Jensen Huang is known in Silicon Valley for his meticulous attention to detail, even as tech giant Nvidia’s market capitalization has grown to more than $3 trillion. But it was a chance meeting with a Japanese gardener that helped the CEO realize that he had time to become a perfectionist and not rush into the next project.
Billionaire entrepreneur Huang told the story Friday at Caltech’s 130th event. The ceremony began in Pasadena. He told the students that he worked at one of Nvidia’s overseas offices for one month of the year every summer, and his family would join him on the trip.
According to Huang, one such visit was to Japan, where the family spent a weekend in Kyoto and visited the Silver Temple and Moss Garden.
“The day we visited was a typical summer day in Kyoto,” Huang recalls. “It’s stiflingly hot and humid, sticky – the heat comes from the ground. Along with other tourists, we wandered through a carefully tended moss garden.
“I noticed a lonely gardener. Remember…the moss garden is huge…and beautifully cared for. I noticed a lone gardener squatting, carefully picking at moss with bamboo tweezers and placing it in a bamboo basket. The basket looked empty—for a moment I thought he was gathering imaginary moss into a pile of imaginary dead moss.”
Huang, who is worth $116 billion according to Bloomberg Billionaires Indexcontinued: “I walked up to him and said, ‘What are you doing?’ He said: “I am collecting dead moss. I take care of my garden.” And I said, “But your garden is so big?” He replied: “I’ve been tending my garden for 25 years, I have a lot of time.”
Juan’s company, founded in 1993, now employs more than 26,000 people, and Juan, 61, said it was the feelings of this lonely gardener that made him realize he could support them.
Dubbed “the Taylor Swift of tech” by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO explained: “It was one of the most profound learning experiences of my life. This gardener is dedicated to his craft and his life’s work – when you do that, you have a lot of time.
“I start every morning—and do every morning—by doing my highest priority work. Before I even get to work, my day is already a success,” he added. “I have already completed my most important work and can devote my day to helping others. When people apologize for interrupting me, I always say, “I have plenty of time.”
“I’m a very good boss”
It was no coincidence that Huang, an Oregon State University and Stanford graduate, was speaking at Caltech—after all, Nvidia Chief Scientists David Kirk and Bill Dally are graduates of the school.
And Juan, who started his working life as a waiter, is clearly hoping to find similar talent in recent graduates, telling students he is hiring them.
Among the reasons to work for Nvidia, whose shares have risen in price 173% just this year to dateJuan said, was that it was a “great company” and that he was a “very good boss” whom “everyone likes.”
And while Huang’s employees have no shortage of respect for their fearless leader, Huang has previously said he knows he can be a difficult boss.
During an interview with 60 minutes Earlier this year, Huang, who owns about 3.5% of the chip giant, said he was “demanding”, a “perfectionist” and “not easy to work for” and was a “perfect” fit.
The CEO even welcomed the feedback, saying, “That’s the way it should be. If you want to do extraordinary things, it shouldn’t be easy.”