Jensen Huang Never Did 'Self-Development.' He Just Worked.

Opening

Dear reader, someone once asked Jensen Huang, “How did you work on your self-development?” Interestingly, he looked like he genuinely didn’t understand the question. Only when it was asked a second time did he answer, and it boiled down to this: “I just worked my ass off.”

It reminds me of a famous anecdote about Kim Yuna, South Korea’s Olympic figure skating champion. “What do you think about while you’re practicing?” “I just do it.” Jensen Huang’s answer and Kim Yuna’s answer share the same essence. But this raised a question for me: is what we call “self-development” actually a concept that doesn’t exist for the people who’ve truly succeeded?

Why ‘Self-Development’ Doesn’t Exist for Successful People

Ask Jensen Huang what he does to relax, and the answer is “I work.” A reporter pushes back: “Isn’t working the opposite of resting?” His reply: “For me, thinking about work is how I rest. Thinking about succeeding at work just makes me feel too good.”

Elon Musk is cut from similar cloth. His approach to time is remarkably simple: throw himself into a project, spend the leftover time with family, and sleep the rest to recover energy. People who’ve worked with him tell a consistent story in interviews — he hires the best talent he can find, hands them the reins, and never touches their work again. Call it delegation if you’re being kind, or neglect if you’re not.

The same holds true in Korea. Read the memoirs of Chung Ju-yung (founder of Hyundai), Lee Byung-chul (founder of Samsung), or Seo Jung-jin (founder of Celltrion), and you won’t find a single line like “I woke up at 5 a.m., took a cold shower, meditated, and that’s how I succeeded.” Self-development doesn’t even exist as a separate category in their life stories. There’s no split between work and life — just accounts of people throwing themselves into what they wanted to do.