I did a commencement speech for my University

Transcript of the speech:

Gordan Gledec: While you were facing your parents, one man was sitting in his seat. He didn't get a diploma, but he has something for you. 10 years ago, he was in your place. He has a short speech. A tech entrepreneur who says he hasn't had a real job in his life. And by that he means, he hasn't worked anywhere else except in his own company. His company is involved in software design and development and has more than 230 employees. They design and develop mobile and web applications for clients all over the world, and they have offices in the US and Europe. In 2005, he started his entrepreneurship as a student of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. Founder and CEO of Infinum, Tomislav Car.

Tomislav Car: Good afternoon. My name is Tomislav Car.

My goal today is to finish this speech before half of you start browsing Instagram.

When I got the call to hold this speech, I approached it with a desire similar to what you guys felt when you did your midterms and labs. In other words, I started writing this last night.

We founded Infinum in 2005, when I was in my first year of college. There were only two of us. We were the last generation of the program called FER 1. It was so long ago that even the dean had hair back then.

This is a joke.

The dean never had any hair. I

really tried... I really tried to get a few pictures off the internet where the dean has hair, but there's none. If you  guys find something...

That distant 2005 we founded Infinum. We started college in 2004. TBF, Vještice, Belfast Food, Lollobrigida, Sixpack performed at our freshman party. Kudos for the choice of music. A great song by Jamiroquai. It might be funny, but broadband internet wasn't widely available, so people would sit in the lobby and torrent movies to take home. Those were different times. We went to college, attended lectures, spent our time in KSET. They had good music, cheap coffee, and we had Wi-Fi.

People didn't really understand us. They said we had a small company, and it was, but they didn't get why we were doing it. Maybe we didn't as well. That's how it was for a while.

I graduated in 2009, in the middle of the recession, things weren't great. They said even electrical engineers couldn't find work. That was often repeated. Things weren't easy for us as well. A lot of tech companies start in garages, our started in Špoler's kitchen. We sat in the kitchen and didn't know what to do next. Should we close the company or not? It was a sad situation. We had 300 HRK on our company account. I remember sitting and looking at the screen and thinking: What now? We can't pay anything. We have no money.

We didn't give up.

We kept going and it started going well.

I read that entrepreneurship is like riding a lion. Everyone's looking at you and saying: Look at him, he's so brave. And you're sitting on a lion and wondering what the hell are you doing on a lion and how can you get down.

We decided to keep going and it started to get better. That was the start of the Croatian tech scene. We didn't quite get it. We didn't get what was going on with the technology, we just liked doing it. We liked programming and making products. We went step by step and we never thought of getting investors. Why would anyone give us money? We didn't understand that concept. So it went little by little. That was then, this is now.

A lot of things have changed. In technology, in Croatia. For instance, Zagreb changed a lot. Now it's a great place. Before you could only eat have sad looking chevapi and bad beer. Today, it's a great place with a lot of places to go out, eat out.  There's people, life. I read that Zagreb was the third most popular tourist destination after Rovinj and Dubrovnik. The city has changed a lot. The tech scene changed a lot as well. It used to be a small number of people who love computers and the majority didn't understand or perceive them. They might have been weird. Today, they're still weird. Or maybe they're less weird, but today it's become a business and a major industry which changes people's lives, often for the better.

This industry has changed my life. We worked like that...

When Infinum grew and became a good local company, I wanted to make it international, so I decided to move to the States and spend some time there. I spend around 4 years here. I learned a lot. For instance, I learned I don't want to live there, so that's why I came back. There's a lot of reasons, but, for instance, a lot of people have student debt. You finish college and graduate and you have tens or hundreds of thousands in student debt. You can imagine how hard that can be for some.

Today, some of you might work somewhere, maybe you have some experience, maybe you'll start your first job. I am saying this as someone who has started his own company and who has made his life out of it. But that is often not the path for most. It is up to you to realize who you are. I don't think it's important if you start your own company or if you'll work for someone. The only thing that matters is you're happy with your work and with yourselves. When choosing people, because I interviewed a lot of people, probably in the thousands, I think three things are important. First, what you're doing. What's the job? Be it technology or a project, doesn't matter. Second, who you're working with. Who are those people and what your work environment will be like, will you be able to have fun with them, will it be comfortable? Third, what do you get out of it. That's your paycheck or compensation.

And those three things are equal. You don't want to have a well-paid job, but the people you work with are idiots. You don't want to work on great projects, but barely make ends meet. You have to compromise. That's key when choosing.

On the other hand, my goal is to create a company which will be able to provide you with those three things. When journalists come... When we used to have interviews, they'd ask us why we were doing it, what's our motivation. Then I'd think about it and for a long time I didn't know the answer. I never liked saying it like we were changing the world. We're all changing the world one way or the other, but I never liked to say it.

For a long time, I was motivated out of spite. Everyone is saying nothing can be done and nothing is right, I wanted to show that Zagreb and Croatia can make a global, international competitive company. When we managed to do it, I had to change it up a bit. I realized I do it because I like building things.

We all like that sense of accomplishment when we build something. I talked to a colleague. She's also a FER graduate. I asked her how are things. She said: It's very hard. She had some difficulties, but she said she feels like she's at the top of the world when she solves a problem. She's proud of herself and that's the sense of accomplishment you get when you solve something. And that is very important.

That's a special need we have. And I wish for you all to find something what will fulfill you and that will make you happy.

How to achieve that and what is the key to success?

Of the four of us who own Infinum, three of us were in Gledec's class. Maybe that's the key to success, I don't know. Or maybe not.

People often say, especially older people, even my generation, that the newer generations are horrible, that we weren't like it. Then those ones say that the new ones are horrible. We've worked with a lot of students, some of whom are here. I thought I'd call you out, but then I realized there's a lot of you, some ten people, so I won't.

Times change, details change, but older generations said we were useless. And that's just not true. Some things change, but motivation and human qualities don't change.

One of the better advices I realized when I got older was that you shouldn't worry or panic too much. Everything that's a huge problem today, I don't remember in a few years or I just laugh at it. Do you remember when everything almost burned down? I'm sure you've had those situations. Those first exams which you thought you'd never pass. Now you laugh at it.

My advice is to try and be kind and emphatic towards others. In this industry, it's really easy to become arrogant when you're paid two or three times the average and not just in Croatia, but everywhere.

Be mindful that is not nice and that it's a privilege to work in a growing industry and create a life for yourself.

Try to broaden your perspective outside of technology as well. Business, society, design, culture. All of that helps you understand the world better and make better things and improve yourself.

My last advice is to learn to communicate with others. The complexity of working in tech does not lie just in technology, but in people and communication. And if you master that, it will be of great help.

Finally, if you work smart, if you're hardworking, and if you work with good people, good things will happen.

Thank you for the opportunity to act all smart. I congratulate you and wish you all the luck in life.