Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reveals how a gardener in Japan gave him the best career advice ever

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang talked about the biggest career advice he ever received. It was not from a business tycoon or a tech industry leader but a gardener he met in Japan. The CEO spoke about it in a commencement speech at the California Institute of Technology last week. He stated, “I used to work from one of our international sites for one month each summer When our kids were in their teens, we spent a summer in Japan. (One) weekend, we visited Kyoto and the Silver Temple.”

On a “suffocatingly hot, humid and sticky" day, the tech billionaire came across a man working in a garden in scorching heat. He observed that the man tended to the moss despite the heat. He used only a bamboo tweezer to sift through the foliage, which initially puzzled Huang. He said, “I walked up to him and I said, ‘What are you doing? He said, ‘I’m picking dead moss. I’m taking care of my garden.’ And I said, ‘But your garden is so big.’ And he responded, ‘I have cared for my garden for 25 years. I have plenty of time.’”

The 61-year-old CEO stated that though the interaction was brief, the gardener’s words became one of the “most profound learnings in my life.” He said, “It really taught me something. This gardener has dedicated himself to his craft and doing his life’s work. And when you do that, you have plenty of time.”

He said that he has spent every single morning the same way since that day. He said, “I begin each morning by doing my highest priority work first. Before I even get to work, my day is already a success. I’ve already completed my most important work and can dedicate my day to helping others. When people apologize for interrupting me, I always say, ‘I have plenty of time.’ And I do.”

As told to CNBC Make It, Rainer Strack, a senior partner emeritus at Boston Consulting Group, people do tend to not give enough time to their most important work. This can often lead to unhappiness, stress and burnout.

He recommends that people should start writing out their day-to-day activities and rate them on a scale of one to 10, based on importance and how much satisfaction they give them. After this, they should decide how much time they want to spend and on which task. He added, if you find that your passions are being neglected, make some needed changes to your routine.