Half & Half — by Dan Lynn

By Dan Lynn

Back in 2003, I was on a flight, sitting next to a woman I'd never met. I started a conversation and at one point she asked me what I did.

I told her I owned a digital marketing technology company that automated the bid management process for search marketing.

"Oh," she said, "my friend is involved with search marketing."

"Really? Where does he work?"

"Google."

"What does he do for them?"

"He's the CEO."

"Really?"

"Yes, would you like to meet him?"

She arranged the meeting. A week later, Scott Delea — the President of DigitalGrit — and I flew out to California from New Jersey to meet Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google. This was before Google even went public.

More than twenty years later, I remember three things about that meeting.

First, how generous Eric was with his time. He was running the hottest company in technology, and he didn't act like a man with somewhere better to be.

Second, how genuinely interested he was in what we were doing at DigitalGrit. He asked questions and he listened.

And third, he said something I've never forgotten: "Half of Google is focused on providing the best possible search results — anticipating what the user is searching for. The other half is focused on monetizing that."

Half and half.

If you've read my Key Learning called "Buckets," you know that breaking problems down into simple bite-sized pieces is something that is a very powerful skill. Most people get lost in the complication of things. But the best leaders are able to break problems down into simple buckets to bring clarity to the issue. In this example, business is all about creating the greatest possible value — and then monetizing it. That's it. Two buckets.

One more thing that experience taught me: none of it happens if I didn't engage with a stranger on a plane, and a busy CEO doesn't make time for two guys from New Jersey. The most impressive people I've met are generous with their time and curious about yours. That's not a coincidence.