The CEO of a $3.6 billion company shares his best advice for new college grads

Bracken Darrell

When you're a recent grad, everyone wants to throw advice your way. But when the CEO of a big-time company shares a few pearls of wisdom, you'll probably want to listen.

Bracken Darrell, the CEO of Logitech, a technology accessories company with a market capitalization of $3.6 billion, recently talked to Adam Bryant of The New York Times.

During that conversation, Darrell told Bryant that his favorite commencement address is Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford speech, during which the late Apple cofounder advised the graduating class to follow their passion.

"You should follow your passions, of course," Darrell said. "The problem is that 80% of people don't really know what their passion is."

So, he told Bryant, he has some other pearls of wisdom he'd share with new grads:

"My first piece of advice: Just work really, really hard. It's amazing how good life is if you work hard.

"My second piece of advice is to set goals. You know, goals are free. They don't cost you anything, and they're so effective. It's about staying hungry, and setting a goal is just a way of creating hunger.

"The single thing that's made me successful over my life, the most important one, is drive. It's not I.Q. It's not some luck of having social skills that somebody else doesn't have. It's just drive.

"I had the huge advantage of growing up with very little, and nothing really to fall back on. But you've got to find ways to stay hungry."

Read the full New York Times interview here.

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