Powerful Life Advice from Nvidia Co-founder (and Nietzsche!)

Nugget from Jensen Huang, & Friedrich Nietzsche

Hey Friend!

I’m writing this letter from my favorite Starbucks in Barcelona, Spain.

Today I bring you an absolutely brilliant insight from Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang.

I recently binged into many of his interviews, and this was definitely one of my highlights from him. It also connects perfectly with a quote from Nietzsche which I personally resonate with!

(I think I might even do a YouTube video on him, as he has so many nuggets!)

👤 Doer

💡Nugget

— 🎬 Video Source —

(Link to the full Interview)

— ✍️ Perfect Transcription + 💭 Reflections + 🎨 Visual —

[Interviewer — John Shoven]:

Stanford has a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs. Students that are entrepreneurs. And maybe they're Computer Science majors, or Engineering majors of some sort.

What advice would you give them to improve their chances of success?

🟠 [Jensen Huang]:

I think one of my great advantages is that I have very low expectations. And I mean that.

Most of the Stanford graduates have very high expectations. And you deserve to have high expectations because you came from a great school. You were very successful, you're top of your class, obviously you were able to pay for tuition, and then you're graduating from one of the finest institutions on the planet. You're surrounded by other kids that are just incredible. You naturally have very high expectations...

[But] People with very high expectations have very low resilience. And unfortunately, resilience matters in success. I don't know how to teach it to you except for... I hope suffering happens to you.

“To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities — I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, the wretchedness of the vanquished: I have no pity for them, because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not — that one endures.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche


”By endurance, we conquer.”

- Ernest Shackelton

And I was fortunate that I grew up with my parents providing a condition for us to be successful (on the one hand); but there were plenty of opportunities for setbacks and suffering...

And to this day, I use the phrase "pain and suffering" inside our company with great glee. And I mean that... You know "Boy, this is going to cause a lot of pain and suffering!" And I mean that in a happy way! Because you want to refine the character of your company. You want greatness out of them. And greatness is not intelligence (as you know).

Greatness comes from character. And character isn't formed out of smart people, it's formed out of people who suffered.

And so if I could wish upon you—I don't know how to do it, but—for all of you Stanford students, I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering.

I think many people automatically think that having low expectations is equivalent to not having ambition or a big vision for your life.

But this is a complete misconception...

You can both think big (as big as you want) and keep expectations low.

You can be driven to achieve something audacious, while also be prepared to expect failure after failure after failure.

As the saying goes: "Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." (supposedly attributed to Winston Churchill)

I think this also reflects perfectly the "Stockdale Paradox" in honor of James Stockdale — A US soldier prisoner who was captured in Vietnam and spent 7 years in captivity and torture.

He argues that the radical acceptance of the present realities combined with the optimism that he would eventually be released, was the key to his survival.

He noticed that the soldiers who only had hope of release (without acceptance of present realities) died quickly in prison.

[Embracing your current reality ==> Amorfati ==> Resilience] + Mission = Success

I also wrote a larger piece on this idea on my most recent essay (co-authored with Brian David Crane) - Check it out here!

💥 Stuff I Loved

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I hope you enjoyed today’s edition!

Happy Friday ;)

Julio xx

P.S. If you liked this article, you'll definitely enjoy my free 80-page ebook. It’s packed with 23 big ideas (from top influential doers and entrepreneurs) to become better, richer and wiser. Download your copy here!