NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 11: DJ Patil speaks onstage at the DoSomething.

org Spring Dinner 2015 at Capitale on

June 11, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for DoSomething.org)

How can someone who has underachieved for years change their
course and exceed their potential?originally appeared on Quora –
the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are
answered by people with unique insights.
Answer by DJ Patil, U.S. Chief Data Scientist, on Quora:
I was about as underachieving as you could get. I barely
graduated from high school, was suspended, arrested,
etc. Luckily I went to an awesome community college and
they turned me around. You can read the full story here.
Here’s the commencement address I gave at the University
of Maryland in May 2012:
Failure is our only option
Have you ever been in one of those moments where you
realized that gee, what’s the harm if I take the quick
shortcut, who’s going to notice? Well, I decided to take the
opportunity to give myself an edge. As a Silicon Valley tech
guy, I decided to use technology and the world to help me
prepare for this commencement address. So, I asked people
on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Quora to figure out
what wise words you should be imparted with and also what
they remember from their graduation speakers. You know
what most people remember? Nothing! Zilch! Nada!
So knowing this, I realized, I can say anything I want! Although,
I’m sure someone will post this on YouTube. But seriously, as I
got feedback from around the world and wracked my brain about
what to say, one theme began to emerge.
On your day of such great accomplishment, I’d like to talk about
something we rarely celebrate: failure. And why we are counting
on you to fail. Now bear with me, and you’ll see where I’m going.
We’re all products of failure. You don’t remember it, but your
parents definitely do. From the first time you rolled over, to your
first steps. These successes were a culmination of failures. Need
further proof? Make sure to ask them over dinner to recount your
potty training.
The funny thing is, you can read all about me in the bio or my
LinkedIn profile and you’ll see that I received my Ph.D in Applied
Math from here eleven years ago. I’ve worked for the Department
of Defense and been to Kazakhstan. But you won’t see all the
failures that made up the journey. What you can’t see from my
Facebook or LinkedIn page are what’s behind the most important
moments of success all the failures.
While growing up in California, to simply say I was bad at Math
would have been an understatement. My freshman year of high
school, I was kicked out of my algebra class and had to spend the
summer retaking it. This (unfortunately) would become my
regular paradigm for the next few years. By the time high school
graduation came around, two things happened to me.
First, I almost didn’t graduate. For the record, I did actually
graduate, but it was only because a very kind administrator took
pity on me and changed my failing grade in chemistry to a passing
one.
Second, I got a girlfriend. Since I didn’t get into any of the colleges
I liked, I opted to go to the local Junior College with her. Do you
remember that moment when you first got here and tried to figure
out what classes you’re supposed to take? Well, I had a winning
strategy. I enrolled in all the same classes my she was taking.
One problem, the first class was Calculus. Wow, did I get my ass
kicked that first day. It was then I realized that I wasn’t just
stupid; I was really stupid.
As I looked around at everyone else nodding along with the
instructor (including my girlfriend), it dawned on me, I hadn’t
failed because of the teachers or the material. No, I failed because
I didn’t try. I didn’t even put my self in a position to fail.
I was fundamentally afraid of being uncomfortable and having to
address the failure that comes with it.
To me it was like when you get to the top of the high dive, walk
out the edge, looking down that the clear blue water (you can even
see the dark lines at the bottom of the pool) everyone telling you
to jump, and then running back down the steps. I couldn’t
commit.
So what did I do about my Calculus class? I committed. Instead of
dropping out (my usual method), I went straight to the local
library and checked out all the high school math books I could
find. I then spent the next week going through them. And it was
awesome. Suddenly I was failing at a problem, figuring out what I
did wrong, and then course correcting. This feeling of being able
to iterate was very new to me.
Now, five weeks later that same girlfriend asked me one afternoon
why I was spending so much time on my math homework. It was
then that I uttered the fateful words that I will never forget:
“I don’t know – It’s not like I’m going to become a math major or
something”
Much to my great surprise, I ended up becoming a Math major.
(Actually, I think my parents are still surprised). Then the same
thing happened when I got here to the University of Maryland for
my graduate work. I got my ass kicked by everyone, again. I failed
my first graduate class and even got the two lowest scores on my
first Ph.D. qualifying exam. (The lowest score was actually by a
guy who didn’t even show up.) I really, really wanted to quit, but
that wouldn’t be the uncomfortable path.
So I stayed in the game by failing, getting back up, and continuing
to push forward. It was probably one of the toughest and loneliest
years of my life. The next time the qualifiers came around,
however, I had the highest scores.
The big take away I have from this is that tenacity and failure go
hand in hand. Without both, you can’t move forward.
Now it’s easy to say go forth and fail! But that’s not really that
useful. What’s most important is how you fail. The best method is
to fail fast. To help explain it, I want to tell you about one of my
most recent experiences at a company called LinkedIn. Some of
you may have gotten a few emails from us…
LinkedIn wasn’t the first social network in a very competitive
space nor did we know exactly where we were going. It was an
extremely tough fight. What allowed us to succeed was our
mantra of failing fast in order to survive. We would build products
quickly, test them out, many of them failing, then learning about
went wrong, and then trying again. In fact, if you looked at all the
projects, code, design, and people’s time that was invested into
building the company most people would be shocked by how
much didn’t work.
As my good friend Reid Hoffman, one of the founders of
LinkedIn, says: Entrepreneurship is jumping off a cliff and
assembling a plane on the way down.
I think that’s a great analogy. First because it’s a statement that
you have to fully commit by throwing yourself at the problem.
Second, to build that plane in time, you have to be comfortable
