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  • FEMALE SPEAKER: Hell, everyone.

  • It's my pleasure to introduce Pat Gelsinger, our speaker

  • today.

  • Pat started his career at Intel.

  • He was recruited to be a technician in the beginning.

  • And then as he was working full time,

  • he got his bachelor's degree in double E at Santa Clara.

  • And then he went on to get his master's degree

  • in double E and computer science at Stanford.

  • At age 31 he was the youngest vice president at Intel,

  • and then he became the first CTO at Intel.

  • In 2010 he was recruited by EMC in Boston to be the COO.

  • And then in 2012 he was the CEO of VMware in the Bay Area.

  • Pat and his wife Linda have four children.

  • And today, he is going to speak about his book,

  • "The Juggling Act, Bringing Balance

  • to Your Faith, Family, and Work."

  • Please welcome Pat Gelsinger.

  • [APPLAUSE]

  • PAT GELSINGER: Thank you, Petula.

  • Great to be here with you today.

  • I'll cover a little bit about my story.

  • As we go along, we'll dig into this subject

  • of juggling a little bit.

  • I didn't try to embarrass myself with the juggling balls,

  • but maybe afterward I will.

  • We'll see.

  • And then a little bit about being a Christian

  • both in the workplace and in the Bay Area.

  • And then we'll open up for Q&A and talk about whatever

  • else you feel like as well.

  • So be informal and interactive.

  • So a little bit about my story.

  • I was born and raised in Pennsylvania.

  • And if you've ever been to the Amish Country

  • in Pennsylvania, the ultra, ultra conservatives,

  • the Amish-- they haven't accepted any new technology

  • since 1869.

  • And then there's the Mennonites who

  • are, like, really conservative, but less so than the Amish.

  • And then there's the Pennsylvania Dutch.

  • And that's what I was growing up.

  • So compared to the Amish we were really liberal.

  • But by all means very, very conservative farm community.

  • My dad was eighth of nine children.

  • So son number one had a farm, son number two,

  • daughter number one-- it got down to at number eight,

  • and my grandfather said, we have enough farms in the family.

  • Just work with your brothers.

  • Otherwise I'd be a farm boy in Pennsylvania today.

  • And when I came out to Intel I knew a lot more

  • about cow chips than computer chips at the time.

  • At six days old I was baptized with full knowledge of what

  • I was doing in our church, and became

  • president of the youth group at 12 years old,

  • and those types of things.

  • And I thought I was a Christian just because I was born

  • and raised in that environment.

  • There was one good reason to go to church.

  • That was to meet girls or impress their mothers

  • or grandmothers.

  • And other than that, I was just rotten the other 6 and 1/2

  • days of the week.

  • I ended up skipping my last year of high school.

  • I accidentally took a scholarship exam

  • to get a tech degree.

  • So I ended up skipping my last year of high school,

  • getting my associate's degree.

  • So literally, I graduated from high school with my tech degree

  • in the summer of a '79 at 18 years old.

  • And Intel came recruiting.

  • So there was sort of an industry-wide shortage

  • of technicians.

  • So Intel came from the West Coast

  • to recruit and invite me on a trip to come to California.

  • And the guy who was interviewing,

  • Ron Smith was his name, he interviewed 12 people that day.

  • And any of you who've done a lot of interviewing,

  • you know at about number six, you sort of lose

  • track of John versus Joe.

  • And about number nine, you lose track of Jane versus John.

  • And I was number 12 on his interview list.

  • And this is what he wrote about me after the interview.

  • He said, smart, aggressive, arrogant.

  • He'll fit right in.

  • So I got invited to come to interview with Intel.

  • 18 years old and I had never been on an airplane.

  • At 18 years old, you're getting invited for free trip

  • to California.

  • And they even through in I could stay for the weekend.

  • So how long you think it took me to decide to take the trip?

  • About a nanosecond.

  • Yeah, sure.

  • I'm taking a free trip to California.

  • First time an airplane.

  • But I promised my mom before I left,

  • no way am I moving to California.

  • I mean, they're crazy out there.

  • Earthquakes and cults and stuff.

  • I'm a farm boy in Pennsylvania.

  • No problem.

  • I'm staying here.

  • But after I came and interviewed with Intel,

  • they made me a job offer.

  • And the thing that convinced me to go to Intel more

  • than anything else as a technician,

  • I wanted to be the engineer on the other side of the table

  • telling the tech what to do.

  • That was my whole career ambition

  • summed up the one thing.

  • | want to sit on that side of the table.

  • And they had a tuition reimbursement program.

  • So as long as I was working 30 hours a week or more

  • and getting passing grades, they would pay for all my school.

  • So I got my bachelor's at Santa Clara,

  • did my master's at Stanford, was working on my Ph.D.

  • At Stanford-- all of that paid for by Intel.

  • And I was a poor farm boy, so this is pretty good.

  • So I took the job with Intel, moved out

  • here at the ripe old age of 18, and then

  • started working full time and going to school full time.

  • And light-weight programs like Santa Clara, no problem.

  • Graduate programs like Stanford while you're

  • working full time, no problem.

  • Ph.D.-- so this is pretty intense.

  • Working full time, going to school full time,

  • but I loved it.

  • The first time I ever had a computer architecture class,

  • it was like, that's what I want to do for the rest of my life.

  • I was one of those kids you didn't want

  • to be in the class with me.

  • I had my first computer architecture class.

  • I found out what the textbook was.

  • Over the summer, I read the entire textbook,

  • finished every problem in the textbook,

  • and showed up on the first day of class

  • having done the entire syllabus for computer architecture.

  • Yeah.

  • The professor-- it was a new textbook

  • on computer architecture, Tenenbaum's computer textbook

  • at the time-- he, the professor hadn't

  • done past the second chapter yet in the class.

  • So my notes became the notes for the class.

  • But I was sort of manic about it in that way.

  • I also-- when I came to California

  • I thought I was a Christian.

  • And I showed up, went to church on Sunday for what purpose?

  • Meet girls and impress their mothers and grandmothers.

  • It's that simple.

  • So what did I do when I got to California?

  • Went to church to meet girls and impress their mother

  • and grandmothers.

