SUCCESS STORY
The Wojcicki Genes
By Elizabeth Grodahl | Biochemistry/Molecular Biology Major
Anne Wojcicki sat down at the dinner table to edit the school newspaper with her sisters, Janet and Susan. Their mother had strongly encouraged them to take a journalism class. She knew that none of her daughters would become journalists but she always thought, “if they could learn to write well, it would help them think clearly — which would help them in any profession they chose” (Sellers). Their mother turned out to be correct. She had her own way of raising her daughters and her daughters benefited greatly. Wojcicki’s sisters grew up to be an award winning pediatrician and the cofounder of Youtube. Anne became the founder of her own personal genome company 23 and Me. She attended Yale University and became famous for a whole different reason besides her own company that most would not expect. Anne Wojcicki’s familial connections, education, and opportunities helped her achieve her level of success.
Everyone in the Wojcicki family turned out to be successful. Starting with their father being a physics professor at Stanford and their mother also being an educator, all three sisters learned to become hard workers and excelled greatly in their business endeavors. Her sister Susan became the chief executive of Google in 1999 and helped develop YouTube in 2005. Her sister Janet won her Fulbright Award for her work as a pediatrician. Anne was surrounded by success. How did it effect her own? Family can have a much greater impact on an individual’s success than one would imagine. An encouraging environment can help build up while one where the odds seemed stacked against the individual can seem a detriment.
Sarah Clark experienced this first hand. Eric Adler’s Sarah’s Hope captures Sarah’s life in a narrative. Straight A student, a little quiet, slightly over weight, she wanted nothing more than to be a cheerleader. She practiced day and night until tryouts came. Later that night she sat by the phone, 7:00… 7:15… 7:30… nothing. Sarah began to lose hope but at 7:45, the phone rang. She leapt up and answered the phone. “Congratulations…” (Adler). The story goes that Sarah wanted to be a cheerleader, more than anything in the world, but under the surface she wanted something more. She longed to become more than her parents were. Her father and stepfather were in jail for alcoholism and her mother could barely support her and her brothers. Drunk, her stepfather Randy drove Sarah and her friend home and threatened to take out the shot gun if they did not shut up after she had had the best night of her life cheering on her team. Sarah’s mother began to spend their $50,000 check from Social Security Administration frivolously. Sarah’s situation was not an easy one but, being stuck in a terrible family situation is what fueled her to work hard to become a success.
Wojcicki grew up in a family overflowing with success. Both her parents and both of her sisters were all very successful. She was inspired by them to continue to work hard and to work towards what she wanted. She knew the idea of personal genomics was an outlandish idea but that did not shy her away from establishing it anyway. Many critics came after her but she stood her ground and now for only $99, anyone can find out more than they ever thought they could about their personal history and health. Whether coming from a family in prosperity or in hardship, family plays a significant role in one’s success.
Biology is not an easy major. Not for Wojcicki and not for Caroline Sacks. Caroline was an average freshman in college. She walked down the hallway to her Introductory Chemistry class and was afraid of what was inside. She could not understand why the class was so difficult. She already had to drop it the previous semester and was retaking it this semester and she still wasn’t understanding it but everyone else in her class seemed to. Why couldn’t she? The issue was not her. She was clearly as smart and showed as much dedication as any of the other students otherwise she would not be there. She decided to attend a top Ivy League school so she would excel but it was just that which may have been her downfall. Caroline was a victim of what is known as the Big Fish-Little Pond Effect.
The Big Fish-Little Pond Effect (BFLPE) shows that students will thrive in a school that is less of a challenge rather than greater challenge. A logical conclusion but the majority of students when applying to colleges often choose the top rated schools and struggle to stay a float. Classes are more difficult sure, but most comes from comparing themselves to their peers. A student can be as brilliant as the any of the others they sit next to in class, but if they do not have the confidence that they can excel, they will not. Peer pressure is a strong inhibitor. Many studies have been conducted showing the results of this effect on students. The results from a cross-cultural study from Western, Asian, and Middle Eastern Islamic countries conducted through 7 phycologists concluded that BFLPE takes its toll across the globe (Marsh). Many children are inhibited by this effect. Comparing oneself to their fellow classmates’ success, using those amounts of success as a scale to their own which is often quite off balance. Every student has the potential to do better, the only thing holding them back most often is themselves. No one can escape peer pressure but it is possible to overcome it.
