The Wesleyan Entrepreneurship Club hosted a fireside chat featuring flagship speaker Strauss Zelnick ’79, on Friday, Dec. 5, in the Daniel Family Commons. Hosted in partnership with the Patricelli Center for Entrepreneurship and moderated by the club’s president, Michael Astorino ’26, over 100 students and faculty attended the event.
Zelnick double majored in psychology and English, and is the namesake for the Zelnick Pavilion, given his commitment as a trustee emeritus and a major donor to the University. He is now founder of a private equity firm ZMC and the CEO of Take-Two Interactive, a video game company which owns Grand Theft Auto, 2K Sports, and Red Dead Redemption, among others.
The event began with a conversation between Zelnick and Astorino, followed by a set of rapid-fire questions, and closing with questions from the audience. Zelnick has previously been a Shark on Wesleyan Shark Tank, an event modeled off “Shark Tank,” an American reality TV show in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of investors, seeking venture capital to help launch or grow their startups. Astorino discussed the motivation behind bringing Zelnick to campus with The Argus.
“[Zelnick has] a reputation for being the guy to talk to as an alumni resource at Wesleyan, and I was super interested because he’s incredibly successful, involved in some of the biggest media in the world, and I’ve always admired his work,” Astorino said. “I think that hearing his advice to me as a mentor, he speaks very eloquently, but also super direct, and he’s incredibly motivating. So I thought he’d be a good fit to talk to the Entrepreneurship Club, and he was generous enough to take his time and come do that.”
Zelnick began by talking about his education at the University, having an imbalance between academic and social life, and standing out to break into the entertainment industry.
“I didn’t have a traditional college experience because I spent four years in the library,” Zelnick said. “But I kind of needed to spend four years in the library to get into Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School directly out of Wesleyan, which was, frankly, the credential I needed to catapult myself into early success in the entertainment business. Also, I had all kinds of fear, social fear and anxiety. It was easier in the library.”
Zelnick also discussed his decision to leave 20th Century Fox for Silicon Valley, and emphasized the importance of prioritizing balance between work and personal life.
“Hearing someone with his level of experience emphasize integrity, focus, and picking your priorities was grounding,” attendee Finn Ahrens ’26 said. “His point that ‘you can’t have it all but you can choose what matters’ really stuck with me. I really appreciated how honest Strauss was about priorities and balance. The idea that a great life doesn’t come from trying to do everything, but from committing fully to the few things that matter.”
Other students resonated with Zelnick’s lifestyle advice.
“It was so great to hear a Wesleyan alumnus with such an interesting career path emphasize the importance of viewing your career in a holistic way, making sure you are staying healthy, staying intelligent, and maintaining a strong balance in life,” attendee Nick Dargel ’28 said.
Zelnick said that he struggled to enter the entertainment industry without any connections, which motivated him to develop a commitment to mentoring and guiding newcomers.
To close out the event, Zelnick opened the floor for a Q&A session, answering questions about striking the balance between specialization and diversification of skills, short-form media, staying healthy with a busy lifestyle, and predictions for the mobile gaming industry.
“Strauss’ perspective has shaped the way I think about leadership and long-term decision making, so hearing him share those same principles with the larger Wesleyan community was incredibly meaningful,” Ariyaan Makhija ’27 said. “His honesty and clarity gave the room something rare, advice that genuinely sticks.”
“I thought he was highly inspirational because of his honest account of what it takes to be successful,” Morgan Mattson ’28 said. “My most meaningful takeaways were as follows: Everyone should have a few priorities that they have at the forefront of their mind at all times so that they never lose track of their goals, strive to make a meaningful difference with your career and life, and share your success with the world.”
Astorino told The Argus that he plans to build off the success of Zelnick’s talk and organize more entrepreneurship-focused events in the future.
Raiza Goel can be reached at rgoel@wesleyan.edu.
Leave a Reply