A short excerpt from a YouTube talk by Jensen Huang (recorded March 6, 2025) giving closing advice to prospective founders: money should be the only single reason not to start a company, and founders should be driven by passion, conviction in a unique perspective, and willingness to persevere rather than by ideas or financial gain.
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I hope that if I leave you with anything, money is the only singular reason not to start the company. Because starting companies, it's a very, very unlikely probability for success. And so that is your reason for doing it. You will likely regret the experience. You should start the company and build a company because you so believe in your idea, you're so passionate about it, and you want to build something great. I have plenty of money, but it doesn't motivate me, nor does it demotivate me. So I would urge you to ask yourself and for your friends to ask themselves, what is the purpose that they want to start a company? Ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen. There are so many ideas. If you want ideas, you're going to get a lot of ideas in this room. And so ideas don't really matter. You have to have a perspective that's unique, that you feel really strongly about it, that you're willing to persevere. Almost any challenge to make it happen. That's the reason why you should start. Okay, thank you, everybody.