me to go through all the bad stuff. As well as the fact that, at that point, it was
just pride. It was so public. If I would have stopped, that would have been very
public also.
Livingston: Were there any other really stressful moments?
Williams: That’s an understatement. I can think of many. For example, when
the site got hacked on Christmas day. I was in Iowa, visiting my mom, and I
didn’t find out until the next morning. Someone was able to run an update on
the database that changed thousands of users’ passwords to the number 1
(which people started to realize when they couldn’t log in and used the forgotten
password feature to get theirs via email).
Having your site hacked is stressful enough, but here I was in Iowa trying to
assess the damage over a dial-up connection and a tiny laptop. And I didn’t have
a sys admin or anyone else working for me at the time. I ended up spending
most of the day in a Kinko’s doing damage control. So much for enjoying the
holidays.
Livingston: What advice would you give someone?
Williams: I think one of the things that kills great things so often is compromise—
letting people talk you out of what your gut is telling you. Not that I
don’t value people’s input, but you have to have the strength to ignore it sometimes,
too. If you feel really strongly, there might be something to that, and if
you see something that other people don’t see, it could be because it’s that powerful
and different. If everyone agrees, it’s probably because you’re not doing
anything original.
I had the personality that never liked school and rejected the normal way of
doing things. Even when I was in school, I’d try to make up alternative solutions
to math problems. When I was at Google, they had this huge focus on academia.
Grades were super-important. Getting good grades at a good school is one
filter of brains, but it might also suggest you like following rules.
Another thing is that luck comes in many forms—and often looks bad at
first. I always look back on the deals that we didn’t do and the things that didn’t
work out, and realize what seemed like a bummer at the time was really lucky.
Like the early acquisition opportunities. These obviously would have been
really bad, as opposed to what happened later. Through that whole experience
that’s one of the biggest things that I’ve taken away: if you have some plan and
it doesn’t go that way, roll with it. There’s no way to know if it’s good or bad until
later, if ever.
Livingston: What was the most surprising thing?