Marissa Mayer, then Vice President at Google and later CEO of Yahoo!, delivered a commencement speech structured around six key lessons she had learned in her career. Her second piece of advice — to surround yourself with the smartest people you can find — reflected the culture she had helped build at Google, where she was the company's 20th employee. Mayer argued that seeking out brilliant people isn't just about networking or advancement — it's about cognitive growth. When you're consistently around people who think differently and at a higher level, you're forced to elevate your own thinking. She encouraged graduates to actively seek criticism from these smart people, framing it not as something to endure but as a tool for becoming better. This advice carried particular weight coming from someone who had chosen, at age 24, to join a tiny startup with eight employees and 'a ridiculous name' over more established companies — a decision that proved transformative precisely because those eight people were extraordinarily smart.