Wojcicki attended Yale University. Along with earning her B.S. in Biology, she participated in sports. She competed in ice skating and played on the varsity girls ice hockey team. A well rounded student but also a busy one. She made friends in her classes and on her teams but was often found spending long hours in her room studying until her mental stamina ran out. Biology was not an easy degree to obtain. She struggled in many of her classes and put in more work than many other students. In the end, she did it. She graduated with her B.S. in Biology and went on to conduct research in molecular biology at the National Health Institutes of Health and the University of California, San Diego with every intent of going to medical school. She planned to take the MCAT in 2000 but in the end, she decided to focus more on research. She became fascinated in how much one can learn about a person without ever seeing their face or hearing their story, just by their DNA. Wojcicki wondered who else shared that same level of inquiry, so she created 23 and Me to help answer those questions.
The stereotypical success story focuses on how the protagonist overcame all adversities in order to get to where they are today. These stories are often told from the perspective of looking back, but we often forget to really look back at the hardships. Success does not come easy and life is not as black and white as the “good” and the “bad.” Life is gray. What may seem as a detriment can end up being an advantage in the end. Many have experienced this phenomenon when they least expect it. A newlywed couple, sitting in the emergency room once again, waiting to hear the news about their son. The nurse takes them into a room, sits them down and says,
I wish you for the upcoming time, to create a happy family with a health problem of your son but who doesn’t have them right? Maybe not to the same extent but I think this is a cool challenge of fate, and if you can cope with it then there is a great satisfaction (Sliwiński).
This couple is experiencing the struggle of having a son with Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome, a disease of the central nervous system that can result in constant respiratory failure. The couple documented their journey and what started out as a time of despair and depression, turned into something wonderful. Tomasz Sliwiński, director and father commented, “We wanted to show that that even the worst moments of life can be turned into something positive, provided you do not lose hope.” (Sliwiński). Sliwiński and his wife were able to see past the hardships of their child’s illness and turn it into something that they both could learn from.
David Boies struggled with reading. He would always have to read slow and sound out words in order to understand them. Boies was a grown man in law school, he suffered from dyslexia. Suffered meaning he struggled with dyslexia but Boies was just the opposite. Sure it slowed him down, but he didn’t let it stop him. Boies graduated law school and became one of the most famous trial lawyers in the world. Although Boies was slow he was dedicated to learning the material. Books and notes that most law school students might skim over, David had no choice but to read. It took many hours of reading and rereading, but he memorized most concepts more concretely than a majority of his classmates. He analyzed a situation very throughly and knew the whole case better than anyone in the courtroom and could execute his points well. The journey to his success was not an easy one and many would not have thought possible, but he has proved many people wrong.
Wojcicki did not have any physical or mental illness but whether physical or emotional, many people still deal with disadvantages and she is no exception. Wojcicki did not become famous just for her company. She was known as the spouse of Google Cofounder, Sergey Brin in May 2007. Her company had been in operation for about a year and she had two kids of their own. As of August 2013, they are separated, not legally divorced and live in separate locations. While this would be heartbreaking for most, Wojcicki and Brin have learned to find the advantages within the situation. Wojcicki and Brin are still good friends and both strive to help each other in their business endeavors. They had signed a prenuptial that stated that nothing was to happen to either of their companies if they were to divorce. Wojcicki’s company is backed by Google and continues to be. While it may not have been the typical “happily-ever-after” story, it became a story of finding advantages in disadvantages. If she had not been put in this situation, her company may not have become as successful, she may have been a stranger to the public, and she would not have her two wonderful children. Advantages can be made from any disadvantages; whether the disadvantage is physical, emotional, or some combination of the two; one just needs to be willing to make them.