  • So walked down the street to Santa Clara Christian Church,

  • and sure enough that first Sunday met

  • Linda, who you'll meet in a little bit.

  • I'll show a picture of her in a second.

  • And she asked me early in our relationship

  • if I was a Christian.

  • And my answer was yes.

  • I was baptized when I was six days old,

  • president of the youth group, went to church every Sunday

  • to meet girls.

  • Of course I'm a Christian.

  • And as we got to know each other,

  • the church adopted me and it quickly became apparent

  • that I was, at best case, a Sunday Christian,

  • and a lot worse than that most other days of the week.

  • And the sermon topic in February of 1980 was based on Revelation

  • 3:15-16. .

  • "I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold.

  • I wish you were one of the other.

  • But since you're neither cold or hot but lukewarm,

  • I'm about to spit you out of my mouth."

  • And that verse cut me to the heart

  • because there I was, I like to feign Christianity on the one

  • side, looking good.

  • And on the other side was living my own life.

  • And I came to that moment of crisis of my personal faith

  • and said, I have to make a decision.

  • And I was really challenged in that.

  • And in February of 1980 made the decision to be hot for God,

  • and made the decision to be a full-time Christian.

  • And absolutely at that point made

  • this fundamental, life changing decision.

  • I'm going to be hot for God and live

  • my life as a Christian in the workplace and what I do.

  • So that's February of 1980.

  • Just a couple of months later-- so I'm

  • a baby Christian at this point, sort

  • of figuring out what it really means to read the word,

  • be in fellowship, all the other things associated with that--

  • and God puts on my heart in a deep and profound way,

  • become a minister.

  • And I'm like, I don't want to be a minister.

  • I'm loving this tech stuff, computer architecture,

  • knocking it out of the park at my job.

  • That's the last thing I want to do.

  • And I just wrestled with God for months about the idea

  • of becoming a minister.

  • It's like I don't want to be like-- just nothing

  • about it attracted me.

  • So I just wrestled with God, argued with him about it

  • as I was praying.

  • And after doing that for a couple of months,

  • just couldn't let up in my heart and in the soul about it,

  • and finally said, OK, God, I give up.

  • If this happens, and I laid a-- you know, in the Bible

  • they had a story where Gideon lays the fleece before God.

  • The ground is dry, the fleece is wet.

  • The next day the fleece is wet, the ground is dry.

  • And I laid a fleece before God and said, if this happens,

  • I will go into full-time ministry.

  • And it was just finally giving up before God.

  • And after laying that fleece before him,

  • as soon as I did it, he came back and said,

  • the workplace is your ministry.

  • And then since that point in time,

  • and my life verse at that point became Colossians 3:23-24.

  • "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart,

  • as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

  • since you know that you will receive an inheritance

  • from the Lord as a reward.

  • It is the Lord Christ you are serving."

  • And that's become my life view.

  • I'm in the workplace.

  • And whether I'm a low-level technician,

  • a medium-level engineer, now CEO of a great software company,

  • I'm working for the Lord Jesus Christ as my full-time CEO.

  • It's great that I get us a paycheck from VMware.

  • And You go online, you can check out-- I

  • make too much money as a CEO.

  • That's really cool.

  • And I have a board of directors as well.

  • You can check out all them online as well.

  • But my full-time CEO is the Lord Jesus Christ.

  • And my job, the platform, everything I'm given,

  • is to be a workplace minister.

  • And there's a few who are called to vocational ministry.

  • But all of us who claim the name of Jesus Christ

  • are called to be full-time ministers.

  • In the workplace, in the home place, in the marketplace,

  • in the school place, or wherever we are as Christians,

  • we are called to be full-time ministers.

  • It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

  • Now, also I do want to just emphasize a little bit that

  • being a Christian and an engineer

  • is often seen as contradictory.

  • I believe in the scientific method.

  • I have now four degrees, and absolutely committed

  • to deep technical pursuit, data-driven capabilities.

  • And I am a full-time believer in the word of God

  • and in the Christian truths that come with it.

  • I do not believe those are in disharmony whatsoever.

  • Areas of good debate, areas of good discussion inside of that.

  • But the Bible is not meant as a scientific textbook.

  • It's meant as a love story that demands faith for people

  • to come to know him.

  • And if it was an unequivocal, immutable truth that

  • was there that could not be denied by any scientific method

  • it wouldn't require faith.

  • But God says, you will take a step of faith

  • to come into a relationship with me.

  • I believe I have a very credible, reasonable faith

  • with good scientific data that supports it.

  • But the last step is always a step of faith.

  • And you cannot come all the way to God just based on scientific

  • method.

  • Cannot be done.

  • And he wouldn't allow that to be the case.

  • He demands that you make a step of faith.

  • But I am absolutely confident, and I'll

  • debate any miracle the Bible that's talked about,

  • any other factual science.

  • We'll have fun debate about that.

  • But at the end of it, I cannot prove it.

  • I give you good scientific method behind it,

  • but it requires a step the faith to fully accept

  • and belief and live for him.

  • So continuing into the juggling discussion.

  • As I mentioned this young lady, Linda-- so I started at Intel,

  • was working for 30, 40, 70 hours a week

  • depending on school workloads and so on,

  • the project I was on.

  • I'm sure all of you work a nice 30 or 40

  • hours a week here at Google.

  • Just crazy work schedule sometimes.

  • So working full time, going to school full time,

  • light weight-program, Santa Clara, Stanford, et cetera.

  • And then I met this young lady named Linda.

  • And Linda and I-- she invited me over-- so this

  • is Christmas of 1979.

  • So she invites me to have Christmas dinner with her mom

  • and grandmother.

  • Remember this meeting mothers and grandmothers?

  • The formula's working great.

  • So Linda with two generations-- mom and grandma are there.

  • They invite me over for Christmas dinner.

  • Now, I'm a poor orphan on the West Coast.

  • I had neither money nor vacation to go back East for Christmas.

  • So I had dinner with Linda and her mom and grandmother.

  • And at the end of the evening, we just

  • had a great evening together.

  • In particular grandma and I hit it off great.

  • You know, play this card, and so on.

