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"People with high expectations have low resilience. Unfortunately, resilience matters in success...I don't know how to teach it to you except for, 'I hope suffering happens to you"
That was a video clip from Jensen Huang, at Stanford University in March 2024. You can find the link to the whole video on the show notes below.
Jensen Huang is the co-founder, president and CEO of Nvidia, the company that designs the microchips that are powering Artificial Intelligence. As of March 2024, Jensen Huang's net worth was estimated to be about $82 billion, making him the 17th richest person in the world.
And in case you didn't know, Nvidia is worth over 2 Trillion dollars and it's the third most valuable company in the world.
I thought that his comment was unique because, most of the time when I see business leaders talking to students, their main message is to follow their dreams. This is the first time I hear a leader wishing students of a university to endure pain and suffering.
"greatness comes from character & character...is formed out of people who suffered. I wish upon you ample doses of pain & suffering"
Jensen Huang came from a humble background. His first job was at Denny's at age 15 where he worked as a dishwasher and he bragged about being the best dishwasher ever.
Of course the road from dishwasher to being the CEO of one of the top three most valuable companies in the world is full of challenges.
For any person who wants to be as successful as they possibly can, they will naturally face pain and suffering. It's part of the growing process, there is no way to avoid it. The only thing that I could add, is to embrace the pain and suffering as the price of success. As Jensen Huang said he welcomes pain and suffering with great glee.
And my final words is to embrace the challenges that life throws your way.