Truly Great Work Will Always Make You Suffer

Mobile payment giant Stripe’s Patrick Collison had a fireside chat with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.

He asked Huang: “At your Stanford University event, why did you say, ‘I hope you experience enough doses of pain and suffering’?”

Huang responded this way:

“People often misunderstand that the best work is what brings you constant happiness. But in reality, no great thing is easy to achieve. So by definition, if I want you to be great, in my words, I want you to suffer.

A person who avoids suffering and trouble is destined to miss opportunities for growth.

Truly great work will always make you suffer.”

01

I’ve always believed in this saying: “You are what you suffer.”

This translates to: The kind of pain you endure shapes the kind of life you achieve.

A person who cannot withstand any hardship at work and someone who has experienced countless trials and tribulations are destined for different futures.

Suning launched a “1200 Plan,” aiming to select talent from outstanding graduates from various schools, hoping to cultivate these graduates into mid-level leaders within 2-3 years.

Intern Lin Nan was one of the members of this “1200 Plan.”

Lin Nan graduated from a top-tier university, excelling in singing, hosting, and musical instruments—she was a prominent figure at school.

Because of her outstanding resume, Suning’s HR initially had high expectations for her.

However, shortly after Lin Nan joined, she left her colleagues utterly disappointed.

After officially starting work, she often wandered around like a headless fly, completely at a loss.

During holiday promotions, when the entire department was frantically rushing to meet performance targets, Lin Nan would often hide in the restroom to slack off.

Her supervisor couldn’t stand it anymore and criticized her a few times.

Unexpectedly, Lin Nan immediately broke down, tearfully complaining to her supervisor about her grievances:

She was new, and colleagues didn’t proactively help her;

The work pace was too fast, making her feel very stressed…

After listening, the supervisor couldn’t help but ask: “Have you ever thought about taking initiative to learn and trying to adapt?”

Lin Nan pouted and stopped talking.

Shortly after, unable to handle the work intensity, she submitted her resignation to the company.

After this incident, Suning helplessly stated: “Sorry, we only hire adults.”

In this world, there are no easy jobs—only those who can endure more pain than others.

Many people view work as a terrible ordeal, crying out in distress at the slightest setback, ready to quit at the smallest grievance.

But regardless of which organization you’re in, doing simple, low-barrier tasks might give you temporary pleasure, but it confines your entire life.

02

Now, there’s a new philosophy of life: “Avoiding responsibility isn’t shameful; slacking off brings happiness.”

Coding is painful, so programmers resort to searching online for everything, causing their coding abilities to deteriorate while their answer-searching skills become masterful.

After years of work, instead of advancing to the next level, they become increasingly mediocre.

Creating ideas is torturous, so many designers collect dozens of ready-made templates, pulling out a template to appease leadership whenever requirements arise.

In the end, they become screws stuck in their positions—lacking the ability to climb up or the capability to move out.

When people avoid pain, they’re avoiding growth.

Only when we choose difficult things, grinding ourselves through work and training our hearts, can we truly fulfill ourselves.

Advertising creative Dongdongqiang shared a story.

After joining Ogilvy Beijing, he received an advertising assignment.

An American creative director had designed a print ad showing a car parked in front of a mirror, with the car also reflected in the mirror.

The English copy read: “Meet your alter-ego.”

Dongdongqiang’s task was to write a Chinese version.

He scratched his head and wrote at least dozens of versions: “Meet the New Me,” “Meet Yourself,” “Meeting a Kindred Spirit”…

His supervisor Lin Guizhi looked at them and said casually, “It could be better.”

Helpless, Dongdongqiang continued pondering. Feeling on the verge of a breakdown, he finally settled on “Meeting a Kindred Spirit.”

Lin Guizhi sat down beside his desk, staring at the image and alternative titles. After a while, she suddenly said: “Look, how about writing this as ‘Why Not Be Narcissistic?’”

Dongdongqiang recalled that in that moment, he was elevated and enlightened.

Many working professionals have experienced this.

After painstaking effort, after struggling through difficulties and overcoming obstacles, the heart experiences tremendous satisfaction and achievement.

Actually, the way to transcend pain is to experience it, absorb it, and explore it.

Those difficult tasks and painful experiences all become energy for your growth.

As Bi Shumin wrote in “The Soul’s Code”: “You cannot demand a life ocean without storms, because pain and hardship are part of life.

An ocean without storms is not a sea—it’s a mud pond.”

By enduring pain that others cannot bear, we can earn money that most people cannot earn;

By completing tasks others cannot do, we can achieve results others cannot obtain.

03

In “Break Down the Walls in Your Mind,” writer Gu Dian described two types of people:

One type follows the victim mindset: always believing that external factors or others are causing their current painful state.

The other type follows the controller mindset: regardless of external circumstances, they have the ability to take responsibility for their own situation.

Constrained by the victim mindset, many people approach setbacks with a negative attitude, either avoiding problems or blaming heaven and earth.

With the controller mindset, although you’re in pain, you actively seek solutions.

Famous fashion editor Sun Chan was also a rookie who was often scolded to tears by her supervisor when she first entered the industry.

If the supervisor wasn’t satisfied with an article’s title, she would spend an entire day thinking until she came up with a satisfactory title;

When typos appeared in articles, the supervisor would screenshot and circle them, posting them in the work group to publicly scold her;

She often worked overtime until late at night, only allowed to leave after completing the day’s assigned tasks…

Many colleagues couldn’t tolerate this supervisor’s bad temper and chose to resign.

At that time, Sun Chan also wanted to quit, but she reconsidered:

If she resigned because she couldn’t do the work well, she would encounter the same problems in future jobs.

Although the supervisor was demanding, he had industry experience and she could learn real skills from him.

So she decided to focus on work first.

To avoid being scolded, she could only strive for excellence, spending more time studying her work.

Gradually, as her abilities improved bit by bit, the frequency of being scolded decreased.

Later, when the new media industry exploded, the supervisor called Sun Chan into his office privately and extended an olive branch, asking if she would like to start a business with him.

Thus, Sun Chan left her original company and became a partner in the startup with her former supervisor.

Wall Street investment guru Ray Dalio wrote in “Principles”:

“I would experience painful moments in a radically different way. Instead of feeling discouraged or overwhelmed, I would see pain as nature’s reminder that there was something important I needed to learn.”

Everything that causes you pain comes to fulfill you.

Think about it—professional competence, skill level, responsibility, and judgment—which of these doesn’t come through hardship and adversity?

Although smooth paths are easy to walk, they ultimately become narrower.

Although pain is difficult to endure, once you get through it, you’ll be completely transformed.

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I have a cousin who recently graduated and got a job as a video editor.

A few days ago, he called to complain to me.

He criticized his boss for being too demanding, nitpicking every frame and requiring every rhythm beat to be precisely timed.

He complained about the company’s high standards, requiring editors to understand rendering and packaging, and to advance their skills in high-level editing techniques.

My cousin thought this job was terrible and wanted to quit immediately.

I calmed him down and said: “I have a different perspective—this job has value. If you want to quit, wait until you’re truly competent in this position before resigning.”

Work is practice. When you feel tired and suffering, that’s also when you’re growing fastest.

Maple leaves don’t turn red without frost.

Rather than choosing to avoid pain, we should choose to draw strength from pain.