  • Grandma closes the door at the end of the night

  • and turns to Linda on the first time she ever met me, never met

  • me before, she turns to Linda and says, he's the one.

  • And then Linda starts to describe

  • all of my failings, which are numerous.

  • All these kind of things.

  • We weren't dating yet or anything.

  • It was just a friendship at that point.

  • Two months later, Linda's mom says to her, he's the one.

  • We still hadn't even gone on a date.

  • I got both generations in my favor.

  • This is cool.

  • And then we started dating a couple of months after that.

  • But I was on the slow boat to matrimony.

  • I was going to finish my bachelor's, finish my masters,

  • do Ph.D. And probably post-doc work

  • before thinking about getting married.

  • So I had sort of a 10-year plan until matrimony.

  • And God had a very different plan.

  • And Linda, after a dating for about a year and a half,

  • she was diagnosed with endometriosis, a disorder

  • of the reproductive system.

  • Had surgery-- one ovary removed, part of the second one removed.

  • And the doctor said to her, kids now or never.

  • Remember, we're just dating.

  • I told her.

  • She knew my plan.

  • I was on the 10-year plan to matrimony.

  • And she comes to me-- one of our date nights,

  • she comes to me with an armful of medical books.

  • And if a woman ever approaches you

  • with an armful of medical books, you're in trouble.

  • And she explains to me what's going on

  • and what's going to happen, and the doctor says, now or never.

  • Wrestle over that for a while and we decide to get married.

  • So we got married the following summer.

  • And again, the doctor said, kids maybe never.

  • You got one ovary removed, part of the second one removed.

  • And we began our family.

  • And that part of one ovary did OK.

  • So this is our oldest, Elizabeth.

  • Elizabeth is named after the mother of John the Baptist.

  • She's our older.

  • She's 31 years old now.

  • Here's our son Josiah, is number two.

  • And he works at Seagate.

  • He's in the M&A department at Seagate now.

  • And his wife Carly, and our first granddaughter.

  • Grandbabies are wonderful.

  • Skip kids.

  • Go straight to grandkids, just for advice.

  • It's much better that way.

  • You enjoy them twice-- once when they show up,

  • once when they leave.

  • It's really good.

  • And then our third is Nathan-- he lives in Oregon--

  • and his wife Rachel, and our second granddaughter, Alice.

  • And he's a youth minister at a church up there.

  • And our son Micah is the last of our tribe here.

  • And if we have time I'll tell you a story about Micah

  • or so as we go.

  • But now I'm working full time, I'm going to school full time,

  • and having a family full time.

  • And this is what I call the juggling years.

  • How do you make it all fit?

  • How do you possibly deal with all the challenges

  • that you have?

  • All of the issues that are pounding upon you?

  • And if you think about this period of your life, with it--

  • the normal priorities that we want to work for-- I mean,

  • you're here developing your career.

  • How successful do you want to be in your job?

  • Very.

  • And if you're good and capable, how much of the job

  • do they want of you?

  • As much as you give it.

  • Your ego and your job are in perfect harmony.

  • All of you.

  • Work more, harder-- you want to be successful,

  • you want to be promoted, you want to make more money.

  • And all of those are in perfect harmony with each other.

  • So you know what happens at that phase is your priorities ending

  • up being work, family, God.

  • And work just wants to consume it all.

  • And you want to be successful, reinforced.

  • What are the God given priorities?

  • God, family, work.

  • So we live our lives almost exactly

  • inverted to the priorities that God has set.

  • So how do you make things fit?

  • How do you live in this period of life

  • when you're just being pressed on all sides-- family

  • responsibilities, school responsibilities,

  • other personal objectives that you have?

  • And in this period of time-- and this

  • is sort of the topic of the book,

  • and most of the learnings out of that sort of

  • came from this 15-year period where

  • it's full-time work, a full-time job, full-time school,

  • full time family, and how to make it fit.

  • So just a couple of things.

  • And you can read more about in the book and Q&A session.

  • But the first is a mission statement.

  • I had gotten to be 31 years old.

  • At that point, I had a couple of chips that I had finished.

  • I had gotten my first patent from Intel.

  • I'm an inventor.

  • I mean, that was cool.

  • You get your second patent.

  • I'm still inventor.

  • You get your third one.

  • Well OK, I'm still an inventor-- but written my first book.

  • How many of you read my first book?

  • You did?

  • So anyway, it's a thriller.

  • "Programming the 80386."

  • You get to last chapter and you turn paging on.

  • Yeah.

  • This is exciting stuff.

  • Yeah, to a Google audience, you guys would get that.

  • I mean, this is when segmentation and small address

  • spaces were a problem, and the first fully flat 32-bit.

  • I mean, this was cool stuff, man.

  • So I'd written my first book, my first patent.

  • I became the youngest vice president at Intel

  • at 31 years old.

  • All this is cool and great.

  • But all of a sudden it's like, what

  • do I want to do with the rest of my life?

  • What are my priorities?

  • What are my objectives?

  • And out of that came writing a mission statement.

  • And in this period of life I said, just being very, very

  • thoughtful about what you want to do

  • with the rest of your life because you're

  • being faced with too many things are demanding your time.

  • How do you decide what you want to do?

  • And out of that, being very clear about what

  • your goals are.

  • And I developed mine.

  • You can look at it in the book, you

  • can look at it on my website as well.

  • Let's just say the three elements of my mission

  • statement, my personal mission, first is my mission.

  • I will be a Christian husband, family man, and businessman.

  • I will use every resource God has

  • given me to carry out his work on earth as set forth below.

  • So that's what I want my epitaph to read on my tombstone.

  • That's what I want it to be.

  • And then are my values.

  • And things like work hard in all I do,

  • be open to the direction of the Holy Spirit,

  • enthusiastically approach-- those are the values.

  • And when you say, what's Pat like?

  • That's what I want you to say-- you know, personality.

  • And then finally, specific goals.

  • And some of my goals-- make my marriage an example of that

  • laid out in scriptures, encourage all four

  • of our children into Christ, become for the CEO of Intel

  • Corporation, visitor 50 country-- I wrote that

  • about being the CEO of Intel when I was 31 years old.

