Speech
2009 Commencement Address at Oregon State University
Jensen Huang returns to his alma mater with three wishes for the class of 2009: find joy in your work, embrace failure, and see the world like a child. He tells the story of NVIDIA's first, flawed technology and how being wrong shaped the company.
The recording
Video from Oregon State University, the original recording. Open on YouTube.
Quotes, in order
Each quote links to the moment it is said. A Verified source label means the words were checked against the recording; other quotes are the widely published wording of a passage, which can differ slightly from what was said.
So my first wish is for you to find joy in work, find work that gives you great joy, or just follow love with whatever work you do. That's the only way you're going to do your best work.
Verified source2009 Commencement Address at Oregon State University · Watch at 0:14 · Oregon State University on YouTube
Instead of working for a living, think of it as your life's work.
Verified source2009 Commencement Address at Oregon State University · Watch at 0:30 · Oregon State University on YouTube
Avoiding failure is not the same as achieving success.
Verified source2009 Commencement Address at Oregon State University · Watch at 1:26 · Oregon State University on YouTube
Failure is often on the path to success.
Verified source2009 Commencement Address at Oregon State University · Watch at 1:40 · Oregon State University on YouTube
We learned that we were not just a chip or a technology company. Nvidia was really a company at the intersection of technology and art.
Verified source2009 Commencement Address at Oregon State University · Watch at 3:22 · Oregon State University on YouTube
My last wish to you is to see the world like a child.
Verified source2009 Commencement Address at Oregon State University · Watch at 4:32 · Oregon State University on YouTube
We were young, naive, idealistic, we didn't know what we didn't know about building the industry and about building our company. We didn't know that it was impossible. We just imagined how great it would be if computers would do what we imagined.
Verified source2009 Commencement Address at Oregon State University · Watch at 6:13 · Oregon State University on YouTube
Our fresh and innocent perspective, unencumbered by conventional wisdom allowed us to see what thirty, forty, fifty other companies could not and did not.
Verified source2009 Commencement Address at Oregon State University · Watch at 6:30 · Oregon State University on YouTube
The recording is the university's own. We link to and embed it from the university's channel and quote short excerpts.