Most people never get the chance to join an iconic company in its early days. Systrom squandered both of his, choosing instead to do something much less risky. For him, after graduating Stanford with degrees in management and engineering, going to Google was basically like going to grad school. He’d have a salary with a base of about $60,000—paltry compared to the life-changing wealth Facebook would have afforded—but he would get a crash course in Silicon Valley logic.
