ECSI Digital

In 1999, two Stanford grad students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, tried to sell their young search engine to a company called Excite.

Their project, then called Google, was making waves for its lightning-fast, accurate search results.

But Larry and Sergey weren’t sure about running a business, so they offered to sell Google for $1 million.

Excite, one of the big web portals of the day, invited them to demonstrate why their search technology was special.

In the demo, Google’s results were so superior that it actually annoyed Excite’s CEO, George Bell.

He frowned at the screen as Google instantly delivered useful pages, while Excite’s own site gave junk results.

Bell finally shook his head and said, “It’s too good. People will find what they want and leave.”

He saw Google’s efficiency as a threat... it would make users spend less time on Excite.

He not only refused the deal, but even when the founders lowered the price to $750k, he still said no.

Google’s founders walked away disappointed but undeterred.

Of course, we know how the story ends: Google kept growing, became a giant worth over $1 trillion, and utterly transformed how the world finds information.

Excite, on the other hand, faded away; it was later sold off for scraps and is virtually unheard of now.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s idea, which was “too good,” ended up changing the internet.

Trust your vision.

Even if experts dismiss it, a truly good idea will draw people... and those who once rejected it might someday marvel at what they missed.