business partners, Brin and Page showed great communication skills and respect for each other. With compatible working styles and the same interests, they were able to make a great thing out of a dormitory room. All of these helped them work together, minus the usual conflicts involved in partnerships.
Fail quickly
Sergey Brin believes in the importance of failing. He believes that one should experience several failures first and learn from those. One of the failures he talked about was trying to make pizza delivery orders happen via fax.
He realizes that sometimes you may find your solutions to be “elegant” or sophisticated, but other people may not agree. The fact that people were not using fax machines made his pizza delivery system fail quickly. However, it made him learn how to consider what people want and need.
With Google, Brin and Page teamed up to get people what they wanted and needed – information at their fingertips. It took a Stanford school project to make this happen. The rest were unplanned but still brought success to the duo.
Failing quickly gives you time and opportunity to come up with new ideas.
Overcome challenges
Coming up with Google as a young graduate student does not mean Brin never had any challenges. He was born into a challenge, being Jewish persecuted in Russia. His father had problems with employment.
However, the family found a way to conquer old challenges to face new ones in the United States. Brin has experienced concept failures such as the pizza delivery system and even Google challenges.
Just because something is a success does not mean to say it is going to stay that way. Dedication must be injected into it for it to continue thriving. One cannot just let a successful project continue on its own.
Be Bold
Sergey Brin has been noted to give this advice to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. He wants to make a difference, and thus, he prefers taking courageous actions and not only safe ones. He believes that it is by being bold that someone can become a trailblazer.
Other people will simply take the more straightforward, comfortable route. While Brin was known to have given this advice to Mayer, he also applies this to his leadership. He does back it up with passion, industry, and continuously getting up after a failure.
Summary
Sergey Brin, a net worth of $66 billion, has made great use of his intellect and education. Born from academics, he went on to partner with likeminded Larry Page. The two have made a fortune building a search engine, Google, which was initially directed towards Stanford students only.
Though his education seems smooth-sailing due to steady application, Brin has also met with some challenges along the way. He has failed concepts that he now uses as part of his learning and growth. He uses those failures to advise others who are pursuing their own successes.
Brin is the product of a sound education, a brilliant mind, some luck, a great partner, and a supportive family and friends.
