Sometimes, it pays to think big. Talk to Sergey Brin, one of the founders of Google, and it quickly becomes clear that he does not want to be constrained by the normal measures of success that define daily existence for most of humanity. “We try to pursue big rewards, either in terms of building the business or for outcomes for the world,” he says.

Mr Brin and co-founder Larry Page, both still only 32, have never been shy about their outsize ambitions. “Making the world a better place” was one of the goals they laid out in an unusual statement at the time of their company’s debut on Wall Street last year and that idea is never far from the surface.