Larry Page

"My job as a leader is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, and that they feel they're having a meaningful impact and are contributing to the good of society. As a world, we're doing a better job of that. My goal is for Google to lead, not follow that." (Larry Page). There are billions of smartphones and PCs that have created a connected web of information. This whole revolution of devices have grown enormously with the start of the internet. Two men helped reshape the internet and impact all of society as well as lead the technological age. They are Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google. Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google and current CEO has changed society more than we know it. Larry Page, with Sergey Brin created the well known company Google on September 4, 1998. Coming from Stanford University with huge expectations from large companies, Larry Page helped create BackRub, later renamed to be Google. Today, Google's headquarters, Googleplex, is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. It is ever growing and innovation thrives there. Many important milestones has happened in Google under Larry Page as the CEO. In 1997, Google.com became a registered website. In 1999, Googleplex was built. In 2004 Google became a public company and is currently worth 360 billion dollars (Google Finance). A hero must impact society through their actions and achievements. Also hero must of overcome something and try to help others. Larry Page possesses many traits that can make him be considered a hero. He has overcome illness and impacted all of society.

Though Larry Page is very successful he has not had it easy and has overcome a rare illness. Larry Page talks on his blog about his journey through this rare illness on his vocal cords; "In this journey I have learned a lot more about voice issues.  Though my condition seems to be very rare, there are a significant number of people who develop issues with one vocal nerve" (Larry Page). Larry Page tells others about his voice condition. As he was the founder and ran one of the biggest technology companies in the world, a voice problem made it even harder for him. It was a very uncommon disease and such little was known on it. He talks about the other thousands of people in the world that also have some sort of a vocal problem and they are all affected by it. Page says how he not only overcame this illness but learned from it too. While you can just fight an illness, Larry Page did more than that and went above and beyond with it; "Page is not revealing the size of his donation to the Voice Health Institute, but a person familiar with the donation says it exceeds $20 million" (Stone). To research and help not only society but the world, he donated millions to a vocal institute to research and help the other thousands with a voice problem. He is humble about his donation and wants all of it to go to the right cause. Larry Page overcame this voice issue and did not let it affect him running such a big company. He could of just been thankful to the vocal doctors and research institutes, but he instead donates millions to help bring light to voice problems and try to help everyone been affected by some sort of a vocal cord disorder.

A hero must also help society. While some heroes may change the way we think, Larry page changes the whole way we interact. Using his company, Google, Page, with many others, have not only reshaped the most knowledgeable place in the whole world, the internet, but he strives to make it better. Google also has not only done that, but has created innovative creations to help all of mankind. While the internet is possibly one of the greatest tools ever to have been created, there are millions of people in other countries who can't access it. Whole countries have very little ways to use it and contact others, so Google and Page have found an innovative way to help others again; "Page spoke at TED about how Google plans to connect the world by building  a 'worldwide mesh' of balloons. The goal is to use these balloons to provide Internet access to the two-thirds of the world living without it." (Dickey). At a TED interview, Larry Page talked about using such a simple concept to affect millions if not billions. Using balloons that fly high in the air and using advance technology, Google was able to have the balloons navigate the skies. Using this simplistic idea, Page and Google are changing millions and connecting the whole world. Finally there may be a day where everyone may truly be connected. Not only is Google connecting people with software and now balloons, Google is also helping to save lives; "Other Doctors have found Google Glass to be a powerful tool. One Boston Doc said that Google Glass helped save a man's life when he came to the ER with a bleed in his brain. Google Glass revealed the man's drug allergies, and his life was spared" (F.). Google has recently started sending out a new innovative wearable piece of technology, Google Glass. Glass is a wearable pair of glasses with a small screen that displays information. It can access web pages and text messages with a gesture or a simple voice command. (F.). By using it a doctor was able to save a patient's life before a surgery. Others have used this tool for numerous of reasons. With this Google under CEO Larry Page has been able to change how we use technology and even save lives. The possibilities are endless and Page is not stopping there. Whether it be balloons in the sky or Glasses with the power to save lives, Google has helped thousands to millions to even billions. Page and his team are not stopping there. Larry Page is ready to impact even more of society.

Larry Page possesses numerous traits that make him a hero and an inspiration to everyone. Whether it be overcoming a disease, selfless donations or helping millions in a technological way, Larry page is a hero. Being a Co-Founder and CEO of a multibillion dollar company, Larry Page's rare voice illness impacted him more than most. He had to continue running a company with being practically mute. Eventually he had overcome this illness and donated millions to help the other thousands of people with some sort of vocal cord issue. Even though this was a hard time running a company, Page still found a way to make innovative, life changing and life saving technology. During an interview, Larry Page said, "My job as a leader is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, and that they feel they're having a meaningful impact and are contributing to the good of society. As a world, we're doing a better job of that. My goal is for Google to lead, not follow that" (Larry Page). Page noted that he strives to be the leader of impacting society. While Google could tag along, Page instead has lead the company to lead the technological age. I believe he is an inspiration to many. Whether it be changing the world or completely reshaping it, Larry Page is creating a legacy. He encourages others to impact society, while he does himself. Larry Page is a hero for modern society and he isn't even nearly done yet. My hope is for everyone to take on after Larry Page and try to change the worlds themselves.

Works Cited

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Stone, Brad. "Larry Page Explains What Happened to His Voice." Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 14 May 2013. Web. 08 May 2014.