failing, learning and repeating the cycle until you accomplish your
goal.
If there is one thing that you take away today, remember this –
fail quickly, don’t fail slow. I know it can sound a bit contrarian or
even conflicting, but your goal is to move from a path of eventual
failure to a path of success through iteration.
For the cliché, but very necessary sports analogy – you are aiming
for a home-run by taking as many chances at bat as you can.
It’s essential you take risks, just make sure you have put yourself
in a position to fail quickly. Failing slow is painful for you and
painful for your loved ones to watch. It’s like watching your best
friend being in a relationship that is clearly doomed, but they just
won’t listen.
So what’s the world’s advice (remember I cheated) on how to
achieve success though failure?
First and foremost, find your passion and work on what you love.
There is a good chance many of you don’t know what your passion
is yet. (That’s okay, after all, it too me over a decade to find out
math is my passion). In fact, if you analyze LinkedIn’s data, the
trends show that your generation will change jobs more times
than any previous generation. That’s great in my opinion! You
should try lots of things out. Why? Once you find your passion,
you’ll never give up, take no for an answer, or have the patience
for those that stand in your way. You’ll become an entrepreneur in
your own right, by making your passion a reality.
Now before we go on, we need to clear up something on
entrepreneurship. Some people think entrepreneurship means
going off and doing a startup. I think those are people who have
either watched The Social Network one too many times or are
following Facebook’s stock price a little too closely.
My definition of entrepreneurship is “finding what you believe in,
and creating something meaningful by failing at it over and over
again until you eventually figure out how to make it a reality.”
When a few of us had the idea to build the first digital library in
Iraq, it wasn’t because we wanted to profit at it or to have an IPO,
it was because there was a need. People were thirty years out of
date (to put that in context, thirty years is just when the computer
mouse was becoming a reality). And to figure out how to make it
work, we had to try a massive number of things (most that didn’t
work). But it became our passion and we refused to accept defeat.
Today that digital library is one of the cornerstones of the Iraqi
education system.
Secondly, surround yourself with people you value and those who
value you. Just like your body responds poorly to junk food (ok
maybe in 10 years when it responds poorly to junk food), your
mind and energy levels also respond to the company you keep.
Keep the company of those that inspire you to do better, the
people that aren’t afraid to tell you the unvarnished truth. It will
hurt to hear, but it will allow you to iterate faster. Embrace those
that will pick you up when you are down, because they will
become your greatest allies in life.
Thirdly, experience other people’s lives and continue to share your
own. You’ve already done this. I remember many late nights
cutting across the Chapel on the way to Wawa being in deep
conversations with people who would become my closest friends
and trusted advisors. You all know what I’m talking about. As you
went through this journey, you opened up to each other. You
shared your dreams, passions, heartaches and failures with those
around you. Don’t let that go away. That’s where you learned
about the human condition and what it means to have true
relationships. The virtual ones will keep you in contact, but they
don’t mean anything unless you have a common foundation of
shared experiences.
Lastly, strive to regularly put yourself in uncomfortable situations.
The world is changing as we speak. Right now there are two
people in a garage with a dog (don’t ask me why there is a dog, but
there always seems to be one) creating the next iPhone, Facebook,
Google. Those of you that are graduating today with your
undergraduate degrees, you are the first generation to go through
your entire social years (puberty onwards) with Facebook. During
your entire educational experience you’ve had access to Google,
mobile phones, and the Internet. And yet already during your
time in college you have seen the introduction of the tablet. The
notion of using a desktop or a laptop is already outdated to any
preschooler. Given this rapid pace of change, the only advice that
I can give you to stay on top of the curve is to keep learning. This
means putting yourself in uncomfortable situations where you fail
and subsequently teaching yourself new skills as a result.
Why is this so important?
Class of 2012, you are all about to embark on your next great
journey. While many of you will travel far and wide, we are all
counting on you to fail fast. While our society is moving forward
faster than ever before, we are also facing a world with massive
challenges.
- Our health care system is going through a great debate.
- Clean water is rapidly becoming a luxury.
- We know the importance of education, but the majority of the
world is restricted from it.
- The capital and human costs associated with keeping our nation
safe continues to rise
- And, we have a disparity in the rights, both moral and physical,
for all humans both here and abroad.
The solutions to these problems won’t come from just having
debates, relying on technology, or even worse, pushing the
inevitable on to the next generation. The resolutions to our
challenges will come through the process of trying, failing quickly,
and then trying again with increased resolve.
Finally, a graduation speech wouldn’t be complete without this
most critical advice. Wear sunscreen. Yes, it’s the advice that is
given over and over, but there is truth in it. If you’re stuck in bed
with a cold, or a bad back, the world won’t stop and wait for you.
In fact, many of the best leaders I know, take religious care of
their bodies. The race is long and your body has to last for it.
There you have it – my advice to you. We love to say things like
“Failure is not an option”. But believe me, the most important
thing the University of Maryland taught me is, “Failure, is
our only option.”
So if you can only remember one thing from this speech;
remember: Every failure is an opportunity to succeed. Fail fast,
don’t fail slow.
Class of 2012 – this shared experience at college will always bind
you together, and on this fantastic day remember that your
success will be determined by how rapidly you learn from you
failures.
Congratulations class of 2012, I wish you a future of fast failures!
May you go forth and fail so that we can all succeed!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/09/23/how-machine-learning-big-data-and-ai-are-
changing-healthcare-forever/#aa082794f49e