Esther Wojcicki

Chief Education Advisor at Knack | Chief Academic Adviser @ Pressto.ai | Author | Journalist | Educator

I had an incredible meeting with Esther Wojcicki, "godmother of Silicon Valley", educator, and parenting expert of her three successful daughters!

Before I share my learnings, here's a bit about Esther: Susan Wojcicki, the oldest of Esther’s three daughters, was Google’s 16th employee and the former CEO of YouTube. Her middle child, Janet Wojcicki, followed the academic route by researching early-life risk factors for obesity at the University of California, San Francisco. And the youngest, Anne Wojcicki, co-founded 23andMe, a $2.5 billion genomics company.

Here are my top 3 takeaways from my conversation with Esther 🚀

1. “Humans are innately self-interested.” People don't work just to make OTHERS happy. Ultimately, we're drawn to doing things to make ourselves happy.
2. “When you're doing something that no one has done before, you MUST to believe in yourself.” Many billion dollar companies never get started because of doubt and fear - it's the only stopping you from achieving your purpose.
3. “We're all journalists because we all THINK.” At the core, journalism is simply intentional thinking, a skill we must all acquire to succeed.

Esther, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and stories!