funny how the story goes little hope but bigger dreams they try to bring the suckers
down singing on the crowd we imagine the
world in which the vast majority of
people wake up every single morning
inspired to go to work and return home
fulfilled at the end of the day we as an
organization see ourselves as leading a
movement to build this world we want as
many people as possible to start with
why to become the leaders they wish they
had so that they can build the
organizations that put people first but
we know we can't do it alone which is
why we're looking for as many people as
possible to join us because we know that
together is better one of my biggest
memories of Harvard came in January 1975
when I made a call from career house to
a company in Albuquerque New Mexico that
had begun making the world's first
personal computer
I offered to sell them software I
worried they would realize I was just a
student in a dorm and hang up on me
instead they said we're not quite ready
come see us in a month which was a good
thing because we hadn't written the
software yet from that moment I work day
and night on the extra-credit project
that marked the end of my college
education and the beginning of a
remarkable journey with Microsoft but
taking a serious look back I do have one
big regret I left Harvard with no real
awareness of the awful inequities in the
world the appalling disparities of
health and wealth an opportunity that
condemned millions of people the lives
of despair I learned a lot here at
Harvard about new ideas and economics
and politics
I got great exposure to the advances be
made in the sciences but humanity's
greatest advances are not and
discoveries but in how those discoveries
are applied to reduce inequity whether
through democracy strong public
education quality health care our broad
economic opportunity
reducing inequity is the highest human
achievement the thing is it never even
occurred to me that that someone might
be us we were just college kids we
didn't know anything about that there
were all these great big technology
companies with all these resources and I
just assumed one of them would do it but
this idea was so clear to us so we just
kept working on it
day after day after day and I know that
a lot of you are gonna have your own
stories just like this a change in the
world that seems so clear that you are
sure someone else is going to do it but
they're not you will but it's not enough
to have that purpose yourself you also
have to create a sense of purpose for
others and I found that out the hard way
you see my hope was never to build a
company I wanted to have an impact and
as all these people started joining us I
just assumed that that's what they
wanted to do too so I never took the
time to explain what it was that I hoped
we'd build a couple years in some big
companies wanted to buy us I didn't want
to sell I wanted to see if we could
connect more people and we were building
the first version of newsfeed at the
time and I thought if we could just
launch this it could change how we all
learn about the world nearly everyone
else wanted to sell without a sense of
higher purpose
this was their startup dream come true
and it tore our company apart after one
particularly tense argument one of my
closest advisors told me if I didn't
agree to sell the company right now I
would regret that decision for the rest
of my life relationships were so afraid
that within a year or so every single
person on our management team was gone
that was my hardest time meeting
Facebook now years later I understand it
that is how
things work when there's no sense of
higher purpose so it's up to all of us
to create it so we can all keep moving
forward together in our society we often
don't take on big things because we're
so afraid of making mistakes that we
ignore all the things wrong today if we
do nothing the reality is anything we do
today is gonna have some issues in the
future but that can't stop us from
getting started so what are we waiting
for
it is time for our generation defining
great works how about stopping climate
change before we destroy the planet and
getting millions of people involved
manufacturing and installing solar
panels how about curing all diseases and
getting people involved by asking
volunteers to share their health data
track their health data and share their
genomes you know today our society
spends more than 50 times as much
treating people who are sick as we
invest in finding cures so people get
sick in the first place it makes no
sense we can fix this change starts
local even global change starts small
with people like us in our generation
the struggle of whether we connect more
what do we achieve our greatest
opportunities comes down to this your
ability to build communities and create
a world where every single person has a
sense of purpose you likely also have an
informed conscience that will torment
you if you abandon these people whose
lives you could change with modest
efforts you have more than we had you
must start sooner and carry on longer
and I hope you will come back here to
Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on
what you've done with your talent and
your energy I hope you will judge
yourselves not on your professional
accomplishments alone
but also on how well you have addressed
the world's deepest inequities on how
well you treated people a world away who
have nothing in common with you but
their humanity it's a funny thing with
these social impact businesses I feel
like I'd actually really love to work at
one so I've put in a lot of work trying
to find them apart from huge companies
like Google Facebook McKinsey Salesforce
it's really tough to find places where
they actually make social impact so
don't think it's going to secret that
I'm getting out of school in a few
months well ten months and obviously I
need to find a job I need to find
somewhere I want to work and simon Sinek
says that because I'm an lineal I want
something that has meaning I don't think
it's just because I'm a millennial but
it would make me way more motivated to
put my heart and soul into my work if I
knew that something good was coming from
me we want to work in a place with
purpose love that we want to make an
impact you know whatever that means
somebody articulates some sort of
purpose there's lots of free food and
yet for some reason they're still not
happy you want to go on a date you don't
even have to learn how to be like you
don't even have to learn and practice
that skill you don't have to be the
uncomfortable and which this is yes when
you mean no one says no when you mean no
but yes when you you have to swipe right
bang I'm a stud right you don't have to
learn the social coping mechanisms right
everything you want you can have
instantaneously everything you want
instant gratification except job
satisfaction and strength of
relationships
there ain't no app for that I keep
meeting these wonderful fantastic
idealistic hard-working smart kids they
just graduated school they're in their
entry-level job I sit down with them
when I go how's it going they go I think
I'm gonna quit I'm like why they're like
I'm not making an impact I'm like you've
been here eight months it's as if
they're standing at the foot of a
mountain and they have this abstract
concept called impact that they want to
have in the world which is the summit
what they don't see is the mountain
I don't care if you go up the mountain
quickly or slowly but there's still a
mountain and so what this young
generation needs to learn is patience
that some things that really really
matter like love or job fulfillment joy
love of lifes of confidence a skill set
any of these things all of these things
take time
sometimes you can expedite pieces of it
but the overall journey is arduous and
long and difficult and if you don't ask
for help and learn that skill set you
will fall off the mountain I don't know
what I want to do but I know that I
don't want to work in a job just because
it's a good thing position is there any
deep secret Simon but maybe today you
can reveal there are deep secrets that
will not be revealed today okay Simon I
accept that this is not a trial
thank you man thanks Larry hi welcome
back my time today we're going to talk
about yet another adventure I had a
Stanford and Stanford about AI it was
pretty mind-blowing there's a company
called flowers
and they're pretty damn impressive they
outperformed deep neural networks on
stage using a new system
