Watch Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian's funny and heartfelt commencement speech to the 2020 graduates: 'Any investment you make in the best people in your life right now will pay massive dividends.'
Alexis Ohanian is the cofounder of Reddit and an investor and internet entrepreneur who recently gave the commencement address to Johns Hopkins University's class of 2020.
I'm Alexis Ohanian and I never expected to be here at a Johns Hopkins graduation. I grew up in Columbia, Maryland, but I knew better than to even consider applying back when I was going to college. But look at me now. Huh? How 'bout that? Getting an honorary PhD. Didn't even have to spend years working on it either. Worked out pretty well for me.
Look, I don't know what the future will be like. It is my job as co-founder of initialized capital to figure out where things are headed and invest in founders who are helping to build the future in order to help build what's next. And we don't know how long this will last. And we're pretty sure there are many parts of our society and our economy that will never be the same again. And so the best thing you can do right now is be adaptive.
You know, I really had no idea what I was doing when I graduated from college in 2005 and I co-founded Reddit right out of school. We managed to get acquired 16 months later and I thought it was a joke. I didn't know how it was possible, after only 16 months worth of work, we could be getting bought. And you know, I managed five years later to come back to Reddit even after we sold it, take it independent, and help lead the turnaround. And I had way more experience, way more understanding.
And you know, frankly, just when I start to feel pretty good about myself and get a little cocky, uh, I roll over and I see my wife and you know, she's the greatest of all time. It's a, it's actually quite liberating, you know, to have such a successful partner and know that no matter how many billion dollar companies I start, I will never make the impact on the world that she has.
And so I hope that you can learn from my own mistakes, from my own failures, whether it's "Mm-mmm," or not giving my mom an extra hug on graduation day. This perspective is so invaluable and I think that's the curse of it. I mean, I don't have a tremendous amount of life experience yet—I'm only... 38? No… 37? I don't know. 37—I do know, though, because of things that happened over the last decade of my life, I do know though how important these people are.
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