Late 2013, Wojcicki got a call from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA was unsure about the legitimacy of the results and refused to risk giving people false information and they told her that she must discontinue her service. Wojcicki complied but not without a fight. The FDA came in and analyzed the place, as scientists do on the terms that, “23andMe has to show that the test is indeed providing consumers the information it claims to identify, and that it’s interpreting the results in a valid way.” Wojcicki knew the tests were legitimate but she had to be patient until the FDA figured it out. Production of new kits were put on hold and everyone in the company was anxiously waiting. The FDA came back with the results. They approved the tests of 23 and Me but with a couple of restrictions. The company was not allowed to disclose and health related information. The FDA saw this as the job for the professional medical community to know and them alone. The company still sells their kits and offer their services but under more restrictions and with more caution. Wojcicki was saddened by this news, but she still continues the service because that is what people want. Consumers still use 23 and Me’s services in order to locate family and how we are all related. 23 and Me had created many connections that otherwise would never be discovered. All because of a determined woman who would let nothing get in the way of her own passion for personal genomics helping people.
Her family planted the seed in her, Yale made it grow, the FDA stood in her way and all this is how she became a success. In less than a decade, she has paved her own path to success. Her company continues to thrive and people keep making connections they never knew were possible. She has begun to pave the way for the ever growing field of personal genomics. If she can accomplish this in less than a decade, one can only imagine what the future holds for her and her company.
Works Cited
Adler, Eric. “Sarah’s Hope.”, Kansas City Star. The Star, Periodical. 2001
BACH, PETER B. “Code Breaker.” Town & Country 169.5413 (2015): 124–200. EBSCO MegaFILE. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
Bond, Michael. “The Secret of Success.” New Scientist Vol. 221 Issue 2959 (2014). Periodical. 1 March 2015
Gladwell, Malcolm. David and Goliath. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2013. Print
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2008. Print
Marsh, Herbert W.,Abduljabbar, Adel Salah, Morin, Alexandre J. S., Parker, Philip, Abdelfattah, Faisal, Nagengast, Benjamin, Abu-Hilal, Maher M.5et al. “The Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect: Generalizability Of Social Comparison Processes Over Two Age Cohorts From Western, Asian, And Middle Eastern Islamic Countries.” Journal Of Educational Psychology 107.1 (2015): 258–271. PsycARTICLES. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Our Curse. Tomasz Sliwiński. New York Times. 2015. nytimes.com. Web. 28 April 2015
Sellers, Patricia. “Before Google, the Wojcicki girls learned from Mom.” Fortune. Times Inc, 1 February 2012. Online. 30 April 2015.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Grodahl, a biochemistry/molecular biology major from Rochester, Minnesota, seeks to become a successful genetic counselor and researcher. Grodahl likes photography, a lazy day on the couch watching Netflix and going on long, thoughtful walks.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED
Success is not simply a “self-made man” story. Success stems from opportunities as well as hard work. Simply working hard does not always lead to success.
Advantages hide in disadvantages and disadvantages can result from advantages.
Family can play a huge role in one’s success story.
The Big-Fish Little-Pond Effect takes its toll on many students.
10,000 hours is what it takes to become an expert.
Success stories can be found anywhere.
Write to connect to the reader, drop them in a moment.
Name the dog, be specific.
“The Little Seagull Handbook” knows all about writing a paper.
Write sentences that have never been written before.
Good writers know what to leave out.
Papers are 60% research, 40% your own analysis.
Let the reader make his own opinion about your characters.
Great stories start with a question the story will answer.
Appeal to all the senses when telling a story.
Leave the reader gold coins in the story. Keep them coming back for more.
Connect to the reader on an emotional level.
As Elizabeth finished scribbing her last thought onto her piece of looseleaf notebook paper, her professor proclaimed, “It’s time to share.” The whole room sat in silence. As the silence lingered she contemplated reading what she had wrote. The first word came out of her mouth and she began reading. It was a short piece she wrote about how she decided to drop her Calculus 2 class for the semester, only a few sentences, but she read it anyway. The class snapped and she felt proud of herself. She had never felt comfortable about her writing or even speaking in a class setting but once she heard those snaps, she knew they were for her. No feedback positive or negative, just snaps and that is all she needed.
