Congratulations, Class of 2026! It’s an absolute honor to be here today, sharing in this incredible milestone with all of you. Looking out at this vibrant crowd, celebrating with your loved ones, fills me with immense joy. This is truly how a graduation should be, surrounded by the parents, relatives, friends, and professors who have supported you every step of the way.
I know not everyone you care about could be here. Many of you, like me, came from other parts of the country and the world, and it’s not always possible for families to travel. In fact, this is the first time my own mom and dad are attending a graduation ceremony I’m a part of, so a special thanks to them and my entire family here today.
The Less Consequential Moments
Today is about giving advice, but I’ve been getting a lot of advice on what not to say! Rest assured, the most timeless wisdom, I’ve learned, is about you and the life you want to build, not about fleeting trends. My most important insight is that very few moments in life are truly make or break.
Some of you already know your path, and that’s fantastic. Many of you, however, might have absolutely no clue, and that’s perfectly okay too. I remember feeling that intense pressure on my own graduation day, believing every decision had to be precisely right.
You’ve sweated every grade, every paper, every exam, meticulously curated your activities, athletics, and internships. But here’s a little secret: while these things feel monumental at the time, they’re often far less consequential than you imagine. You could have failed that biology test, skipped a class, or never learned the tuba, and you’d still likely be here today.
I learned this lesson firsthand as a student here. One January morning, my classmate Pat, an edgy guy with a white Honda Prelude convertible, asked if I wanted to go to Vegas instead of class. I’d never skipped a class, never taken a road trip, but something in me said “sure.”
As we drove through the mountains, it started to snow – something I’d never seen before. I stuck my hand out, marveling at the softness of the flurries, and Pat even stopped the car so I could experience it fully. Nine hours later, we arrived in Vegas, and I even won a modest $15 playing blackjack. Nobody seemed to notice we’d missed class, and for the first time, I realized the world wouldn’t end if I relaxed a little.
You’ll encounter countless moments in life, but only a handful are truly critical: choosing a partner, starting a family, or a major career pivot. These deserve your full time and intention. However, thousands of other moments might seem big but are rarely make-or-break, like your first job, your next city, or that impromptu road trip. They add texture to your journey but seldom dictate its ultimate course.
Three Filters for Life’s Choices
The world today feels incredibly challenging, with global conflicts, economic anxiety, and rapid technological shifts. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, but remember that every generation faces its own hardships. We don’t choose the world we graduate into, but we absolutely choose how we frame our circumstances. With that in mind, I want to share three simple filters that have helped me navigate my own life.
- Choose Optimism: My parents instilled this in me from a young age, growing up in Chennai, India. Despite challenges like droughts and slow access to technology, they never let constraints limit my imagination. This allowed me to dream of working in a place like Silicon Valley. When I first landed in California, I saw brown hills, but my host, Mrs. Jane Earl, gently corrected me, “We prefer to call it golden.” That slight shift in perspective had a huge ripple effect, teaching me to reframe for the positive. This Californian optimism helped me navigate a major pivot: leaving my PhD program to pursue a job. What could have been the end of a dream, I chose to see as a golden opportunity.
- Gravitate Towards Hard Things: My career didn’t immediately soar after Stanford. It took a decade to truly find my footing. Then, in 2004, I interviewed at Google on April Fool’s Day, the day Gmail launched. Its ambitious promise of a gigabyte of free storage felt almost impossible. A few years later, I got my chance to work on another seemingly impossible problem: reimagining the internet browser. The consensus was it would be incredibly difficult, requiring hundreds of engineers, but our small group of ten forged ahead with a touch of irrational optimism.
When we launched Chrome in 2008, it gained eight million users in 24 hours but then stagnated at a mere two percent market share. Microsoft’s CEO even called it a “rounding error.” Yet, fueled by optimism, we saw this dismissal as a sign we were doing something right. We kept pushing, setting aggressive goals, and iterating every six weeks while others shipped yearly. Success followed. Working on hard things not only attracts great people but ensures that even if you miss your highest goals, you’ll still achieve something remarkable. So, when given the choice to work on something hard, say yes.
- When All Else is Equal, Do What Excites You: For me, that has always been access to technology. Growing up, the more technology my family had, the better our lives became. So, when I arrived at Stanford and saw rows of computers I could use anytime, it was a revelation. It was 1993, and the internet was being built all around me – a fundamental enabler of human progress. The idea of bringing it to as many people as possible deeply excited me, leading me to Google and projects like Chromebooks and Android.
I’ve witnessed firsthand the transformative power of technology, from women in rural India learning new trades on smartphones to students in Pittsburgh benefiting from products I helped build. Seeing computing change lives, just as it changed mine, is the most exciting thing in the world to me. So as you look at your own path, don’t solely focus on what’s expected or what seems most prestigious. Instead, listen to that inner voice and pursue the things that truly ignite your passion.
Source: Google Blog (The Keyword)