  • What a precocious little brat I was when I first wrote that.

  • But audacious with some of the goals.

  • Some can be long, some come short.

  • Talk about physical exercise, about how

  • we're going to use our finances and wealth,

  • and supporting charities and so on.

  • But my specific goals-- every year I grade our goals.

  • I do it tax time.

  • I'm already depressed, so it's a great time

  • to come back to the goals and do it.

  • But grading myself, and how am I doing against the things I say?

  • It also allows you, as things come up in your life,

  • to say no, not in my goals.

  • No, I don't want to spend time on that.

  • That's not consistent with who I am and what I want to be.

  • So it helps you say no.

  • It also helps you say yes and develop the areas

  • that you want to be.

  • So developing a personal mission statement or maybe

  • a family mission statement to help

  • guide you to set the direction that you want to go

  • and invest in and pursue those directions.

  • So first the juggling act rules is a mission statement.

  • Second, priorities.

  • And we talked about this God, family, work versus work,

  • family, God.

  • And how do you live every day-- because it's

  • easy to sit some weekend and write your priorities,

  • and then life hits Monday morning.

  • And how do you keep them firmly in place?

  • And just a few things from how I've learned

  • to manage those over time.

  • And trust me, a CEO job doesn't make it any easier.

  • As you get higher in the ranks it gets worse as you go along.

  • One of those is beginning the day in scripture,

  • in the word every day.

  • And I set as my priority that I started reading the "Wall

  • Street Journal" very early.

  • Like, 21 years old, I read the "Wall Street Journal"

  • every day.

  • But I don't read the business bible

  • before I read God's Bible.

  • It's just one of those things.

  • And maybe before your first cup of coffee, just

  • finding ways to put God on the throne every day

  • and starting with him as a priority.

  • Making sure you're in regular fellowship in church,

  • and making those clear priority decisions in your life.

  • So putting God on that throne every day.

  • And that's one of my priorities.

  • And I have to live that way to keep myself balanced.

  • He is my CEO.

  • He is the person that I want to be accountable to

  • at the end of my life.

  • And the second priority is family.

  • Now, how many of you find it easy to be home every night

  • in time for your family?

  • Nobody, huh?

  • OK.

  • Oh, you're lying.

  • OK.

  • Now, imagine the conversations that Linda and I would have.

  • Remember, my work objectives are exactly

  • aligned with my ego objectives.

  • I want to be successful at work-- you

  • remember how that spiral goes.

  • So I'd have a conversation with Linda.

  • So imagine, she would approach me and she'd say,

  • you haven't been home much lately.

  • And my response would be, no that's not really true.

  • I've been home more the last couple of weeks

  • than before that.

  • No you haven't.

  • Yes, you have.

  • No, you haven't.

  • So you're just in the middle of an argument.

  • So we started keeping score.

  • So we set up at home chart.

  • And on the at home chart, if I was home by 6:15,

  • that was one point.

  • If I was home by 5 o'clock, that was two points.

  • After 6:15 was zero.

  • Weekend days were negative points if I was gone.

  • That's the numerator and the denominator

  • was the number of workdays.

  • We set a goal on the at home chart of having 70%.

  • And my secretary produced a spreadsheet

  • that she sent to my wife and I every month.

  • We have almost 30 years of the mean, the median,

  • the 12-month running average, the skew, the kurtosis.

  • Now we sit down, now we have the data.

  • Now we have the discussion on my time.

  • And you say, you haven't been home much lately.

  • But look at the graph, and it was like, oh, you're right.

  • I haven't been home much lately.

  • Or no, I have been home more.

  • I haven't felt like you've been home more.

  • That's totally different.

  • But keeping score, setting goals.

  • And most of us in positions in the tech industry

  • and at Google, I mean, we're goal-oriented.

  • We want to be successful.

  • Some days I'll be at the end of our driveway,

  • sitting on the cellphone at 6:12.

  • 6:13-- sorry, got to go.

  • I'm getting a point tonight.

  • Done.

  • In the garage on time.

  • I'm not gonna lose a point over a minute

  • or two of a stupid meeting.

  • So keeping score and keeping things in balance that way.

  • And also things like dating our kids.

  • One of the things I started early,

  • every week I took one of them out for breakfast.

  • Four kids, once a month, dating my kids.

  • Dating Linda-- twice a month, we go on dates together.

  • Twice a year, we take long weekends or trips, just

  • the two of us.

  • Finding ways to live that priority

  • that family is more important.

  • I was given the opportunity to become Andy Gross'

  • technical assistant.

  • Now, at Intel this was the marquee--

  • this was like becoming Larry and Sergey's

  • personal second-in-command at Intel.

  • So it was the marquee development position

  • in the company.

  • Two of the last three CEOs had that role at Intel.

  • So I was offered that job.

  • I turned it down.

  • Everybody in the company was like, what an idiot you

  • are for turning down that job.

  • But I knew I couldn't do that job

  • and keep my priorities of God, family, work at the time.

  • Sometimes those decisions are hard.

  • But being clear about what your goals are, your priorities are,

  • and then living according to them.

  • Third tool for your journey as a juggler, mentors.

  • Now, I was in charge-- this about, I'm 23 years old,

  • something like that-- and I was in charge

  • of taping out the 80386.

  • How many of you remember the 80386?

  • Just humor me.

  • A few of you, right?

  • But it was a big, big deal.

  • It was probably the most important chip going

  • on in the industry at the time.

  • And I was in charge of assembling

  • the database of the chip to prepare

  • it to send off to go to fab.

  • That was my job.

  • And I was working 20 hours a day getting the chip done.

  • And we had a design review with executive staff of Intel.

  • So Andy Grove is in the audience-- founder,

  • "Time Magazine" Man of the Year, one of the most powerful people

  • in Silicon Valley the time.

  • Next to him was Robert Noyce, the Nobel Prize winning

  • inventor of the integrated circuit.

  • Next to him was Gordon Moore-- Moore's law.

  • I mean, I got the gods of the industry here,

  • and I'm giving an update on taping out the 386.

  • And basically, I chewed them out.

  • The computers weren't stable.

  • They were crashing.

