First of all, I’d like to thank the University, and the Chancellor, and the President, for inviting me to be here.
Thank you to my family, who braved all kinds of travel to come.
I cannot overstate how honored and proud I feel to be at this podium. In this hot wind, breathing in the familiar aroma of South Farms, and addressing all of you.
I loved my time at U of I, and I take great pride in being an Illinois alumnus! And, I am happy to report, your Chambana-conferred degree will serve as a badge of honor out there in the real world.
I graduated 21 years ago, which sounds like a century to me, and feels like yesterday. So while I don’t feel especially qualified dispensing “life advice”, I do have a few experiences on you — some good, some awful. I will share three of these with you, hoping you’ll find them amusing, and maybe even useful.
The first one is about taking risks and getting lucky.
I got insanely lucky.
I was born in the Soviet Union. By the time I reached my teens, in the late ’80s, the country was being held together with shoestring and bubblegum.
But because it was Soviet-made bubble gum, it was made out of tree bark and superglue.
Worried about political and economic instability and the rise of anti-Semitism, my family thought of immigrating. United States allowed us to enter as political refugees. And for that, we are forever grateful.
Meanwhile, in 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power station blew itself up in the worst nuclear accident ever. Which was unfortunate, because Kiev, where I was born, was only 90 miles away.
Leaving everything behind and moving to America felt like a huge risk, but the nuclear disaster close by really motivated my family to get moving. We made it to the US in 1991, with about $600 between the five of us.
I was 16, so I got to experience Chicago Public Schools for two years and was pretty confused about college selection process. My high school guidance counsellor suggested U. of I. serendipitously, because my two-year streak of amazing science fair victories made me eligible for some sweet state scholarships, and a heavily subsidized student loan.
At this very time, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, right here on campus, launched Mosaic, the first graphical web browser that would soon change science, commerce, information, learning… everything.
And I was going to study the most relevant discipline for this new age, at the most relevant place to study it.
And that is how I ended up at the University of Illinois, on Quad Day 1993, in blazing 100+-degree heat, wearing a Soviet-made flannel shirt buttoned all the way up and sporting a medium-size fro.
I walked up to a gaggle of similarly smartly-dressed nerds crowding around a computer, squinting in the bright sun.
And I knew I’d found my people, and their land was called Digital Computer Lab.
During those glorious days in DCL, I didn’t sleep very much — but when I slept, I often slept in a chair, in front of a computer.
Once, as I was dozing off at the ACM office, after another programming marathon, too tired to go get another Mountain Dew, entirely out of junk food, these two engineering students walked by.
I sort of knew them, but not well. One was a year ahead of me, the other was one year behind.
They casually asked me what I was doing up so late, and I showed off the latest computer graphics project. They were up late because they were going to start a company.
Since I enjoyed programming so much, and appeared to be able to live on sugary drinks and almost no sleep — they said — how would I like to join them as their first Vice President of Engineering?
It felt risky. I could have just gone downstairs to the candy machine, to procure another Dew and Snickers. Thus rejuvenated, I could have just gone back to building fun academic projects, graduated, stayed on for grad school, gotten a doctorate, and probably became a Computer Science professor, perhaps even a good one.
(I am fairly sure my Mom is still kinda hoping for this version to happen.)
But the choice I made that moment wound up changing my life forever.
I mumbled something along the lines of “Starting a company? Rad, count me in,” though I had absolutely no idea of what that actually meant.
But I was curious, and I had nothing to lose except for my GPA, and our first startup was born.
These guys turned out to know a lot more about starting companies (and lots of other things) than I did, and pretty soon I was working extra-hard just trying to keep up. I slept even less, programmed even more, and was generally having a great time.
Unfortunately, we didn’t know quite enough. Our startup failed, about a year later. The company didn’t leave much of a dent in the universe, but it sure dented my GPA!
And my credit score, because right before we totally ran out of money, it was being financed entirely by our student credit cards.
Basically, it was a disaster.
But, I knew that entrepreneurship was going to be my path. It turned out that starting a business, and watching it grow through hard work, brought me so much joy, I knew I couldn’t do anything else.
When I look back at that moment, I really wonder just how the fresh-off-the-boat, risk-averse, grad school-material 19-year-old Max managed to work up the nerve to give this crazy startup thing a try.
