“In the end it’s your passion, not your ability to follow rules that will qualify you,” Jay Adelson told graduates at COM’s Commencement, May 20, 2012. Adelson encouraged graduates to follow their passion and to not let others define success for them.
When Jay Adelson left Boston University with a degree in Broadcasting & Film (with a concentration in Computer Science), he intended to begin his career as an audio engineer. However, shortly after graduation, he found himself at an Internet infrastructure company in California — an atypical destination for a COM graduate at the time. Fueled by his entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to take chances, Adelson grew into a mover and shaker on the Internet and one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Perhaps most notably, Adelson helped launch Digg, the community-driven news-sharing site, in 2004. During his tenure as CEO, Digg claimed more than 40 million unique visitors per month. A year later he co-founded Revision3, a web television network that was purchased by the Discovery Channel in 2012 for a reported $30 million.