I would venture to say the name Jensen Huang doesn’t ring a bell to the average person. Up until about one year ago, I had no idea who he was or the world changing impact this man would have on the planet. He is one of my favorite people. I had the rare chance to listen to one of his recent interviews, and I listened to it repeatedly to get the full effect of his conversation.

Who is Jensen Huang?
He is the founder and CEO of the company Nvidia. Nvidia is the company that makes and sells the artificial intelligence chips that power A.I. technology. These computer chips are a precious commodity, and are hand delivered by armored trucks to buying customers. NVidia claims to have more than 80% of the market share in the A.I. chip market. His company became the third company in history to have a valuation of $3 Trillion dollars! Only Apple and Microsoft share that podium space.

Artificial Intelligence makes the headlines of almost every paper around the world each day. A.I. is our new “Industrial Revolution”. Let’s think about this. A.I. is a technology that produces incredible amounts of productivity muscle. Steam engines, tractors, heavy machinery, cranes, forklifts, and many more inventions gave us “superpower human strength.” A.I. technology lends us this same strength by allowing us to solve problems faster and increase productivity.

While incarcerated, I have been studying A.I. technology by reading books, and reading every article I come across in the Wall Street Journal about it’s uses, and the positive impact it’s having on other business sectors, especially energy! These super computers that fuel A.I. require tons of power, so there are billions of dollars being spent to build large data centers to power the A.I. engine. The cool factor about this sector is that our government is granting billions of dollars to assist these data centers built.

In the mid 90’s, I used to have a Sega Genesis gaming console. Sega Genesis competed against the PlayStation which ultimately succeeded where the Sega failed. Jensen Huang’s company NVidia was the manufacturer who made the computer chips for the Sega console. The chips made for Sega didn’t live up to the standards needed to beat PlayStation, and Nvidia lost the Sega contract. This proved detrimental to the business and put Nvidia on the path to bankruptcy.

During the time in which the plug was pulled from Sega, and the clarity of bankruptcy looming on the horizon, Mr. Huang receive a lifeline. A man who’s better known as “Iri” loaned him $5 million dollars to keep his company afloat. Mr. Iri was the former CEO of Sega at the time. Although the contract Nvidia had with Sega dissipated, Mr. Iri believed in Jensen Huang. He thought him full of passion.

That $5 million dollars saved Jensen Huang, and that money was paid back some years later through hard work and dedication. Mr. Iri’s gut instinct was right to believe in Jensen Huang. Fast forwarding to 2017, Mr. Iri dug up the old email of Jensen Huang. Mr. Iri got wind that Mr. Huang had sold the first A.I. supercomputer to Open A.I. in 2016, and Mr. Iri’s business team knew little about this space. He humbly asked Mr. Huang to fly to Japan and do a presentation to his group about A.I. technology. He graciously accepted the invitation.

Fast forward to present day, this one man who was months away from filing bankruptcy for what was considered a failed project is now worth $3 trillion dollars! This lends credibility that each success leads to the next failure, and each failure leads to the next success. There is no such thing as failure as long as we learn and grow from it. Adversity plants us, and allows us to build resilience through the setbacks.

I love Jensen Huang’s philosophy on A.I. and life. We must embrace and “democratize this technology.” “It’s less likely that A.I. will displace our jobs, but it is likely that someone who’s using A.I. will displace our jobs.”

I can guarantee if you are working for a business owner, or a large corporation, they are either already utilizing A.I. to grow and scale their business, or they are getting ready to begin this process. You have to be willing to ask yourself where will your value add to the company stand when A.I. tools are implemented? Are you as valuable today as you were yesterday? If not, what steps can you take “NOW” to be sure you are part of the dominos left standing when the extra weight is shaken off?

The question was asked to Mr. Huang regarding what he foresees the biggest problems that A.I. solves. He gave these two answers:

1. Digital Biology: New drug discovery. A.I. has allowed humans to learn the language of human proteins. It has allowed humans to be able to better understand uses of these agents. Research and development of new drugs is very expensive and the success rate is really low. A.I. can help speed up this process.
2. Understanding Climate Change: By using an A.I. climate simulator, humans can better understand and predict climate change and weather patterns. Weather predictions goes deeper than just knowing what the weather may be like in Costa Rica a year from now to help you better plan your vacation. A.I. goes much deeper. What about being able to accurately predict where the next California fires may ignite? A.I. can assist predicting viable agricultural seasons. How beneficial would that be for farmers to know what crops they should plant, and when? How could that trickle down and help lower food costs for everyone?

A.I. can assist where to invest in infrastructure for dams to be built because of flood risks. How could knowing this information flow downstream and lower flood insurance for consumers? A person may be thinking of starting a wine vineyard. Would it not be beneficial to know if this area had fertile soil, and the climate needed to grow certain fruits? The examples can be endless with how A.I. helps us to be smarter and more productive due to wisdom gained by understanding climate.

Jensen Huang stated that “The character of a company is the most important value.” He finds it important to live and talk those values. He described for the first 15 years of Nvidia, there were tons of adversity, but the people of the company make up the culture, but that leadership begins with him. He defines the company character.

On his philosophy on life, he urges everyone to find what you love to do, and learn to love what you’re doing. “It’s harder to find something that you love, but it’s easier to fall in love with what you’re doing. Because when you fall in love with what you’re doing, you desperately just want to do a good job at it, it’s easier to do it well, and do it hard.”

Jensen Huang is someone I am teaching my children about. No he’s not the world’s most famous soccer player, NBA superstar, or NFL legend, but he’s the silent maestro that is having an impact in all of those high profile athletes lives and they may not even know it.

He is evolving and revolutionizing sports because statisticians are utilizing A.I. to understand players better. What are players tendencies, what are their strengths, weaknesses, probabilities in certain situations, etc. I am a professional and amateur boxing coach, and will be running our non profit organization upon my release. I am looking forward to utilizing A.I. to do film studies of boxers, learn from the greats, and be able to teach and incorporate techniques at a more robust level.

A.I. will assist me in writing programming for boxing and fitness training. In addition, it will also assist me in writing a cognitive thinking curriculum for our non- profit that will be used to elevate the youth’s mind, and help prepare the youth for boxing beyond the ring.

All of these opportunities are now possible because of the vision and execution of Jensen Huang. He is a modern day revolutionizer that has single-handedly flipped the world upside down by providing us access to our new Industrial Revolution tool. A.I. gives us super human strength. Each day I study and learn more about this technology, the stronger I become. I believe we should not resist this type of technology because of fear, but we should embrace it and evolve.