Yes, my judgement was impaired by sleep deprivation, and I had very little to lose, but most importantly it was curiosity.
I failed, but I found to out who I really was — I found my calling.
This brings me to my second story (and I will keep this one shorter).
Second story is that failure always hurts, and you live through it by staying human.
One thing worth noting is that risk-taking does not guarantee immediate success.
In fact, it pretty much does the opposite. After that first company failed, I stayed here, and tried to wrap up my Bachelor’s degree as quickly as I could.
I kept on starting companies on campus, and they just kept on failing. Four companies, in the span of three years. Each went the way of the dodo in a year or less.
But I loved starting them up, coming up with one hare-brained business idea after another. And they just kept on failing.
My girlfriend at the time got so fed up with this, she broke up with me by ripping up my business registration certificate right in front of my face, to make a point.
Thing is, I didn’t mind too much, because that company failed already and I needed to register a new one anyway. I did, and it hurt exactly the same when that one failed too.
Finally, I graduated and moved to where they had more venture capital than cornfields: Palo Alto, California. Almost by accident, I met this guy Peter Thiel, and we founded a company together. That company ended up being PayPal, and that one finally didn’t fail.
Incidentally, I have a public service announcement!
if your account has been frozen by PayPal, please do not email me, or grab me after this speech — it’s been well over a decade since I had anything to do with PayPal. So stop asking me to unlock your account!
After PayPal, failure seemed to have finally let me off the hook. This time, I told myself, I was going to start a company that was going to be even bigger, change the world more, make a bigger dent!
None of those things happened, but that next startup taught me my most painful lesson yet: failing people who trust in you, hurts a lot more than just failing yourself.
We built a great team, and grew extremely fast for a while, but I got over my skis, and we almost ran out of money, and I had to lay off a bunch of employees.
That feeling you get when you explain to a roomful of wide-eyed people that you screwed up, that you didn’t budget well, that you failed to find the money for their salaries, and that they now have to find a new place to work… it’s not fun.
You’d think that with the number of failures I’d accumulated by then my skin would be as thick as a rhino’s, but no such luck.
It hurt terribly when I had to lay people off… and even worse when I had to do it again, a few months later.
A wise colleague who’d been around his fair share of business failure, told me something that dark day: go be a human, not a Chief Executive.
We are all hurting, not just you. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself in a corner conference room, go help those you just let go to pack up their stuff, and show some compassion.
And so I did.
It took some willpower to walk out, to talk to, and to hug the people I felt I had failed so profoundly. I expected a lot of anger and resentment, but instead mostly felt compassion and forgiveness.
They understood I tried my best. We were all hurting, but it was slightly easier to cope with it as a team, one last time.
Stories about Silicon Valley often over-glamorize failure. We shot the moon, we fell short — but hey, it was a good try, no big deal.
That’s simply not true: failing sucks. There is no getting around the pain you experience when you fail, and it doesn’t get much easier with experience.
But don’t let fear of failure deter you from taking those risks.
Surround yourself with people who will help you cope with the darkest moments, be a human, and you will survive, and ultimately thrive.
Which brings me to my final story.
That is, be with people who make you want to be a better you.
If there is one trope in Silicon Valley, and the business world in general, that is actually true it is that it’s all about the people.
A so-so business plan, and an incredible team are far more likely to succeed than a mediocre team with a plan to take over the world.
And it’s not just about having the best individual players — their interpersonal relationships, their empathy for each other, trust and respect, all matter.
The early days of PayPal were just as crazy as all the other previous startups. We almost ran out of money, twice.
We changed our business model six times, and replaced our Chief Executive Officers three times in four months.
International organized crime tried to kill our company, and so did several giant Wall Street banks, inconveniently, all at the same time!
As PayPal grew to be a major success, I’ve been asked repeatedly, what was it about the people that made up our early team, that enabled PayPal to persevere, even as many competitors fell to the same challenges?
I think I know the answer now.
We didn’t exactly start out an amazing team. We were all young, curious, and willing to take huge risks, and had nothing to lose. But single most important factor was: none of us took our spot on this team for granted. Every one of us felt the rising expectations from the rest, and so each one tried to be the very best we could be. And then improve on that.
Right around those early PayPal times I met the woman who eventually became my wife, Nellie (hi!). Trying to impress her became my lifelong project — because keeping up with her growth has been the the single funnest challenge of my life.