  • And I'm not going to get my chip done

  • if you don't fix these-- I mean, what a precocious brat I was.

  • 23-year-old, the guy-- so on.

  • But just really, really aggressive in their face

  • about this.

  • A couple of days later, I'm sitting

  • in my office working like crazy on the chip

  • and assembly, and design rule checks and that other kind

  • of stuff.

  • The phone rings.

  • Who is it?

  • I didn't want to be interrupted.

  • It's when phones really rang.

  • They weren't in your pocket.

  • And the voice comes back, Andy-- Andy who?

  • And I respond, and the voice comes back, Andy Grove.

  • I'm dweeb, and he-- way up here, president,

  • founder of the company.

  • And I'm just so beside myself, out of my stupor.

  • And he starts shelling me with questions.

  • What are you reading?

  • What are you studying?

  • What are your career objectives?

  • What are your development plan-- so just and I'm like, uh!

  • After a few minutes of that, I'm just, uh!

  • And he says, those are lousy answers.

  • Yeah, they were.

  • I could barely talk.

  • He says, be in my office in a week with better ones.

  • Wow, the president and COO says to be in his office in a week,

  • you got two choices-- leave the country or show up.

  • It's pretty simple.

  • So I showed up, and that began a mentoring relationship

  • with Andy Grove that literally lasted til just a couple

  • of years ago.

  • And the only reason I'm in a position like I'm in today

  • is because I've had people like Andy Grove making me better.

  • Now, mentoring with Andy Grove, it's like going to the dentist

  • without Novocaine.

  • He's not a nice guy.

  • If you're mostly right and a little bit wrong, your wrong.

  • One time I came into his office--

  • just to let you know how blunt this guy was--

  • I came into his office and I had grown a beard

  • since the last time he had seen me.

  • He looks at me.

  • I can tell he's sort of checking this out.

  • He says, that's ugly.

  • Shave it off.

  • But that was Andy.

  • Just blunt, direct, and making you better.

  • And I just say, for everybody in this phase of life,

  • both keeping you accountable, helping you along the way,

  • do you have people like an Andy Grove in your life?

  • People who are just making you better?

  • Who are challenging you?

  • And in scriptural terms I've called it--

  • it's three strands, a Paul, a Barnabas, a Timothy.

  • Somebody who's breathing into your life,

  • somebody who's a partner on the way, a buddy on the journey,

  • and then somebody whose life you're breathing into as well.

  • And to be able to have those kind of mentoring relationships

  • to help you as you're developing, and in your career,

  • and learning or along this journey,

  • and how to keep balance in all the things

  • that you're off to do that you've

  • said in the Mission statement.

  • Keeping you accountable against that.

  • So three-- there's a number of others in the book,

  • but maybe some ideas.

  • And in the Q&A time we can talk about that a bit more.

  • But some thoughts on how to manage through the juggling

  • act.

  • Now, when I was asked to come back

  • to be the CEO of VMware-- I mean, that's a pretty good job,

  • don't you think?

  • Yeah, a lot worse jobs than being CEO of VMware.

  • We're a $6 billion software company.

  • I know that's small by Google terms.

  • But in software terms, that makes us

  • the number five software company in the world today.

  • So hey, we're not bad at that level.

  • We crossed 6 billion.

  • I got 19,000 employees now working for me-- Bay Area.

  • I mean, this is OK.

  • But when we left the Bay Area-- Linda I were here 10 years,

  • then we moved to Oregon, then I became president and CEO

  • at Intel in Boston, and then coming back to the Bay Area.

  • And when we left the Bay Area 25 years ago,

  • Linda said, we're never coming back.

  • We wanted to raise our kids in a different area,

  • different lifestyle, et cetera.

  • The busyness, the craziness of the Bay Area-- we're never

  • coming back was what she said.

  • And just never say never to God.

  • He has different plans.

  • And so we're invited back to come to the Bay Area,

  • she really struggled.

  • Again, I was all in.

  • We've made our home.

  • We still have a home in Oregon for 25 years.

  • That's what we really consider home.

  • So the idea of coming back to the Bay Area

  • was, OK, God, what are you up to?

  • What do you want to do here?

  • And this big platform called being CEO.

  • And with thatt-- a few things about the Bay Area.

  • It's a very geographically diverse area, very ethnically

  • diverse area, highly affluent.

  • You now live in the richest area on earth.

  • Highest per capita income-- Bay Area.

  • We've crossed all the others on the earth.

  • Innovative and influential-- Googles,

  • Amazons, Microsofts, VMware, Facebooks, et cetera--

  • we changed the world from the Bay Area.

  • Highly innovative and influential.

  • But one of the lowest areas of philanthropy in the nation.

  • Can you believe that?

  • Some of the highest income and lowest philanthropy.

  • If you go to the census data that show philanthropy rates,

  • there are poor counties in Arkansas

  • that have higher per capita giving rates than the Bay Area.

  • It's like we're like 310 out of 348 different census zones

  • that they have.

  • Pitiful.

  • And some of the lowest church areas in the nation as well.

  • So as I view it, my mission field now, my area of ministry

  • is to rich, influential, miserly,

  • pagans in the Bay Area.

  • Yeah, that's my neighbors.

  • That's your neighbors as well.

  • And out of that, I've helped to start

  • an organization called TBC, called Transforming

  • the Bay with Christ.

  • And we said, there's three things that we want to do.

  • One is unify the Christian leadership

  • across the Bay-- pastors, parachurch leaders, et cetera,

  • to bring them into relationship with each other.

  • Nationally known leaders in the Bay Area-- Chip Ingrams,

  • Francis Chans, John Ortbergs and others don't know each other.

  • Just bring them together and say,

  • let's get to know each other and work together.

  • Second is amplify.

  • Amplify what God is doing through works of service.

  • And the church has become known for what we're against,

  • not what we do.

  • And Matthew in 5:16, it's listed here.

  • "In the same way let your light shine before others

  • that they might see your good deeds

  • and glorify your Father in Heaven."

  • It's not by our superior intellectual position,

  • buy our superior political position,

  • it's by our good deeds that we should glorify.

  • And we've gotten so confused as a church to lose focus

  • on love and good deeds for it.

