Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) CEO Lisa Su said she built her career by following advice she received as a young engineer at IBM, where an executive urged her to stop avoiding complications and run towards the hardest problems.
Su Learned To Chase Hard Problems
Su, now one of the most prominent leaders in the semiconductor industry, has said that IBM executive John Kelly gave her a lesson that shaped her path.
"I was given a piece of advice when I was a young engineer at IBM that has really stuck with me. Someone told me, ‘You should run toward problems,'" she recalled in an Austin Woman profile. "If you're going to work on something, work on something that's really important."
That mindset later drew her to AMD, a company that had fallen behind its rivals and faced doubts about its future when she joined in 2012. Speaking at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's commencement in May 2025, Su said Kelly told her to "run towards the hardest problems," because that is where people find opportunity, learn fastest and grow.
