“I don’t want you to just be smart,” says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as he shares essential lessons for students

At Stanford’s SIEPR Economic Summit, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urged students to embrace adversity, declaring that character, not intelligence, is the true foundation of greatness. Drawing from his own struggles, he stressed that resilience forged through hardship equips leaders to navigate life’s toughest challenges, warning that avoiding discomfort risks leaving brilliance fragile and unprepared.