Ambitious Quote by Eric Schmidt
““Over time I’ve learned, surprisingly, that it’s tremendously hard to get teams to be super ambitious. It turns out most people haven’t been educated in this kind of moonshot thinking. They tend to assume that things are impossible, rather than starting from real-world physics and figuring out what’s actually possible. It’s why we’ve put so much energy into hiring independent thinkers at Google, and setting big goals. Because if you hire the right people and have big enough dreams, you’ll usually get there. And even if you fail, you’ll probably learn something important. It’s also true that many companies get comfortable doing what they have always done, with a few incremental changes. This kind of incrementalism leads to irrelevance over time, especially in technology, because change tends to be revolutionary not evolutionary. So you need to force yourself to place big bets on the future.””
About This Quote
Source Speech: Google Leadership Talk, 2015
Ambitious, moonshot goals drive breakthrough innovation; incremental thinking leads to stagnation.
In simple terms: Big goals spark change; small steps aren’t enough.
Key Takeaway
Aim high, hire independent thinkers, accept failure as learning.
Themes
innovation
leadership
risk
growth
technology
Mood
determined
optimistic
challenging
Type
advice
inspirational
strategic
When to use this quote
- product development
- R&D planning
- career ambition
- startup strategy
Key Concepts
moonshot thinking
organizational culture
strategic betting
Questions to Reflect On
- How can you balance moonshot ambition with realistic planning?
- What safeguards prevent reckless risk?
A Different Perspective
Too much focus on big bets can ignore practical constraints and waste resources.
