#2 Larry Page

Google, the search engine giant was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They monetize their product carefully, keeping things simple and expanded their services, especially Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps.

Incident:

Page missed an opportunity to dominate the social networking web revolution even though he saw the potential of social networks. The search giant had offered $30,000,000 to buy Friendster, the social networking site in 2003 but didn’t sell.

Larry Page should have used his position as “President of Products” to develop Friendster but he didn’t. Neither did Google Buzz nor Google Plus succeed in becoming a social networking site in the market. If Google had used its team of developers and resources, Facebook really wouldn’t have stood a chance.

What You Can Learn:

According to Page, he “Knew he had to do something” with social networking. Since Friendster declined to be bought out by Google, Page gave up on Google having a social network.

Never make the same mistake. Next time if you definitely know that your business is missing out on a big opportunity, never stop, capitalize on it.

Read more: 8 Best Industries for Indian Startups in 2013

Read more: 5 Quick Tips to Woo Every Investor