Ray Zinn, founder of a Silicon Valley firm, went legally blind from a retinal vein occlusion in 1994, the night before his company's IPO. Rather than cancel it, he pushed through, sharpening his memory and learning to depend on his team. The blindness became a turning point that made him a better leader.
Chapters
So I guess with that, it's a good segue maybe to turn it over for some Q&A. I'm sure a lot of the entrepreneurs, you know, it's not every day you speak to a CEO of a longtime-serving Silicon Valley company. So maybe we'll turn it over to Q&A. Yes.
You may need a microphone for me to hear. I'm getting older.
Yes.
Come up closer if you want me to hear you. Do you have a microphone?
Yeah. Yeah.
Now I hear you.
I have— I'm not sure, am I allowed to ask this question, but I have learned that you have a challenge by your eyesight. So how did you overcome it? What's your advice from overcoming that challenge for you?
Thank you for bringing that one up. Yeah, I lost my vision in 1994. I had a retinal vein occlusion and it cost me my eyesight. So I have— I'm legally blind, but I don't— most people don't know that. Most people don't know that I can't see very well. And at first I didn't know if I was going to overcome it. It was a tragedy. It was something that That was, it was on the night that we were supposed to go public. And we thought about maybe unwinding the IPO because, you know, I didn't think if I could run the company as a blind person. And so that was a big concern that I had and I had to think about it and talk to my family and then decided, well, you know, all of us faced obstacles. There's not one of us that doesn't have a challenge. And I thought, hey, this is a good way 'cause I'm used to doing tough things. This is definitely gonna be one of the toughest things I've had to deal with is running a company when I'm legally blind. So I just had to enhance my memory, I had to memorize everything. And that helped me because maybe I won't get Alzheimer's now. So it just improved my memory and it also improved my ability to work with people because I became more sensitive to other people and their needs and their problems. And becoming more sensitive, more kind, more humble, more gentle, So that has helped me. And as a young entrepreneur, you know, I was kind of cocky and, you know, tackle the world. And when I lost my vision, I had to depend on other people. And I found out there's a lot of wonderful people out there other than myself. And so I was a grateful receiver of a lot of help and a lot of love from people who wanted to help me. Because I had this handicap and this difficulty. But most people don't know that I can't see very well. I don't let it be a handicap. A handicap is something that prevents you from doing something, and mine, my limited vision has not prevented me.
So I guess Ray, Ray was legally blind and he ran a, you know, $800 million market cap company. So what's your excuse?
Right? Yeah.
There you go. Well, Ray, I think— I'm sure on behalf of the students, I think we took away a lot of great things from your talk and really want to thank you for taking your time today to come address the students. Let's have a nice round of applause for Ray Zinn.
