The Google Mindset Experiment

Last week I had a flash of a memory as I started to write about the stories we tell ourselves and the power of rewriting them and consciously choosing a different path. This is a topic that’s been on my mind for a while and different pieces have been dropping in from all around me.

Our mindset and the stories we tell ourselves create our reality. It’s powerful.

So anyway, I stopped for a moment and allowed space for more of the memory to come to life.

It was from my early Google days - like I mean super early first weeks in the summer of 2003. And honestly, I rarely think about those days and years unless prompted. It’s like they’ve been shoved into a vault in my mind and rarely see the light of day.

But the experiences and my reflections on them today have something they want to say and it’s all about mindset and the power of each of us to create our reality and individual experiences.

When I first started working at Google in 2003 (yes, 20 years ago!) I came in through a temp-to-hire program.

It wasn’t until I was hired as a full-time employee a few weeks in that I realized that I might as well have been part of a social experiment! And now, many many years removed, I reflect on it as an experiment in mindset.

Every Thursday the full-time employees managing the temps would sit around and talk about each one and review performance.

Every Friday they fired people. They also hired people.

The managers walked around, tapped people on the shoulder, took them into a room for a review of the work done during the week, and if you weren’t cutting it they let you go and if you’d proven yourself they hired you. And, if you were new to this crazy cycle doing okay they’d keep you on for another week.

At 22 years old, weeks out of college graduation, I was just happy to have a job that not only paid me but fed me and felt like a playground. The work was mindless and easy - so long as you stuck to the three-inch binder of policies for reviewing ads appearing alongside the Google search results.

We were worker bees manually reviewing every single ad and keyword that appeared. Cheap eager labor, easily trained, and even more easily turned over.

I came in every day, did my work, made friends, ate snacks, and pretty much kept my head down. I was blissfully unaware of just how much we were being watched and scrutinized. I was having fun. I enjoyed it. I told myself a story of success.

There was always buzzing about who’d been fired and who’d gotten the golden opportunity to work in the building across the street the following week. Again, I was simply happy to have a job. I did my thing and didn’t get caught up in anything else.

On the flipside, there were people so worried, stressed out, and unhappy to the point that they were giving themselves ulcers.

Yes, people we making themselves sick over it.

Did I mention I feel like this was an experiment?

I recognize there are many factors at play here, but at the core, we were doing the exact same job, had the same expectations, and were in the same location with many of us having just graduated from the same school, yet having wildly different experiences.

Why?

Mindset and the stories we were telling ourselves.

And guess what, both myself and one particular individual who I vividly remember got hired as full-time employees! We were each at Google for many years. Clearly, we were both capable with the skills and talents that Google desired.

The stories you tell yourself and the thoughts you have in a given situation create the experience. Our minds are very good at also conjuring up all sorts of meanings for the circumstances.

As I think back on all my years at Google there were times that I was definitely telling myself stories, holding on to beliefs, and having experiences from all ends of the spectrum. I certainly wasn’t always that carefree 22 year old just happy to have a job.

There’s layer upon layer that I could unravel and explore from these memories alone that range from the need to prove worthiness and self-doubt to confidence and gratitude. Not to mention, why we continue to push for things even when we’re making ourselves sick. There’s a whole book worth I’m sure and maybe I’ll start a series and unlock my Google vault.

But the point is, there are SO many stories to our experiences. Our thoughts inform our feelings, our beliefs, and ultimately our choices and actions.

It’s important to also remember that we’re so often being fed a narrative (Google certainly has/had one) and filtering everything through ingrained beliefs and subconscious stories! Hence so many layers.

When you are willing to slow down, Pause, and catch yourself in the story and the thought, you have just opened the door for yourself to be aware, be in choice, and design the experience - your experience, your path, your life. 

I didn’t learn this until I left Google when I created the biggest Pause possible in my life without even realizing it.

It was a bit of a shock because it meant I was responsible - not everyone else. Oh crap!

When I chose to embrace the responsibility and see it as power everything shifted. Life was different. I took inventory, gained awareness, and began to shift my choices both in terms of actions and thoughts. There was so much work to be done, and it continues, but I was solidly the storyteller and designer of my life and embracing it.

What story are you choosing to tell yourself?

If you’re curious to step into your own Life Design and the stories you tell yourself I’m here to support you! Drop me a line.

Find Your Pause.