This story is part of the “Behind the Desk” series in which CNBC Make It meets successful business people face-to-face to learn everything from how they got there, to what gets them up in the morning, to their daily routine
For career achievements, Eric Schmidt is hard to top.
Schmidt, a self-proclaimed software nerd from Falls Church, Virginia, was hired in 2001 by co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin as chairman and later CEO of Google to provide some “adult supervision” for their growing web search engine. At the time, Schmidt was only 46 years old – but already a seasoned tech executive with top positions at Novell and Sun Microsystems on his resume.
He was CEO of Google until 2011 and helped transform the company from a young Silicon Valley startup into a global tech giant with a market value of more than $1.8 trillion today. He remained Executive Chairman until 2017 and Technical Advisor until 2020.
Currently, according to Forbes, Schmidt is the 66th richest person in the world with a net worth of around $23 billion – so it’s easy to forget how small Google was when it entered the scene.
“The company was 100 people and I didn’t really believe in the advertising model,” Schmidt, 66, told CNBC Make It. Even as CEO, he says, he had no idea how much Google could grow: “Me just really liked the people.”
Rather than pushing a grand plan to grow the startup into a behemoth, he focused on his own individual strengths — being a workaholic, having a passion for building things, and drawing on his own sympathy. That last quality, he says, caused people to sometimes underestimate him.
“I’ve always benefited from the assumption that I’m a nice guy and not a very good businessman. So my schtick was, I was always the nicest person in the room,” says Schmidt, adding, when employing this strategy, “You better be able to back it up with real rigor, real outcome, and real decision-making.”
In terms of Google, the rest is history. Today, Schmidt focuses on his nonprofit Schmidt Futures, which funds big idea research in areas like artificial intelligence, biology, and energy. Last year he co-authored the book The Age of AI as a roadmap for what the future of technology might look like.
Here Schmidt talks about building a successful career, working with Steve Jobs, his biggest mistakes at Google and how he handles criticism.
On building a successful career: “Happiness is the first and most important thing I’ve had”
I think everyone in my position should start with the fact that happiness is the first and most important thing I’ve had. Birth luck, education, interests, timing and the business I was in. I’ve worked hard too, but happiness is just as important, if not more important, and the happier you are, the more happiness you create for yourself.
I was a young executive who was promoted fairly quickly. I consider myself a workaholic. Most people are thankfully not workaholics.
The most successful people have a lot of skill and also courage. I guess I didn’t understand my ambition – I just found what we were working on really interesting. But I got my power as I grew up.
It took me a long time to understand who I am and what I’m good at. It’s important to get comfortable with who you are and how you behave and react because there is so much criticism and pressure these days, especially for young people.
How Steve Jobs influenced his leadership style: ‘He was by no means a normal person’
Steve Jobs, with whom I worked very closely [Jobs recruited Schmidt to be on Apple’s board from 2006 to 2009] and much admired, was by no means a normal person.
When he was “on,” his charisma and insights were so extraordinarily superior to anyone else that his way of treating people transcended any handicap. People admired him so much.
Chad Hurley, founder of YouTube, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple, and Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, speak after Jobs delivered the keynote address at the opening of Macworld 2008 at the Moscone Center at 15 San Francisco , California.
David Paul Morris | News from Getty Images | Getty Images
If you look at history, great leaders have this unique ability to inspire people on a personal basis. The important thing is not whether you are flighty or shy, but whether you can inspire people to get involved and get excited about changing the world.
[Personally]I learned that having teenagers is important. They’re relatively unmanageable, but they need to be managed. You learn to let them do whatever they want until it becomes dangerous or serious. Then you have to put your foot down. Everything is fine until it isn’t. In this case we must act quickly.
That’s a pretty good leadership style. But I don’t want to say that there is only one management style.
Building Google into a Giant: “We Made Many Mistakes Along the Way”
I had the advantage of working with Larry [Page] and Sergei [Brin], who were both my best friends and my partners. Larry, Sergey and I had these huge food fights over this or that. To be honest, we would disagree. But there wasn’t a moment when I doubted her commitment to the company and cause.
When the two agreed, I usually just said “yes”. If they disagreed, I would force a process where the three of us came to a conclusion. Usually their ideas were better than mine.
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google Inc., left, Larry Page, co-founder of Google Inc., center, and Eric Schmidt, chairman and chief executive officer of Google Inc., attend a press conference at the Sun Valley Inn at the 28th annual convention Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, USA on Thursday, July 8, 2010.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
[When I started at Google] I didn’t understand the size of the company and I had no idea what was possible. I would have been suspicious if you had told me [how big Google would get]. In hindsight I wouldn’t change anything – but we made a lot of mistakes along the way.
I think the biggest mistake I made as CEO was with social media: Google was early on in social media but didn’t do it really well. The timing of entry into these poised to explode platform markets is incredibly important. Even being a few months early makes a big difference with the right product.