Elon Musk has thrown his support behind Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s view of leadership, and it comes down to one simple idea: no task is beneath you.
“This is the way,” Musk wrote on X, sharing a clip from Huang’s March 2024 talk at Stanford Graduate School of Business. In the interview, Huang reflected on his early years working as a dishwasher, busboy, and waiter, experiences he says still define how he leads one of the world’s most valuable tech companies.
“I’ve Cleaned More Toilets Than All Of You Combined”
“To me, no task is beneath me,” Huang said. “I used to clean toilets. I’ve cleaned a lot of toilets. Some of them I just can’t unsee. That’s life.”
For Huang, humility isn’t symbolic, it’s operational. If a colleague asks for input, he engages fully, not to assert authority, but to show how he thinks.
“When you show people how you reason through something, strategy, forecasting, breaking down a problem, you empower them,” Huang explained. “Suddenly it’s not as complicated as it seemed.”
That mindset, he says, is what real leadership looks like: not commanding from above, but teaching others how to think.
From Denny’s to Nvidia
Huang’s journey resurfaced online in August 2024, when his LinkedIn profile, listing jobs at Denny’s from 1978 to 1983, went viral. Born in Taiwan and raised in the U.S., Huang earned engineering degrees from Oregon State University and Stanford before cofounding Nvidia, now the dominant force behind the global AI boom.
Despite his status, Huang says he avoids firing employees whenever possible.
“I’d rather improve you than give up on you,” he said in a separate interview. “I used to clean bathrooms, and now I’m CEO. I think you can learn this too.”
“Torture Them Into Greatness”
Huang believes most people are closer to excellence than they realize, they just need time, pressure, and belief.
“People know I’d rather torture them into greatness,” he said, half-jokingly. “That’s what coaches do when they really believe in their team.”
Musk’s endorsement is telling. At a time when AI is reshaping industries at breakneck speed, two of tech’s most influential leaders are aligned on a surprisingly old-school principle: great leadership starts with humility, learning, and showing up, even when the job is dirty.