So, if there is one piece of advice I will allow myself from this stage, let it be relationship advice!
Whether you are starting a company, or joining one, or even thinking about a life partner: ask yourself, how motivated do you feel to become an even better version of you?
If yes, you’ve found something (or someone) truly special — join that team.
Because of some crazy coincidences, a nuclear accident, and some fantastic science fair displays, I lucked into the innovation of modern era, and met some amazing people, who shaped my own life.
People whose brilliance, and thirst for knowledge, and quest for constant self-improvement pushed me to try to be better too.
And you don’t have to wait to meet the amazing people in your own life, because you have almost certainly already met them.
I followed a couple U of I friends to take a risk I never expected myself to take, to discover my life’s passion, failing all the way to the eventual lucky break.
Those two wild and crazy guys who put me up to all this madness, both worked on PayPal from its earliest days, and we still work together on new projects today.
The first two dozen of PayPal’s software engineers were also my U of I classmates.
It’s been two decades’ worth of companies and projects, and we continue to work together, and support each other.
From Yelp to YouTube both of which were founded by U of I grads from the PayPal network.
The friendships you forged here, at Illinois, are going to turn out to be the foundational relationships of your life.
So, go out there, take risks to find you who you really are!
Fail passionately and recover quickly!
And find, and hang on tight to those who make you a better you!
Which brings me to my final point: don’t wait to take the first risk.
As you accumulate success, especially financial success, you start growing barnacles of comfort.
A nice car you can finally afford, a place you enjoy coming home to, even a family — all those things don’t just sound nice. They are nice. And they are powerful motivators to change nothing.
So, class of 2018, whatever your definition of risk is, go experience it now, while your entire life is ahead of you, and you have almost nothing to lose.
