Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2017, when Jeff Bezos was fighting for the title of world’s richest man and was married to MacKenzie; they divorced in 2019, and he stepped down as Amazon CEO in 2021.
An interesting interview with Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, in which he showed his more human side and talked about a wide range of topics that help us understand much better how this business visionary thinks.
Remember that Jeff Bezos is fighting for the title of world’s richest man, and that I personally included his company, Amazon, among the 3 companies that will conquer the world.
To get to know Bezos and the story of how his company was born much better, I highly recommend Brad Stone’s book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.
On how he quit his job to start his own business (Amazon)
Bezos had been working in financial software engineering on Wall Street. In 1994 he told his boss that he wanted to open a bookstore on the internet.
His boss told him it was a very good idea, but a better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job. Bezos took a few days to think over whether to go ahead with his business idea, and in the end he looked at it this way: he projected his life forward to age 80 and asked himself what regrets he would have at that age. His strategy was to minimise future regrets.
As he explained it, you may regret the things you did wrong, but often the worst regret comes from the road not taken, like loving someone and never telling them. That was when it became immediately obvious to him that he had to pursue the idea. He decided to start that online bookstore called Amazon. If it failed, Bezos thought, he would be very proud of having tried. And that’s what he did. He tried, and what’s more, he didn’t fail.
On raising children
Jeff Bezos and his wife say they let their children use sharp knives from the age of four, and soon also let them play with power tools, because if they got hurt, they learned. Bezos says his wife’s outlook and philosophy was: “I’d much rather have a kid with nine fingers than a resourceless kid.”
On choosing a partner
Bezos says his friends set him up on lots of blind dates. In the end, he knew he had found the right woman when he met someone truly resourceful. He ended up marrying a woman who, according to Bezos, could get him out of a third-world prison thanks to her resourcefulness.
(See: 8 life lessons from Warren Buffett)
On what Jeff Bezos would be doing if he weren’t Jeff Bezos
Bezos says he thinks he would be a very happy software engineer. Although he also admits, perhaps jokingly, that he has a fantasy of being a bartender, because he prides himself on his handcrafted cocktails. He also acknowledges that he isn’t a very fast bartender: the sign over his bar would ask customers whether they want their drink fast or want it done well.
On smartphone addiction and multitasking
Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos’ brother, says his brother is always remarkably present and is rarely distracted by his phone. Bezos says that when he has dinner with friends and family, he likes to be doing whatever it is he’s doing.
He doesn’t like multitasking, he explains: if he’s having dinner, he’s having dinner, and if he’s reading email, he wants to read it with all his attention and energy.
See also: 10 surprising things that can lead you to success (and not all of them depend on you)
He says he developed this resistance to multitasking very early in life. He likes to focus on what he’s doing and finish it before moving on to the next task.
On achieving work-life balance
Bezos says he prefers the phrase “work-life harmony”, because balance implies a strict trade-off. If you feel you are adding value and are a productive member of the team at work, that makes you feel better at home; and if he is happy at home, that makes him a better employee and a better boss. His advice: don’t become one of those people who drain the energy of their co-workers and family.
On being an inventor and visionary
Because the world is so complicated, you have to become an expert in a field to find solutions to its problems. But the danger is that once you are an expert in a field, you can become trapped by that knowledge. You have to approach things with childlike curiosity. Inventors and visionaries are experts with a beginner’s mind.
On what defines you
We all get to choose our life stories, Bezos says. It is our choices that define us, not our gifts and talents, and the only things you can be proud of are your choices. You either choose a life of “comfort and ease” or a life of “service and adventure”. And when you are 80, you will be prouder of the second.
This article is based on the interview held at Summit in Los Angeles and reported by TechCrunch.
See also: The fascinating life and career of Richard Branson
Featured image: Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
