Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says if you want to be successful, prepare to suffer: ‘If it’s a walk in the park, anybody could do it’

Nvidia’s climb from a booth-side idea at Denny’s to the world’s most valuable company has become one of the signature stories of the AI boom. Jensen Huang thinks the hidden ingredient is less glamorous than the valuation: suffering.

Speaking with the Korea Society late last month, Huang said building something exceptional means enduring hard stretches. “If it’s a walk in the park, anybody could do it,” he said. Early on, that meant not knowing enough. Later, it meant setbacks, doubters, customers who weren’t convinced, and a market that didn’t always buy the story.

But he’s not romanticizing misery for its own sake. Huang said resilience is what makes the pain useful, along with stubbornness and determination. He has made the same point before, including in 2024 at Stanford, where he told students that high expectations can come with low resilience, and that resilience matters in success.

The work habits match the message. Huang has said he works seven days a week, holidays included, because he’s still afraid Nvidia could fail. On Joe Rogan’s podcast last year, he said he has used the phrase “30 days from going out of business” for 33 years, and that the feeling of vulnerability never really fades.

That view isn’t unique to Huang. Ray Dalio has argued that pain plus reflection leads to progress, and Harvey cofounder Winston Weinberg has said failure is part of learning. Huang just says the quiet part out loud: building big things is supposed to hurt a bit.