You might just find out who you really are.
Good luck, congratulations, and thank you for listening!
—A co-founder of the worldwide online payments system PayPal, former chairman of the board of crowd-sourced reviewer of local businesses Yelp, and currently the CEO and founder of the consumer-financing platform Affirm, Max Levchin graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997 with a B.S. in computer science.
首先，我要感谢我的大学、校长邀请我来这里。
感谢我的家人，他们愿意和我一起冒险。
我非常荣幸和自豪站在这里。在这股炎热的夏风中，呼吸着熟悉的南方农场的气息，向大家致辞。
我喜欢我在伊大的时光，我为成为伊大校友感到非常自豪！并且，我很高兴我能被授予荣誉学位。
我21年前毕业，听起来像一个世纪，但仿佛就在昨日。因此，虽然我不觉得有资格发表“生活建议”，但确实有一些经验 - 有些好的，有些糟糕的。我将与你分享其中的三个，希望你会发现它们很有趣，甚至可能有用。
第一个是冒险和幸运。
我非常幸运。
我出生在苏联。我十几岁时，正处八十年代末期，苏联正在与鞋带和泡泡糖一起。
它是苏联制造的泡泡糖，用树皮和强力胶制成的。
由于担心政治和经济的不稳定以及反犹太主义的兴起，我的家人想到了移民问题。美国允许我们作为政治难民入境。为此，我们永远感激不尽。
与此同时，1986年，切尔诺贝利核电站核泄漏，离我出生的基辅只有90英里远。
把一切都抛在脑后，搬到美国感觉就像是一个巨大的冒险，但是附近的核灾难敦促着我的家人开始行动。我们在1991年到美国，我们五个人总共就约600美元。
我16岁时在芝加哥公立学校学习了两年，仍不明白大学选拔过程。我的高中辅导员建议我申请奖学金和学生贷款，因为我有两年突出的科学竞赛成绩。
就在这时，国家超级计算应用中心就在校园内推出了Mosaic，这是第一个即将改变科学、商业、信息、学习......的图形网络浏览器。
我打算学习这个新时代最相关的学科。
这就是1993年在伊大的Quad Day上，100华氏度高温下，穿着一件苏联制作的法兰绒衬衫，一直扣着，中等身材的我。
我走到一群同样聪明的书呆子堆里，他们挤在电脑周围，在阳光下，他们眯着眼睛。
我知道我找到了我的人，他们大显身手的领域被称为数字计算机实验室。
在DCL的那些辉煌的日子里，我睡得很少 - 经常睡在椅子上，在电脑前。
有一次，当我在ACM办公室打瞌睡时，经历又一次编程马拉松，累到买瓶饮料的力气都没有。周围全是垃圾食品，这时两个工科学生走过来。
我认识他们，但不是很熟。一年比我高一届，另一年比我低一届。
他们随意问了我一句，这么晚还在做什么。我展示了最新的计算机图形项目。
他们起得很晚，因为他们正在创办一家公司。
由于我非常喜欢编程，并且似乎能够以含糖饮料为生，几乎不睡觉 - 他们说 - 加入他们作他们的第一副工程副总裁。
我感觉这很危险。我本可以下楼去糖果机那买另一个Dew和Snickers。重新焕发活力，我本可以回到建立有趣的学术项目，毕业，留在研究生院，获得博士学位，并可能成为计算机科学教授，甚至可能是一个很好的教授。
（我很确定我的妈妈仍然希望这个版本能够发生。）
但是我做出的选择永远改变了我的生活。
我咕哝到“创办公司？Rad,算上我。"虽然我完全不知道这究竟意味着什么。
但我很好奇，除了我的GPA，我没有什么可失去的，我们的第一家创业公司就这样诞生了。
事实证明，这些家伙对创办公司（以及其他很多事情）的了解远不止于此，而且我很快就努力工作，努力跟上。我睡得更少，编程更多，仍然度过了愉快的时光。
不幸的是，我们还不太了解创业。大约一年后，创业失败了。该公司并未在宇宙中留下太大的影响，但它肯定会削弱我的GPA！
我的信用评分，因为在我们完全没钱之前，它完全由我们的学生信用卡资助。
这基本上是一场灾难。但是，我知道创业将成为我的道路。创业，看着它通过努力工作成长，给我带来了很多快乐，我知道其他我什么也做不了。
当我回顾那一刻时，我真的很想知道那个疯狂的、厌恶风险的、即将毕业的19岁的马克斯如何成功地努力让这个疯狂的创业公司试一试。
是的，我的判断因睡眠不足而受损，我几乎没有失去，但最重要的是好奇心。
我失败了，但我找到了我的真实身份 - 我找到了我的召唤。
这让我想起了我的第二个故事（我将保持这个更短）。
第二个故事是：失败总是一种受伤，你可以通过留住人才来度过难关。
值得注意的是，冒险并不能保证立即取得成功。
事实上，它恰恰相反。在第一家公司失败后，我留在这里，并试图尽快完成我的学士学位。
我一直在校园里开办公司，只是他们一直都失败。三年四家公司。每个人都在一年或更短的时间内完成了渡渡鸟的方式。
但是我喜欢创建公司，然后提出并实践一个又一个大胆的商业理念。不过他们只是一直失败。