  • So it's to really amplify works of service throughout the Bay.

  • And the church largely seen today as one of two things,

  • and particularly so in the Bay Area.

  • It's either any evolutionary leftover

  • that I as an intelligent being have no purpose for,

  • or it's a tool of the political right.

  • And either one of those is not interesting to me as well

  • 95% of the Bay Area population.

  • So how can we make the church appealing again?

  • And then finally bringing about multiplication,

  • expanding churches throughout the day to grow,

  • expand, to become that social influence for the long term

  • in the Bay Area.

  • So we've launched the TBC.

  • You can go look at it, TBC.city, and potentially participate,

  • or with your church join in working

  • with us to help influence the Bay for Christ

  • for the long term.

  • So with that, I'll pause and we'll take questions

  • on any subject all.

  • AUDIENCE: My question is about, I guess, the role

  • as a Christian in technology and just-- not just

  • in the workplace, but just in the work that I actually do.

  • Sometimes I feel like the work that I

  • do and the work that people work on

  • is so-- we focus so much on the how

  • and the what that we forget the who and the why.

  • And it gets kind of depressing sometimes

  • to not see the connection between the thing

  • that I'm actually building and how God can use that.

  • So I was wondering if you have any advice for that?

  • PAT GELSINGER: Yeah, and I say, let me tell you-- here.

  • Good job, thank you.

  • I sort of set this as sort of my personal, professional

  • objective many, many, many years ago.

  • I said, I want to work on a piece of technology that

  • touches every human on the planet

  • in every modality of life-- work, home, and play.

  • And that's my objective in my career

  • so that I might both improve their lives and quality of life

  • as well as hasten the day of Christ coming.

  • So that's my-- what I'm trying to do professionally.

  • And if any of you have used the personal computer-- any of you

  • use that?

  • Any of you use a Mac or anything like that?

  • OK, you've worked on a piece of my technology.

  • Have any of you used USB?

  • OK, I did that.

  • Did you use Wi-Fi?

  • OK, I worked on that.

  • I mean, and now with cloud, I'd say with Google-- I mean, think

  • about the bigger objective of the work that you're in today

  • and always keep that in mind.

  • Because you do, you just get down here way

  • in the minutia of the stuff.

  • So there is just a bigger purpose

  • that we're out to change lives, improve the world, et cetera.

  • Also, in the workplace it is so easy

  • to get so consumed by what you're doing,

  • you lose track of the bigger picture.

  • The most important thing to me is-- we'll get back here

  • to this picture.

  • I started my leadership event this year

  • and I showed off pictures of my two-year-old grandchildren

  • and told stories about them.

  • Because hey, all the stuff, the projects and so on,

  • the lives that we touch-- I spent the first 20

  • years of my career and I talked about this, relationships

  • are more important than results.

  • And it wasn't that I didn't care about other people.

  • But you were sort of generally a distraction.

  • If you weren't helping me get my project done,

  • you were generally a distraction.

  • So get out of my road.

  • Either help or get out of my-- kind of thing.

  • And over the last 10 years of my career,

  • I start every meeting, how are you?

  • Today I had one of the guys in my office who just got back

  • from a trip through Europe.

  • How was the trip?

  • How's your family doing, and so on.

  • And to really shift the focus.

  • Not to ever lose sight of the-- I

  • mean you have a fiduciary responsibility

  • to be a great employee.

  • Not a good one, not a mediocre one, a great one.

  • If we're Christians, we should absolutely

  • be the best employees because we're working

  • for a much higher calling.

  • But in that, find ways to be able to build relationships,

  • focus on the higher purpose and calling that we have.

  • And find ways to be able to be salt and light as it says

  • in scripture in the every day.

  • How can I pray for you?

  • What things are going on your life

  • that I can really be uniquely connecting with you

  • and supporting?

  • And even-- I've asked that question

  • to thousands of people-- the most

  • atheist, agnostic, other people, nobody

  • has ever denied me praying for their sick relatives.

  • Never once.

  • Can you believe that?

  • Hey, you're an atheist.

  • You don't even believe there is a God.

  • Why will you let me pray for-- so never once.

  • It just changes the relationship that you have

  • and the potential role that you have

  • with your peers and colleagues in the workplace.

  • AUDIENCE: Hi, just to follow up.

  • Can you elaborate on what you mean by to be a great employee,

  • or to be, say, the best that you can be?

  • Especially in light of a lot of your discussion

  • seems to be about how to juggle by, say, making time for family

  • or by considering relationships to be important.

  • PAT GELSINGER: Yup, yup.

  • So a couple thoughts on that.

  • One is, sometimes-- and I want this to be very-- every once

  • in a while, you just gotta walk home, tell your spouse, hey,

  • for the next 30 days, I'm gone.

  • The project demands it, and so on.

  • You are just going to do what it takes to get the job done.

  • But then the next 30 days after that, you better say,

  • oh, this is how I'm going to keep balance as well.

  • And if you can't keep some reasonable balance while you're

  • being a great employee, getting the job done,

  • doing the projects and so on, then find a different job.

  • Because you have to be able to live by your priorities

  • and live for the long term as well.

  • But you know hey when I'm taping out

  • a chip when I was at Intel, now when

  • I'm getting ready for earnings calls no,

  • or other big-- we have VMworld coming up, 25,000 people.

  • I can promise you I will not be home

  • for dinner for a number of nights the week beforehand.

  • But then also balance it by, OK, here's

  • when I'm taking vacation.

  • The first 10 years at Intel, I took no vacation.

  • Can you believe-- why I take vacation?

  • I love what I'm doing.

  • Why stop?

  • It was just great.

  • And then Linda came to me one day and she says,

  • you might not need vacation, but your family

  • needs you on vacation.

  • Oh.

  • Changed my perspective entirely.

  • It sounds so stupid when I say it now.

  • But that's-- and since then I take every day vacation

  • I'm entitled to at that point, and really making it a good.

  • You can be on vacation and not on vacation.

  • But really finding ways.

  • And hey, as a CEO it's really hard to do this now.

  • But honey, just giving me an hour or two in the morning,

  • and then I can feel good the rest of the day.

