Jensen Huang explains what people misunderstand about happiness and building something great

“There’s a phrase that says you should choose your career based on your passion. And usually people connect passion with happiness… Nothing there is wrong, but there’s something missing. And the reason for that is because when you want to build something great, it’s not easy to do. And when you’re doing something that’s not easy to do, you’re not always enjoying it.”

Jensen continues:

“I don’t love every day of my job… And every day I’m not happy… But I love the company every single second. And so I think what people misunderstand is [they think] the best jobs are the ones that bring you happiness all the time. I don’t think that’s right. You have to suffer. You have to struggle. You have to endeavor. You have to do those hard things and work through it in order to really appreciate what you’ve done. There’s no such thing that is great that was easy to do.”

He tells the audience:

“I wish upon you greatness, which by my way of saying it, I wish upon you plenty of pain and suffering.”

Full video: Stripe “A conversation with NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang“ (May 2024)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Jensen Huang insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Jensen Huang"