Before Google CEO Sundar Pichai became the leader of the now-$4.5 trillion tech giant, he had to prove his worth as a leader—starting with a browser almost no one believed in.
When Chrome launched in 2008, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was the industry dominator, with roughly 60% of global browser usage thanks to being the default on Windows computers.
Convincing users to switch was a steep climb. So when then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was asked about the competitive landscape the following year, he barely considered Chrome worth mentioning.
“The most successful by far is Firefox. Chrome is a rounding error to date. Safari is a rounding error to date,” Balmer said in a 2009 TechCrunch interview. “…we’re going to have to compete like heck and you know, see where things go.”
For Pichai, the comment became a test of leadership.
“It could have been demoralizing,” Pichai recalled last week in a commencement address to Stanford University graduates. “But with that California optimism, I told the team that the fact he went out of his way to dismiss us meant we were doing something right.”
Chrome’s launch had delivered some early momentum, but by Pichai’s own account, user growth had started to plateau and market share remained stubbornly in the low single digits. Instead of retreating, the team pushed harder.
“We kept going, setting highly aggressive stretch goals to keep the team pushing,” Pichai said. “We rapidly iterated, shipping the browser every six weeks while others shipped one maybe every six months to a year. Success began to follow.”
Pichai’s lesson for Gen Z from Chrome’s early struggles: Say yes to hard things
Pichai and his team’s persistence paid off. By 2012, Chrome surpassed its rivals to become the world’s most-used browser, helping cement Pichai’s reputation inside Google and paving the way for his eventual rise to CEO. Today, Chrome commands an even larger dominance of the browser market than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer did when Ballmer dismissed it as a “rounding error.”
That experience continues to shape the advice Pichai gives young people entering the workforce. Rather than chasing what’s expected of them, he encourages graduates to pursue ambitious challenges—even when success is far from guaranteed.
“Working on hard things has taught me a lot: It typically attracts other great and optimistic people. And even if you miss meeting the high goals you set, you’ll still achieve something great,” Pichai told Stanford graduates.
“So when you have the choice to work on something hard—say yes,” he added.
Pichai also encouraged Gen Z to not let outside expectations dictate their futures, much like he refused to let Ballmer’s dismissal define Chrome’s prospects.
“As you look at your own path, don’t focus on: the thing your parents want you to do, or the thing all your friends are doing, or that society expects of you,” Pichai said. “Instead, think about the things that keep you chatting excitedly with your roommates late into the night. And go do those things.”
Like Pichai, the CEOs of AMD and Delta urge Gen Z to embrace the toughest challenges
While portions of Picahi’s commencement address were overshadowed by student protests over Google’s ties to the Israeli government and defense contractor Palantir, his message about embracing difficult work echoed advice delivered by several other corporate leaders to the Class of 2026.
Speaking at MIT’s commencement ceremony, AMD CEO Lisa Su argued that technical skills alone won’t define the next generation of leaders.
“The world does not just need people who know how to use powerful tools, it needs people who know what to use them for, people with a sense of purpose, judgment, courage,” Su said.
“People who look at a hard problem and say ‘I know this is really, really important, and we can figure this out’” are the next change-makers, according to the semiconductor leader.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian echoed that theme in his address to Emory University graduates, arguing that character is forged through difficult decisions rather than easy victories.
“Character isn’t revealed when life is easy. Character is revealed when times and decisions are hard. Many times, doing the right thing comes at a cost. But I always prefer to think of it as an investment, a smart investment,” he said.
While shortcuts may appear throughout your career, he said they rarely produce lasting results.
“I’ve had many important decisions to make over the course of my career, and I must admit, taking a shortcut or pushing the easy button can sometimes be quite tempting,” Bastian added. “But they never yield an enduring result or an effective solution.”
