balance I think it’s misleading if
you’re giving great customer experience
there’s the only way to do that is with
what’s that believe nation it’s Evan my
one word is believe and I believe in you
I believe you have Michael Jordan level
talent at something and I want you to
find it embrace it and make your mark on
the world using it now inserted that
meant to me series to try to learn from
people who’ve done a lot more than us
and hopefully are spending a little bit
more time with them some of their
beliefs are mindsets the way of thinking
seeps into us to help us become the best
version of ourselves so today we’re
going to learn from one of the best Jeff
Bezos and his best advice on how to not
[Music]
so let’s kick it off with rule number
one aim for work life harmony how do you
go about establishing that work-life
balance that everybody you know talks
about and thinks about you’ve got I mean
you live a big life right and how do you
how do you I get two answers in a lot I
get it I teach senior executive kind of
leadership classes at Amazon for our
most senior execs and I also teach or
not teach but I also speak to interns so
kind of all across the spectrum and I
get this question about work-life
balance all the time from from both ends
of the spectrum and the my view is I
don’t even like the phrase work-life
balance I think it’s misleading I like
the phrase work life harmony because I
know that if I am energized at work
happy at work feeling like I’m adding
value part of a team
whatever energizes you that makes me
better at home it makes me a better
husband a better father and likewise if
I’m happy at home it makes me a better
employee a better boss all the things
it’s not about it’s not primarily about
there may be crunch periods where it’s
about the number of hours in the week
but that that’s not the that’s not the
real thing usually it’s about do you
have energy and is this is your work
depriving you of energy or is your work
generating energy for you and you know
there are people everybody in this room
notice people you fall into these two
camps you’re in a meeting and the person
comes in the room
some people come into the meeting and
they add energy to the meeting other
people come into the meeting and the
whole meeting just deflates and those
people just they drain energy from the
meeting and you have to decide which was
those kinds of people you’re gonna be
are you gonna add energy same thing at
home and the same thing at home and it’s
so it’s a wheel it’s a cycle it’s a
flywheel it’s a circle it’s not a
balance
because of balance that’s why that
metaphor is so dangerous because it
implies there’s a strict trade-off and
you could be out of work have all the
time for your family in the world but
really depressed and demoralized about
your work situation and your family
wouldn’t want to be anywhere near you
they would wish you would take a
vacation from them and so it’s not about
the number of hours not primarily I
suppose if you went crazy with you know
100 hours a week or something yeah that
right maybe there are limits and they
probably I’ve never had a problem and I
think it’s because both sides of my life
give me energy and that’s what I would
recommend that’s what I do recommend to
interns and xx rule number two is find
meaning I’m very proud of the culture
that we have at Amazon and you know it’s
a it’s a I think of it as a gold
standard culture for innovation and
pioneering work and the you know and the
people I work with these people who
they’re missionaries for what they do
they are you know you if you’re giving
great customer experience there’s the
only way to do that is with happy people
you can’t do it with a set of miserable
people you know watching the clock all
day so does that include work-life
balance and all those things yes but I
would I use I teach three leadership
classes a year at Amazon I’m a part of
it they’re bigger classes but I come in
and teach a session and I always talk
about work-life balance except I like to
use the phrase work life harmony rather
than balance because to me balance
implies a strict trade whereas I find
that when I am happy at work I come home
more energized I’m a better husband a
better dad and when I’m happy at home I
come in and the better boss and better
colleague and so that that it’s not you
could be out of work and we have tear
work-life balance you know even though
you’ve got all the time in the world
right you could just feel like oh my god
you know I’m miserable and you would be
draining energy and so you have to find
that harmony it’s a much better word and
I think for most people it’s about
meaning people want to know that they’re
doing something interesting and useful
and for us you know because of the
challenges that we have chosen for
ourselves we get to work in the future
and it’s super fun to work in the future
for the right kind of person there are
people I mean who you know we ours is an
environment that embraces a lot of
change we have to because the Internet
is changing the technologies that we use
are changing we operate at the
intersection of technology and retail
both of which are highly competitive
industries and but it’s really for
somebody who hated change you know I
imagine high tech would be a pretty bad
career it would be it would be very
tough you know and there are much more
stable industries and so they should
probably choose one of those more stable
industries with less change and they’d
probably be happier there I’d be that
industry would be tough for me so for
we’re not all the same and for me a job
that I don’t know like for me the job
that would be the heart of you like I
don’t know insurance claims adjuster or
something you know where I had the same
job every day and it didn’t change
frequently I would be heart I’d do it
but it would and I’d do it at a high
now I’ve got a really special bonus Jeff
Bezos clip on how to help others find
meaning but before that I want to know
what did you think of this video do you
agree with Jeff what are your thoughts
on work-life balance versus work life
harmony did what he say make sense or
not I would love to hear from you please
leave it down the comments below thank
you guys so much for watching I believe
in you I hope we continue to believe in
yourself and whatever your one word is
much love I’ll see you soon and enjoy
the second there’s a second thing about
your your work culture this program that
you that oh I learned about what we were
we are we are we’re doing this thing
we’ve been doing it for just over three
years now and we’re just in the process
of open sourcing it so I wanted to bring
it to your attention it’s it’s called
career choice and I’m I’m you know kind
of on the road that encouraging
companies especially bigger companies
fortune 1000 companies that have big
employee bases to come to Amazon learn
what we’ve learned and see if any of it
fits would fit into your company career
choice is for our fulfillment centers
and what we have done is we have put
together a training program that teaches
people in-demand careers in in-demand
fields where they can get high-paying
jobs could be airplane mechanic or
nursing or commercial truck driver
driving a big rig 18 wheelers which is a
very lucrative job and very expensive
it’s a anywhere from four to six
thousand dollars to go through the
training to get a license to do that so
we have it at Amazon a bunch of
entry-level people in our fulfillment
centers who for some of whom they’ll
stay with us and they’ll build a career
with us but for many of them it’s a
stepping stone on the way somewhere else
and what we want is for them to have a
choice so if they would rather be an
airplane mechanic and the key there are
a couple of key things one is you have
to prepay the tuition because it’s
really hard for people to even if you
were gonna reimburse them it’s hard in
many cases for entry-level employees to
pull together five or six thousand
dollars in a lump sum to pay for the
cost of this kind of training so you
prepay it we prepay it and then and then
what but and the thing that we didn’t do
at the very beginning but we’ve started
doing after about a year and that has
worked really well as we build the
classrooms in the fulfillment centers in
mainstream areas behind gigantic glass
walls and so all their co-workers walk
by every day and they see their
co-workers inside learning how to be
nurses and airplane mechanics and
commercial truck drivers
and they start thinking hey maybe I
should do that so it’s that putting the
classrooms right kind of on the plant
floor is a big learning for us and we
now have 7,000 people engaged in the
program we already have some some very
successful graduates who’ve come out the
pipeline at the end and in it and it
gives people I think it’s really good
for the company it’s great for the
employee but it’s really good for the
company because the last thing that any
enlightened company wants is for any
employee and their company to kind of
feel trapped in that job you want people
to have a choice if they want to be
there great but if they want to be a
nurse then help them do that so they can
go be a nurse the most important work
ever if you have to think of one word
that’s most important to you that sums
you Apple so it would be like a little
beacon they believe nation if you want
to know what the most important one word
is for Tony Robbins Gary Vaynerchuk
Oprah Winfrey will.i.am and Howard
Schultz I have a very special secret
video for you check the description for
details [Music]