Sure, 2% odds of success were far greater than what she bet on other start-ups at the time, but come on! Mayer was also drawn to Google for the fact that she would be the first female engineer
among a team of eight, as opposed to being the first female among 48 engineers at a different start-up. "The jeers she received when she visited that office were enough to turn her off," Fortune
writes. Now, Mayer, who joined Google when it had just 20 employees, helps run the technology giant, and its roughly 29,000 employees.
Along with scoring Mayer early on, what has made Google a success? Forward-thinking policies like its 20% rule, which encourages employees to spend 20% of their time developing new ideas, Mayer says, noting that about half of Google product launches originate during that 20% time.