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We are often told that setting the bar high is key to success. After all, if you shoot for the moon and miss, at least you\u2019ll land with the stars. But Nvidia\u2019s CEO Jensen Huang wants privileged Gen Z grads to lower their expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople with very high expectations have very low resilience\u2014and unfortunately, resilience matters in success,\u201d Huang said during a recent interview<\/a> with Stanford Graduate School of Business. \u201cOne of my great advantages is that I have very low expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, as the billionaire boss pointed out, those at elite institutions like Stanford probably have higher expectations for their future than your average Joe.\u00a0<\/p>\n The university is one of the most selective in the United States\u2014it ranks third best in the country<\/a>, according to the QS World University Rankings, and the few students who get picked to study there are charged $62,484<\/a> in tuition fees for the premium, compared to the average $26,027 per annum cost.<\/a><\/p>\n But, unfortunately for those saddled with student debt, not even the best universities in the world can teach you resilience.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how to teach it to you except for I hope suffering happens to you,\u201d Huang added.<\/p>\n Huang\u2019s advice for America\u2019s next-gen elite comes from a place of experience: His life now is a world away from his childhood, which was, by his own admission, steeped in adversity.\u00a0<\/p>\n The tech genius\u2014who with a net worth of $80 billion is one of the world\u2019s wealthiest people\u2014was born in Taiwan in 1963 and spent the bulk of his early life in Thailand, before moving to the U.S. at 9 years old.<\/p>\n His serendipitous Stateside move came after his dad, who worked for an air conditioner manufacturer, did some training in the country and set his sights on the American dream.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI was fortunate that I grew up with my parents providing a condition for us to be successful on the one hand,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there were plenty of opportunities for setbacks and suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n One example of Huang\u2019s hardship was his daily high school experience: The teenager had to cross a dangerous footbridge with missing planks over a river to get to his public school in Kentucky where he was then relentlessly tormented.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe way you described Chinese people back then was \u2018Ch-nks,\u2019 \u201d Huang previously told the New Yorker<\/em><\/a>, adding that bullies even tried to toss him off the bridge.<\/p>\n In the Stanford interview, he also credited his success and work ethic with his first job at Denny\u2019s where he was the \u201cbest dishwasher<\/a>\u201d, before getting promoted to busboy and giving that his \u201cbest\u201d also.<\/p>\nHuang overcame adversity to succeed<\/h2>\n