当时我的女朋友对此非常厌倦，她在我面前撕开我的商业登记证，与我分手。
事实是，我不介意，因为那家公司已经失败了，我还可以注册一个新公司。我做了，又失败了。
最后，我毕业了，搬到了比玉米地更多的风险投资的地方：加利福尼亚州帕洛阿尔托。几乎是偶然的，我遇到了这个人Peter Thiel，我们一起创办了一家公司。该公司最终成为PayPal，而且最终没有失败。
顺便说一句，我有一个公益广告！
如果您的帐户被PayPal冻结，请不要给我发电子邮件，或者在演讲结束后抓住我 - 因为我与PayPal结束关系已经十多年了。所以请不要让我解锁您的帐户！
在PayPal之后，失败似乎终于让我摆脱困境。这一次，我告诉自己，我要创办一家规模更大的公司，改变世界，做出更大的努力！
这些事情都没有发生，但创业给了我最痛苦的教训：失去信任你的人，伤害的不仅仅是自己。
我们建立了一支伟大的团队，并且在一段时间内发展得非常快，而且我们几乎没钱了，我不得不裁掉一大堆员工。
当你向一屋子睁大眼睛的人解释你搞砸了，你没有预算好，你无法给他们发工资，他们现在必须找到一个新的地方工作...这不好玩。
你认为随着我积累的失败次数，我的皮肤会像犀牛一样厚，但并没有。
当我不得不让人们离开时，它的伤害非常严重......几个月之后，当我不得不再次这样做时，情况就更糟了。
一位聪明的同事一直在无偿地分享商业失败的教训，他告诉我：成为一个人，而不是一个行政长官。我们都在受伤，而不仅仅是你。不要在角落的会议室为自己感到难过，去帮助那些你放手的东西，并表现出一些同情心。
我做到了。
我需要一些意志力走出来，与他们交谈，并拥抱那些我觉得自己失败的人。我知道有很多愤怒和怨恨，但主要还是感受到了同情和宽恕。
他们知道我尽力了。我们都受伤了，但最后一次作为一个团队应对它稍微容易一些。
关于硅谷的故事经常过度失败。我们射击了月球，我们失败了 - 但是，嘿，这是一个很好的尝试，没什么大不了的。
这根本不是真的：失败很糟糕。当你失败时，你无法体验到你所经历的痛苦，而且经验并没有那么容易。
但是，不要让对失败的恐惧阻止你承担风险。
跟那些帮助你应对最黑暗时刻的人在一起，成为一个人，你将生存，并最终茁壮成长。
这让我想起了最后的故事。
也就是说，与那些让你想要变得更好的人在一起。
如果说硅谷是一个寓言，那么整个商业世界，实际上就是关于人。
一个马马虎虎的商业计划和一个令人难以置信的团队比一个计划接管世界的平庸团队更有可能取得成功。
这不仅仅是拥有最好的个人球员 - 他们的人际关系，他们对彼此的共情，信任和尊重，这一切都很重要。
PayPal的早期时代与其他所有创业公司一样疯狂。我们几乎没钱了两次。
我们六次改变了我们的商业模式，并在四个月内换了我们的首席执行官三次。
国际犯罪组织试图扼杀我们，华尔街的几家大银行也不示好！
随着PayPal取得重大成功，我一再被问到，是什么让PayPal坚持下去，即使许多竞争对手遇到同样的挑战？
我想我现在知道答案了。
我们并不是从一开始就是一个了不起的团队。我们都很年轻，好奇，并且愿意承担巨大的风险，并且没有任何损失。但唯一最重要的因素是：我们都没有把我们在这支球队的位置视为理所当然。我们每个人都感受到了其他人不断增长的期望，所以每个人都尽力做到最好，然后改进。
在那些早期的PayPal时代，我遇到了最终成为我妻子的女人，Nellie（嗨！）。试图给她留下深刻印象成为我终身的项目 - 因为跟上她的成长一直是我生命中唯一最有趣的挑战。
所以，如果有一条建议，我将允许自己从这个阶段开始，让它成为关系建议吧！
无论您是创办公司，还是加入公司，甚至考虑生活伴侣：问问自己，您觉得成为一个更好的版本的动机有多大？
如果是的话，你发现某些（或某人）非常特别 - 加入这个团队。
由于一些疯狂的巧合，核泄漏事故以及一些奇妙的科学展览，我很幸运地进入了当今时代的创新，并遇到了一些塑造我全新生活的神奇人物。
那些才华横溢、渴望知识、追求不断自我提升的人们，也促使我努力做得更好。
而且你不必等待遇到令人惊叹的人，因为你几乎肯定已经遇到了他们。
我跟随了几个美国朋友冒险。此前我从没想过会去冒险，发现我生命中的激情，一直到最终的幸运中断。
那两个让我疯狂的家伙，从最初的日子开始就在PayPal工作，我们今天仍在合作开展新项目。前二十几名PayPal的软件工程师都是我的同学。我们将继续合作，互相支持。
从Yelp到YouTube，这两个都是由PayPal的人创建的。
你在伊利诺伊州建立的友谊将成为你生活中的基础关系。
所以，去那里冒险，找到你真实的人生！
不怕失败，快速恢复！
找到并紧紧抓住那些让你变得更好的人！
这让我想到了最后一点：不要等着冒第一个风险。
随着你积累成功，特别是财务上的成功，你的生活开始舒适。
一辆你可以买得起的好车，一个你喜欢回家的地方，甚至是一个家庭 - 所有这些东西听起来都不错。他们很好。他们是改变一切的强大动力。
所以，无论你对风险的定义是什么，2018届的毕业生们，现在去体验它，而你的整个生命都领先于你，你几乎没有什么可失去的。
你可能只是找出你到底是谁。
祝你们好运，祝贺大家，谢谢大家的聆听！
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