i wish you ample doses of pain and suffering.
“I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering.”
That was jensen huang, ceo of nvidia, speaking to stanford students in 2024. his full quote: “greatness comes from character. and character isn’t formed out of smart people, it’s formed out of people who suffered.”
Reflecting on the last decade of my life, from 2016 to 2026, i finally understand what he means.
The dark moments: friendship and relationship breakups. big failures. goals i worked hard for and didn’t reach. injuries. stretches of very low self-esteem from bullying and constantly comparing myself to everyone around me.
In those moments it’s easy to feel like the pain has no purpose. but every single one of those moments became fuel. every failure made me hungrier. every loss made me want to prove something. every moment things didn’t go my way forced me to find a better way.
What i keep coming back to is the proportionality of it all. the bigger the suffering, the bigger the win on the other side. the larger the hardship, the larger the celebration. the things that hurt the most have produced the biggest leaps forward.
I can’t wait to be challenged again, to fail again, because i know what comes after. the glory hits different when you know what it cost you.
Because of that i wish you ample pain and suffering. i mean that with love.
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