IT fire? Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin Tried It, Now He Calls It His Worst Decision
Google co-founder Sergey Brin once chose the FIRE dream – in which you save money and become financially independent in order to retire early. However, Brin’s retirement was not what he had hoped for. The Google co-founder admitted that it was his worst decision.
The Internet today is full of people talking about financial security. A movement called FIRE is quite popular. FIRE means becoming financially independent early. It focuses on building enough savings and strong financial assets so that you can retire at age 40 instead of working until you cross 60. Now, for most of us, this sounds like a dream – work until you turn 40 and then enjoy life. But sometimes, the story can be very different. Google co-founder Sergey Brin calls it his worst decision.
Sergei Brin’s FIRE plan collapses due to COVID-19
During his appearance at Stanford Engineering’s centennial event held this month, Sergei Brin was asked about his definition of the good life. As Brin described what he feels is a good life, he spoke candidly about his retirement in January 2020 at the age of 46.
At the time, the Google co-founder had much in mind for his retirement life, just as supporters of the FIRE movement might have thought. He planned to pursue his passion of studying physics at the café. But the timing could not have been worse. Not only this, Brin admitted that this was his worst decision. He explained, “I actually retired a month before COVID hit, and it was like the worst decision. My thinking was I would sit in cafes and study physics, which was my passion at the time. And yes, it didn’t work out because there were no cafes anymore.”
Sergey Brin says he made a lot of progress after retirement
It seems the lockdown has taken a heavy toll on Sergey Brin, who is finding it increasingly difficult to stay away from work. He said, “I was just kind of stewing and feeling like I was wandering around, not doing anything sharp. And then I said, ‘Oh, I have to go back to the office.'”
Ultimately, Brin decided to give up on the FIRE dream and soon started going back to the office. Sergey Brin’s return to Google really helped shape Gemini, which is now one of the most widely used large language models (LLMs) in the world. “After several months, we started having a few people go to the office, and I started doing that occasionally,” Brin said, “then started spending more and more time on what came to be known as Gemini.”
The Google co-founder emphasizes that he enjoys going to work because he can again have a “creative outlet”, which he missed during his retirement. And it seems Sergey Brin has no regrets about leaving the FIRE dream behind. He concluded, “If I want to stay retired,
I think that would have been a big mistake.”
So what is a good life?
Coming back to the first question, according to Brin, a good life is one where you are able to “enjoy your life and everything you create.” Instead of chasing early retirement and financial security, the Google co-founder is happy spending time with his family while still working on something that challenges him. “I feel grateful to be able to spend quality time with them (family). I feel very grateful to be able to be intellectually challenged at this level,” he said.
