Letter #56: Ashton Kutcher (2020)
Founder of Sound Ventures | 2020 University of Iowa Commencement Speech
Hi everyone! Due to popular request (and a few persistent individuals), I’ll be restarting this newsletter, but with a few changes. Most notably, rather than sending “A Letter a Day”, I’ll be sharing a letter or transcript twice a week, once on Tuesday afternoon (2:22pm) and once on Saturday morning (6:06am). Second, I’m expanding the scope of the newsletter to include a broader range of subjects, but still focused on thought-provoking investors (across venture, hedge funds, and private equity), founders (not just tech), and operators (sales, marketing, product, etc.). Lastly, I’ll be limiting my commentary so it’s a smoother reading experience and you can read the work as is. (If you’d like to see my notes or trade thoughts, shoot me a DM on Twitter!)
Today’s letter is a transcript of Ashton Kutcher’s 2020 University of Iowa commencement speech. It’s one of my favorite graduation speeches of all time, alongside David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water”, Conan O’Brien’s speech at Dartmouth, and Steve Jobs’ legendary Stanford commencement address. You can find more of my favorite graduation speeches here.
This is one speech I highly recommend watching—and in normal speed. It’s short, but the speech is packed with wisdom and methodically structured, and the prose is carefully sculpted. But it’s Ashton’s delivery that makes it truly worthwhile. It’s a masterclass in writing, teaching, and speaking.
Ashton is the co-founder of Sound Ventures (and it’s predecessor A-Grade Investments), which has invested in companies including Airbnb, Gitlab, Pinterest, Square, Spotify, and Uber. He’s also an actor.
I hope you enjoy this speech as much as I did!
PS/ I’m thinking of covering Ashton for Cloud Valley—if you know him and think he’d be down to chat or have any fun stories of working with him, please reach out over email at kevin@12mv2.com or DM me on twitter at @kevg1412.
Transcript
You're on the clock.
What's your plan?
I had a plan. My plan was probably a lot like yours. Actually, I had a plan of sitting exactly where you are today. Well, not exactly. I mean, technically speaking, I had a graduation in my plan, like there was an actual ceremony and stuff. I was hoping to get a Biochemical Engineering degree, I was going to become a geneticist, go work at a company, make a decent, like six figure salary, move up over time, buy a house, get married, once, have some kids, settle down, and probably retire a little bit early. It was a really solid, solid plan.
And the only thing that provided me with an opportunity to be where I am today was a willingness to throw out the master plan. Now, I didn't throw out the hard work, I didn't throw out the morals, I didn't throw my goals, I didn't throw out my ambition, my drive, my experience. I just threw out the master plan. I'm not saying you're gonna have to do that. But I'm saying having a willingness to do that goes a long ways.
You don't ever have to know what you want to be when you grow up. And the truth is, even if you think you know who you are right now, you're probably wrong. Because you're not who everyone else thinks that you are. In fact, you're probably not who you think you are. And your life will definitely not go as planned.
I ended up going into modeling, then I was an actor, then I was a producer. And then I acted some more. And then I started reality TV shows. Then I became a venture capitalist, and a philanthropist--was married twice, had kids later, like the whole thing was sort of like backwards to what the master plan was. Life will throw you some crazy, crazy curveballs. It'll send you opportunities and directions you couldn't even imagine. And if you got the plan locked in, you might just miss the opportunity.
Here's the good news. There are very few choices that you're going to make in your life that are permanent. So try things. Try all kinds of things. And always be in pursuit of the better you.
Now there are some plans that are worth making. Plan on surrounding yourself with people that disagree with you without trying to convince them that they're wrong so that you can be right. The people that I disagreed with when I was younger, got a lot smarter when I got older. Now I'm not saying that they got right, but I'm saying in many cases--in some cases they get right--but in many cases, in most cases, the justification behind their reasoning became a lot more intelligent.
Plan on meeting as many people as you can. Because we come in all shapes, sizes, ideas, backgrounds... and we become the average of the 10 people that we spend the most amount of time with in our life. But as you meet people, take your time in finding generous, thoughtful, caring people to share your life and work with. And then, once you find them, give them all you got. Give them everything. Because the only things that are worth anything in this life are the things that you can share.
Start to develop your plan around your moral foundation and your purpose, but never stopped developing it. Figure out what you will do, what you won't do, and most importantly, what you're doing it for. And review it, and revise it, as life washes over you and augments your framework and assumptions for how the world works. Because it will change. I promise you.
Plan on working hard. There's just no replacement for hard work. You'll read in the news and hear about people who have these overnight success stories... Trust me--everything you read in the news is an anomaly. That's why it's news. If it happened every day, it wouldn't be news. Most of the people that I know that are successful in this world got there the old fashioned way. And chances are, you will too.
Plan on weird shit happening. I don't know how many people say "shit" in commencement things, but I just said it, so... just, but plan on having weird shit happens. It just--right now, I'm in quarantine in California, you don't have a graduation. The world's gonna throw curveballs. It's just gonna happen that way. So plan on it happening.
And as a part of that plan, come up with big, giant, ambitious ideas, because the world needs them. But a word of caution: Ideas are cheap. Execution is expensive. So hold your ideas until you're ready to defend them. And be ready for people to try to tear you down. Sometimes they will. And it hurts. That's why knowing what you're doing it for matters. It goes back to that purpose piece. It's really, really important.
Plan on time becoming your most valuable asset. Because I can promise you that it will. No matter what endeavor you pursue, you're going to discover that your partners and your bosses are going to be seeking leverage. And the greatest leverage of all, is time. As you get older, you're going to realize the true supply-demand curve of time. And you'll know that it's only becoming a more limited supply. And the demand is only becoming greater.
The clock starts now.
What's your plan?
Wrap-up
If you’ve got any thoughts, questions, or feedback, please drop me a line - I would love to chat! You can find me on twitter at @kevg1412 or my email at kevin@12mv2.com.
If you're a fan of business or technology in general, please check out some of my other projects!
Speedwell Research — Comprehensive research on great public companies including Constellation Software, Floor & Decor, Meta (Facebook) and interesting new frameworks like the Consumer’s Hierarchy of Preferences.
Cloud Valley — Easy to read, in-depth biographies that explore the defining moments, investments, and life decisions of investing, business, and tech legends like Dan Loeb, Bob Iger, Steve Jurvetson, and Cyan Banister.
DJY Research — Comprehensive research on publicly-traded Asian companies like Alibaba, Tencent, Nintendo, Sea Limited (FREE SAMPLE), Coupang (FREE SAMPLE), and more.
Compilations — “A national treasure — for every country.”
Memos — A selection of some of my favorite investor memos.
Bookshelves — Your favorite investors’/operators’ favorite books.