Google CEO Sundar Pichai said one habit helped move his career forward: working with people he felt were better than him.
'At various points in my life, I worked with people who I felt were better than me,' Pichai said on a 2025 podcast by Podium VC. 'Get yourself in a position where you’re working with people who you feel are stretching your abilities. [It’s] what helps you grow. [Put] yourself in uncomfortable situations. I think often you’ll surprise yourself.'
Pichai, who became CEO of Alphabet in 2019, now leads a company with a market cap of more than $4 trillion. Fortune said his current net worth is estimated at about $1.6 billion.
His path began in Chennai, India, where he was raised in a middle-class family. Pichai said his father was an electrical engineer and his mother worked as a stenographer. He also said he had minimal access to computers growing up and recalled being on a waitlist for five years to get a rotary phone.
That limited exposure shaped how he viewed technology. 'It was a vivid moment for me as to how access to technology can make a difference,' Pichai told Yahoo Finance. He said that experience inspired the rollout of Chromebooks to students in the U.S.
Pichai moved to the U.S. in 1993 to earn a master’s degree in materials science from Stanford University. He later earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, worked briefly for a semiconductor materials company, had a stint at McKinsey & Co., and joined Google in 2004.
In April 2024, Pichai reflected on 20 years at Google and said what had changed included the technology, the number of people who use Google products, and his hair. He wrote on Instagram that 'what hasn’t changed' was 'the thrill I get from working at this amazing company.'
The market has already voted on Pichai’s career. The numbers come first: a $4 trillion company, a $1.6 billion fortune, and a message built around discipline, discomfort and performance. In an economy that rewards capital and clear rules, his advice is blunt: growth usually comes from being stretched, not sheltered.
