Nvidia's Jensen Huang believes you need to face 'pain and suffering' for success

Jensen Huang was asked how young ambitious graduates can improve their chances of success. Here's what he said.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shared advice with students at his alma mater, Stanford, on what they need to do in order to be successful. Jensen Huang, the cofounder and CEO of the $2.2 trillion chip manufacturing company, spoke at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research where he was asked how young ambitious graduates can improve their chances of success.

Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, talked about how success feels and what you need to do to become successful.

“I think one of my great advantages is that I have very low expectations”, he responded, adding, "Most of the Stanford graduates have very high expectations."

Jensen Huang on pain and suffering in life

Explaining that "graduating from one of the finest institutions on the planet" would elevate their expectations, he said, “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 this day I use the phrase 'pain and suffering' inside our company with great glee.”

Jensen Huang on happiness

He added, "I meant that in a happy way because you wanna refine the character of your company. You want greatness out of them, and greatness is not intelligence; greatness comes from character, and character isn't formed out of smart people. It's formed out of people who suffered."

Nvidia boss then joked, "For all of you Stanford students, I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering."

Jensen Huang on challenges he faced

On facing challenges, he had earlier said, "Back then, there wasn't a counselor to talk to. Back then, you just had to toughen up and move on."

The billionaire also told students that he worked many minimum wage jobs including as a dishwasher and even cleaned toilets.