Google Founders use Power Leap to take back the AOL Deal from Yahoo

The Milestone Hotel on this Blox is where Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin did a power move on AOL to take back a deal that was lost to Yahoo.

Below is a snippet from Yu-kai Chou's 2nd Book, "10,000 Hours of Play":

Warrior Skill: Power Leap

Sergey Brin, a Co-Founder of Google, effectively utilized another dynamic Warrior Skill known as Power Leap to expand Google’s advertising business. This Skill involves taking the bold initiative to travel directly to someone’s location for a face-to-face meeting without a prior invitation, a higher-tier upgrade to the Warrior Skill: Charge, which entails boldly approaching someone directly when they are in front of you.

A notable instance occurred immediately after Google’s IPO in 2004. While on their private jet to Spain, the Google Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page learned the bad news that Yahoo had beaten Google in securing an exclusive deal to provide ads for AOL’s European Internet service. Eager to secure the deal, Sergey Brin messaged Philip Rowley, then Head of AOL Europe, and announced that they were diverting their flight to London to meet with him that very day.

Unfortunately, Rowley firmly rejected their request, stating that AOL had already concluded the deal with Yahoo. Rowley remarked with resolve, “That is the way it is going to go. The process is done.” Taking fortune into his own hands, Brin refused to accept no for an answer. As his flight continued to soar towards London, he persisted, asking Rowley for a meeting location and time later that day. This Power Leap left Rowley uncertain of what to do, prompting him to contact Jon Miller, the CEO of AOL in Virginia. Although Miller was intrigued, he reminded Rowley that they had already committed to Yahoo and it would not be good to go back on their word. Nonetheless, he advised Rowley to meet with the forceful Google Founders to see what they had to say.

In a private meeting at the Milestone Hotel in London, Brin and Page presented a much more attractive offer to Rowley. Subsequently, Miller advised his team, “The right thing is to let Yahoo get in the game.” They informed Yahoo that Google had made a much better offer and asked if Yahoo wanted to increase their bid. Yahoo, understandably upset and lacking the Power Leap Skill themselves, declined to enter a bidding war. As a result, Google transformed what seemed like a lost battle against Yahoo into a victory over AOL Europe, all thanks to the Power Leap. Rowley later commented, “Their physical presence made a big difference. You want to be able to trust the people you are going to work with. We were just getting to know Google from the European side of AOL, and for them to come over was really, really helpful,” despite his initial firm rejection of the visit. His Divine Shield was not strong enough against Brin’s Power Leap.

Although Power Leaps can be extremely powerful - as you will see in more examples later in this book - they also represent a high-risk, high-reward ability. Much like in games, if you Power Leap to the wrong place at the wrong time, you might not achieve the desired results and may be caught out of position - losing precious time and resources. Thus, a master of any skill is not simply someone who uses it all the time, but also someone who knows when not to use it.