Jones told the story of writing the screenplay for 'Celeste and Jesse Forever' with her best friend, only to watch it sold and resold as company after company folded. She and her co-writer became experts at shutting down studios. After years of trusting the system, she finally made the film independently for $840,000 — a fraction of the original $16 million budget — and sold it at Sundance. The experience taught her that the linear, rule-following path that got her into Harvard doesn't translate to the real world. She urged graduates to stop waiting for wise gatekeepers to hand them opportunities and instead build their own systems.