“I’m going to let you in on a little secret: While these things matter in the moment, they are much less consequential than you might think,” Pichai told Stanford University graduates earlier this month.
“You could have failed that biology test, skipped a class, never learned to play the tuba. And you’d still probably be here today.”
It’s a lesson Pichai learned first hand back when he too was a student at Stanford studying materials science and engineering. He admitted he was often obsessed over grades, career prospects, and mapping out his future. Then an unexpected road trip to Las Vegas shifted his perspective.
The soft-spoken tech leader recalled how a classmate once convinced him to skip a lecture and drive to Sin City—a move that felt wildly out of character for someone who had never missed class before. Along the way, he saw snow for the first time, learned to play blackjack, and discovered something even more valuable when nobody noticed his absence.
“For the first time, I realized the world won’t end if I relaxed a little,” the 54-year-old recalled.
Pichai added that while some life decisions are critical you get right—such as choosing a partner, deciding whether to start a family, or making a major career pivot—ultimately, among the rest, “very few of them are make or break.”
“But if you are able to filter the signal through the noise you can nudge your life in these moments into having the impact you want,” he added.
Success rarely follows a straight line—and the CEOs of Amazon and JPMorgan agree Gen Z needs to embrace the grind
For Gen Z, tuning out the noise about the economy and the future of work might feel easier said than done. But Pichai is far from alone in pushing young people to loosen their grip on rigid career plans—and to accept that setbacks, not smooth sailing, tend to produce the most success.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently urged young professionals to embrace starting at the bottom rather than chasing shortcuts to the top.
“If you aren’t willing to start at the bottom and pay your dues, it’s unlikely that you’re going to ever be successful,” Jassy said earlier this year on Capital Group’s Power of Advice podcast. “You have to be willing to start at the bottom. You have to do whatever people ask you to do, within reason.”
Mistakes and setbacks are an inevitable part of career journeys, he said. What matters is maintaining curiosity and a willingness to adapt: “You just have to be a learning machine.”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has delivered a similar message—albeit with considerably more tough love.
“There’s going to be a grunt part to every part of a job,” Dimon said at an event in Davos, Switzerland earlier this year. “Get over it.”
And even when times are tough, Dimon advised against trying to job-hop simply for the sake of avoiding friction.
“Do not get a new job,” Dimon said. “Some people are always thinking, and they’re ruining their lives because they should just enjoy what they’re doing.”
The lesson even extends beyond the corporate corner office. Fox News anchor Dana Perino has said her career accelerated once she took someone’s advice and stopped trying to manufacture a perfect path.
“Once I focused and stopped trying to do everything, all the other opportunities came at the right time,” she told Fortune earlier this year.
Her advice to young people mirrors Pichai’s broader message: don’t obsess over finding the perfect first step.
“Just start working—wherever it is,” she said. “It doesn’t mean you have to stay there for two years.”
