In a recent interview with Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Huang reflected on his early career working minimum wage jobs to explain how he has developed the work ethic to succeed as a CEO.
“No task is beneath me … remember I used to be a dish washer,” Huang said.
Huang was referring to his first job at Denny’s, which he jokingly called his “alma mater.”
“I was probably Denny’s best dish washer … I washed the living daylights out of the dishes,” he said.
Huang later came up with the idea for Nvidia over a meal at a Denny’s restaurant with his cofounders Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem in 1993.
He presented the idea to his previous employer Wilfred Corrigan, then-CEO of LSI Logic, who called it “one of the worst elevator pitches he’s ever heard,” Huang said.
But Corrigan still convinced the founder of Sequoia Capital, Don Valentine, to invest in Nvidia because of Huang’s strong work ethic.
Huang said he has worked just as hard as a corporate employee as he did cleaning toilets in the past — and he made sure the audience knew that it was a lot of toilets. “I have cleaned more toilets than all of you combined,” he joked.
Talking onstage, donning his trademark leather jacket, Huang said execs should be approachable to their employees.
Instead of isolating themselves, he said that CEOs should have the most direct reports — he has 50 people he manages directly. He said he encourages employees of all levels to share their feedback and come to him for help.
Still, he has previously acknowledged that running a company is far from easy.
Starting Nvidia “was a million times harder. than he expected, he said on an episode of the tech podcast “Acquired” last year. “No one in their right mind would do it,” he added.
