Former Hulu CEO to graduates: 'Don't fear failure'

At the class of 2015’s Commencement ceremony, 29,000 people gathered, expecting to hear 1993 UNC graduate and former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar speak about his experience as an entrepreneur in one of the most relevant industries of this decade.

Instead, Kilar spoke about failure and loss.

“I was personally lost and professionally about as far from my dreams as one could be,” he said of the months after his own graduation.

Holding back tears, he told the crowd that his father committed suicide just days after Kilar’s graduation.

“The man I admired most, who taught me so much, was gone from this world just three days after I last saw him in this very stadium,” Kilar said.

He lost his job and landed in trouble with the police for living out of his car.

“The mountain peaks of one’s life may get the headlines and the Facebook posts but the valleys — believe me — it is your journey through the valleys that will define you,” he said.

As a UNC alumnus, Kilar related to the graduates’ college experience. He received degrees from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Kenan-Flagler Business School. He also met his wife a few months before his graduation.

Tyler Johnson, an exercise and sport science graduate, said she could relate to Kilar’s struggles.

“There’s only so many C’s you can be OK with after being a 4.0 high school student before you learn how to get over it,” she said.

Johnson said she felt overwhelmed and almost dropped out last October.

“I had my first anxiety attack,” she said. “Everything came to a head — grad school apps, school. I have done every summer session since freshman year, I work two jobs year-round and it got overwhelming. I thought about withdrawing.”

Despite all of the stress she went through, Johnson’s family reminded her why she came to UNC.

“They reminded me that this is something I want for myself,” she said. “I took the time to reassess what was important and took a step back from my classes and reassessed my schedule, my goals and how it was helping me get to where I want to be.”

Ellyse Julien-Dalton, a psychology graduate, doesn’t have a job lined up after graduation and is still waiting to hear back about graduate school. She said it was encouraging to see that Kilar didn’t become a successful entrepreneur right out of college.

Julien-Dalton said that she wouldn’t have made it through college without the support of her mother, Marie, who offered advice for other parents:

“The only gift you can give to your child that can never be taken away is education, so that’s my job.”

university@dailytarheel.com