  • OK, so I get up early, clean out the inbox,

  • handle the crisis, and so on.

  • OK, now we can have a great day and we can go

  • bike riding and all the stuff.

  • We just had a long a 4th of July.

  • So part of it is doing the job.

  • Also, when you're doing the job one

  • of the things as a Christian that you get to do

  • is you realize there's a much higher purpose in mind.

  • It changes your attitude and perspective on everything.

  • And there's-- does Google have any interwork politics?

  • Any large organization does.

  • But as a Christian, you can look past that so

  • much more easily as well.

  • And just say, I didn't get the promotion.

  • God be praised.

  • I wasn't ready for it for whatever reason

  • may be the case.

  • I got the promotion.

  • God be praised for it as well.

  • And you can improve your work attitude,

  • your team attitude so much if you

  • take on that higher perspective of what you're off to do,

  • the lives you're off to change and so on.

  • I remember at one will point in my career at Intel,

  • I was so furious.

  • I was a vice president.

  • There was another vice president, Mike.

  • He got promoted to a senior vice president before me.

  • I mean, he was nowhere near producing what I was.

  • I was so torqued.

  • What a criminal injustice of the universe

  • that he was promoted before me.

  • And in retrospect, hey, my career's done just fine.

  • But being able to keep that balance to realize that,

  • hey, I am going to be the best employee even

  • if a fundamental injustice of the universe

  • just occurred with that promotion.

  • I'm just going to continue to be doing my job,

  • to never get caught up in politics,

  • to absolutely be doing the right thing for the company,

  • for the customer with the highest integrity, et cetera.

  • And of course, sometimes you just

  • got to do what it takes to get the project done as well.

  • And that's what I mean by being a great employee.

  • And if you're great employee, I call it

  • like this invisible bank account that you're

  • making deposits into.

  • Because someday stuff happens, bad stuff happens.

  • But they sort of come and look and say, oh, no, she's great.

  • She's been such a team player.

  • She's got so many good things.

  • You survive some of those bad situations

  • because they will inevitably arise at different times.

  • AUDIENCE: Yeah, so Karen is asking,

  • do you have any specific advice for women who are balancing

  • work, family, and faith?

  • PAT GELSINGER: Yeah, unfortunately women

  • in technology-- it's a terrible situation.

  • And it begins with a lousy raw material in the sense

  • that old 18% of incoming technical STEM are females.

  • I mean, that number's got to get fixed.

  • Because there's just such-- it's all male dominated,

  • and then technology is so much more so that way.

  • So to me, the most important things-- and we're

  • hosting a Girls Who Code at our campus in a couple of weeks,

  • and those kind of things.

  • We really just got to get those numbers just way up.

  • It should be 50-50, right?

  • And we're nowhere near that at that level.

  • And then what happens is females generally--

  • because there aren't good role models,

  • there aren't good systems to support them,

  • micro-inequities inside of the environment.

  • They generally get promoted less, they get lower raises,

  • they don't have a good role model-- statistically,

  • it's the way it is.

  • So we have to fight those things very aggressively just

  • like any other situation.

  • We're doing things at VMware.

  • I'm sure Google is doing those things as well.

  • But it's one of those hard things

  • that's just going to take a long time to really turn around.

  • And we are starting to see the STEM rates into STEM

  • fields starting to rise now.

  • So it's an encouraging environment that we're in.

  • And obviously companies-- we have policies,

  • and again, I'm sure that Google does as well-- with regard

  • to, often women fallout of the technical fields in the child

  • bearing years.

  • They drop out, they don't come back.

  • How can we make that more effective for them

  • to come back and return and participate-- job sharing,

  • other things like that to make that

  • more effective in that environment-- strong mentoring

  • programs and so on.

  • So there's a lot of things that we

  • need to do to make it better.

  • And obviously, for women proper, being

  • able to be successful in a male-dominated environment

  • is hard.

  • And finding good mentors, people who

  • are your champions along the way are

  • some of the most valuable things that

  • can be done in that respect.

  • But we have a long, long way to go unfortunately.

  • I remember I was the champion of the senior technical females

  • at Intel.

  • After five years, we made no statistical progress.

  • None.

  • After five years, we started to move the needle on the program.

  • And to me it was so frustrating.

  • I don't take on projects to not succeed after five years.

  • I mean, I was embarrassed for it.

  • It's just slow, hard, and deeply ingrained,

  • and takes a while to move the needle.

  • AUDIENCE: My question goes to in regard

  • to you're mission statement.

  • So at some point, I guess you just

  • decided that you were taking on too many things

  • and so you decided to be build up a mission statement that

  • would affect your whole life?

  • So I guess, where do you get the insight to build such a mission

  • statement?

  • PAT GELSINGER: Yeah, for me, I got

  • to this period of sort of aimlessness

  • in life which sort of drove me to it.

  • I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next.

  • I wanted to be a VP.

  • I wanted to write a book.

  • I did that.

  • I got patent.

  • It was sort of like, OK, now that I've

  • sort of done the things that I had in mind I

  • wanted to get done, it was like this period of aimlessness.

  • So it's really sort of a year of sojourn

  • and wandering until I really read

  • a few books and other things to get to that point.

  • The way to write, to me-- writing a mission statement,

  • you can look at mine online or in the book.

  • You could look at others.

  • There's a few books that talk about that subject

  • as well that might give you other models for it.

  • Talk with your mentors about it, significant others, spouses,

  • et cetera, are very helpful to help you shape the thinking.

  • And writing a mission statement, generally write down the things

  • that you have in mind, revise it a few times,

  • and then stick it in the drawer for a couple of months.

  • And then take it out, and look at it again.

  • Is that really who you want to be 10, 20, 30 years from now?

  • Tear it up, do it again.

  • And then put it in the drawer again.

  • And then finally about the third major revision,

  • it's probably getting to be pretty close.

  • And then take it to mentors and another significant influences

  • your life and say, is what you think Pat should be?

  • Does this resonate with you and who you see me

  • being, as well as what you think I should aspire to be as well?

  • And it's a hard process.

  • It took me about a year to write the first, what I considered,

  • finished version of my mission statement.

