Huang Renxun's latest advice: Find a skill, and spend a lifetime perfecting and honing it!

Huang Renxun's biggest lesson in his career did not come from a mentor or a tech company CEO, but from a gardener he met during his international travels.

During a recent graduation ceremony at the California Institute of Technology, Huang Renxun shared a small story from his trip to Kyoto, Japan. While on a family vacation, he noticed a gardener working under the scorching sun in the moss garden of the Ginkaku-ji Temple in Kyoto. The gardener carefully removed dead moss with bamboo tweezers, placing them in a bamboo basket, and told Huang Renxun, "I have plenty of time." In the vast garden, the gardener had been taking care of it alone for 25 years.

Huang Renxun said that their interaction was brief, but the gardener's words became one of the "most profound lessons" in his life.

From this experience, Huang Renxun learned that when you dedicate yourself to your craft and lifelong career, you will have enough time, just like the gardener at Ginkaku-ji Temple. He said, "When others apologize for interrupting me, I always say, 'I have plenty of time.'" He encouraged the graduates to do something non-traditional and unexplored, but with solid reasoning, and then wholeheartedly pursue it.

"I always say I have plenty of time, and indeed I do," Huang Renxun said.

By managing his time effectively, he is able to focus on what matters most to him: helping his employees grow and develop.

"That's how I spend every morning," he said. "Every morning, I tackle the most important tasks first. Even before starting work, my day is already successful. I have completed the most important work and can spend the rest of the day helping others. When people apologize for disturbing me, I always say, 'I have plenty of time.' And I truly do have plenty of time."

Experts unanimously agree that people often do not allocate enough time for their top priorities, according to Rainer Strack, Honorary Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group, in an interview with Make It in January. He added that this could lead to unhappiness, stress, and fatigue.

To address this issue, Strack suggests writing down your daily activities, rating them on a scale of 1 to 10 based on their importance and satisfaction they bring you. Then, consider how much time you actually spend on each activity per week.

If you find that your passion is being neglected, Strack advises making necessary changes to your daily life.

"Find a skill you are willing to perfect for a lifetime,"

Since its founding 31 years ago, Nvidia has grown into a tech giant, providing support to companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Tesla, and OpenAI.

Huang Renxun is the company's only CEO, facing multiple obstacles: Nvidia's first graphics processing unit nearly led the company to bankruptcy, and many of the partnerships and licensing agreements he reached during this process ended in failure.

Nevertheless, under his leadership, Nvidia became one of the few companies globally to surpass a market value of $3 trillion last week Huang Renxun's final piece of advice in his graduation speech reflects his determination to persevere.

"You may find your NVIDIA. I hope you will see setbacks as new opportunities," Huang Renxun told the graduates, emphasizing that intelligence is not the most important factor, but the ability to endure pain and torture is another skill. He looks forward to the graduates finding a craft and dedicating their lives to perfecting and honing it.

Lastly, he reminds the graduates to prioritize their own lives, as there are too many things happening in the world, too many things to do. By prioritizing their own lives, they will have enough time to accomplish their careers