  • Now I think I'm on version 6Ba, I think is what I'm on

  • or something like that.

  • But it hasn't changed a whole lot

  • since that first version at 31.

  • But I've revised it sort of for the major epics of life.

  • When we were in the major child rearing years,

  • sort of one epic of life.

  • I did a major revision after we empty nested because that's

  • a very different phase of life and the role

  • that you're in there.

  • And I think sort of as you go into sort

  • of the twilight years of your career

  • may be the next epic as well.

  • But as you write it, it should be good

  • for, like, the next 10 or 20 years of your life,

  • and as the things you want to get done.

  • And maybe some short-term agendas.

  • I want to exercise this many days a week,

  • or stuff like that.

  • But some also sort of saying, hey, in 10 years,

  • where do you want your career to be?

  • What do you want to be?

  • And then what are you doing today to help you get there?

  • What are you doing right now to help

  • you prepare for those next major jobs

  • that you would want in your career in the future?

  • And if you're not doing those things,

  • then that's really not what you want to do.

  • You're kidding yourself if you can start pointing it back

  • to things you're really underway today with.

  • AUDIENCE: So you mentioned several times

  • about work and ego being very aligned.

  • And I was wondering if you have any thoughts on, rather than

  • individual responsibility for that decision,

  • if you have any thoughts on kind of pushing

  • from the top of the company in changing

  • the culture around work?

  • PAT GELSINGER: Well, a handful of thoughts there.

  • Because clearly, if I look at my job as CEO now,

  • how successful do I want VMware to be?

  • Very successful.

  • But we've also been very thoughtful.

  • And let me just-- I think I have them here.

  • These are the VMware values.

  • And also saying, these are the values--

  • it's not just about projects that

  • were getting done-- but we say, execution, passion, integrity,

  • customer, and community.

  • And we talk a lot about that.

  • And then the community It's not just the social community we're

  • in, but also the community of our people, the employees,

  • and the families as well.

  • So we clearly emphasize that as part

  • of the values of our company as well.

  • And yeah, we got projects to get done,

  • we have schedules to keep and so on.

  • But we do a lot.

  • And my role-- I mean, we help to do this.

  • We're an epic company, with epic values, with epic customers,

  • with epic products.

  • CRM The whole thing works pretty nicely that way.

  • But clearly, I mean like we have-- on our campus

  • we hold a Halloween celebration.

  • This last year we had Ariana Grande as our singer

  • for-- we had, I think, 6,000 people

  • on campus for our Halloween celebration.

  • 4,000 of them, or 5,000 kids-- can you

  • imagine 5,000 sugar infested, crazy

  • dressed kids running around?

  • I mean, it was chaos.

  • But again, it's reinforcing the family, the balance.

  • And again, I know Google does those kind of things as well.

  • But clearly, I got to reinforce it from the top,

  • otherwise we turn into a sweatshop as well.

  • And we're here for the long term to build families, communities,

  • relationships for the long term.

  • And a lot I do, as I reinforce these values, it's

  • critical to reinforce that from the top

  • even as bottoms-up decisions are made.

  • And every once in a while, yep, I'm going to come to you

  • and say, sorry, I need to work this weekend.

  • But then I have to be able to also say,

  • and maybe at the end of the month,

  • you need to take a few extra days off, and balance as well.

  • And creating a culture that allows that to occur.

  • I just had dinner last night with one of our guys,

  • and we gave him what we call a take three.

  • We give people the opportunity after so many years

  • of service to take three months to go do something else.

  • And that could be nothing.

  • And in his case, he's been bike riding.

  • He says he does a three-hour bike ride every day.

  • He's lost 20 pounds.

  • And he just had done a big vSphere release for us.

  • And he says, I just needed a break.

  • And he was so grateful just to give him that chance

  • to reset everything.

  • And we're talking about what project

  • he's going to do as he re-enters the company and so on.

  • So it really is that mix of things

  • of working hard, being proud of what you do,

  • passionate for the projects.

  • But also saying, yeah, we have to keep things in balance

  • because my grandkids are way more important

  • than the next earnings call for a VMware.

  • AUDIENCE: I was wondering if you to go

  • into more detail in that period of your life

  • where you're trying to grow as a Christian?

  • Because you said you were, like a baby Christian,

  • and then you were working long hours, building a family,

  • going to school.

  • PAT GELSINGER: Yeah, yeah.

  • Yeah, and it was, at that point in my life,

  • it was just this frenetic period.

  • And I'm growing as a Christian, and trying to figure out

  • what that was like.

  • At the various-- soon after I became a Christian-- just

  • tell you a little story.

  • I walking down the halls of Intel.

  • This was like a week after I became a Christian.

  • And this guy comes up to me, and you could tell

  • he was sort of checking me out.

  • And I couldn't quite-- didn't know him at all.

  • And he comes up, and he says, hi, I'm Bob.

  • Are you Pat?

  • And I said, yeah.

  • Again, this is sort of weird.

  • And he says, God told me I should be your roommate.

  • God's talking to you about me?

  • I mean, we became roommates for the couple of years until Linda

  • and I got married.

  • And I'll just tell you, he was just

  • this perfect, mature Christian that

  • sort of helped lead me through some of those early phases.

  • He was like the first spiritual mentor

  • I had in my life-- people helping you in those.

  • After Linda and I got married, we've

  • had Bible studies in our home now

  • for probably 25 of the last 30 years

  • that I've been leading us well.

  • The best way you want to mature as a Christian

  • is to teach other people.

  • And that's one for me, I find that to be very

  • challenging in that respect.

  • And that journey as you're going through it,

  • good church, good leaders, good teaching, spending

  • time in the Bible and prayer yourself-- all those things--

  • just the good diet of a young Christian experience.

  • But my case, Bob was extremely critical and influential

  • in those early Christian years.

  • And I think everybody in that phase of life

  • need that kind of influence for it as well.

  • So hey, I am so grateful to be able to spend time with you.

  • I'll be hanging around a little bit afterward.

  • And I'd love to chat some more.

  • Thank you very much.

  • God bless. [APPLAUSE]

FEMALE SPEAKER: Hell, everyone.

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