I don’t think that success is like a lot
of people believe it is and for any
really successful person I think that
everybody’s always struggling and what
happens is you know you just struggle at
a higher level it’s like learning how to
ski or play some sport and you’re just
kind of doing this higher thing but it
doesn’t feel like that if it just feels
like I’m struggling and I think it’s and
and it’s a good feeling I the way I
think of it is I’ve always thought that
it’s like in order to be successful in
life you have to cross a jungle or you
can stay on the other side of the jungle
and not cross the jungle but if you
choose to cross the jungle the jungle
has all sorts of things that can do your
harm and bite you and everything along
those lines and so the West best way to
do that is to go into that with people
who can see things differently and watch
themselves and struggle to make it to
the other side and then what I’ve
discovered along the way is that it’s
always a struggle and I enjoy being in
the drug goal I don’t want to get to the
other side I don’t want to get out so
that’s what it feels like to me
then what’s your advice to these small
business founders today we’re card
you’re gonna need some luck with the
harder you work the luckier you get and
if it doesn’t work out that’s not the
end of the world I just don’t have
anything in common with people that sit
there and say oh my god it was terrible
so it’s over it’s water over the dam
under the bridge get on with it and
start another business the next day or
another career and be honest look in a
mirror and say why didn’t it work out
well it wasn’t the skill set or it
wasn’t I didn’t have the temperament for
it or I was in the wrong place wrong
time
maybe I can afford to do it again maybe
I can’t but people aren’t honest with
themselves they what I’ve always done is
I’ve taken a yellow pad I draw a line
down the middle write out the pros on
one side the cons on another in a sense
that if I let you see it you wouldn’t
laugh at me and then when I get done I
just rip it up and throw it away because
I’ve worked out in my mind what is real
and what isn’t and what I can
but I can’t I think many many kids and
many grown-ups do figure out over time
what their passions are and sometimes we
let our I don’t think it’s that hard I
think what happens though sometimes is
that we let our intellectual selves
overrule those passions and so that’s
what needs to be guarded against kids
are very good about knowing what their
passions are being young and trying
things are so naive and you don’t know
any better
all you do is learn and if you fail it
doesn’t matter and so whether I was nine
ten twelve sixteen twenty one the
failures were irrelevant and you know
whether you’re you know nine twelve
sixteen twenty one twenty two twenty
four you know I’m sleeping on the couch
you know I have a car with a hole in the
floorboard you know I’m living like a
bum and like a student and so what did I
have to lose and so I think that
influenced me as much as anything so it
was you know my dad was like go for it
you know don’t why not what do you got
to lose you know you have to sleep on a
different couch so I think that that was
motivation it’s a gift if you can keep
your childlike sense of wonder and it
helps with creativity it helps to have
fun you know you laugh more and play
more if you keep that childlike sense of
wonder and I think if you you know if
you believe in what you’re doing you
know many people will tell you you know
what why your mistake and why it’ll
never work and you know but if you
really believe passionate what you’re
doing just dist and you know keep going
you know keep pushing on and keep
pushing on and until you either succeed
or at least you but you know you realize
that you know it’s just it’s just not
gonna happen
and and and then live it if you don’t
succeed pick yourself up and and you
know try again and and ultimately you
know if you you know if you’re that
and and if you don’t you’ll have a lot
of fun trying I don’t think that you can
invent on behalf of customers unless
you’re willing to think long term
because a lot of invention doesn’t work
if you’re going to invent it means
you’re going to experiment you have to
think long term so these three ideas
customer centricity long term thinking
and a passion for invention those two go
together that’s how we do it and by the
way we have a lot of fun doing it that
way a lot of times my shows people are
not setting goals that will be something
that somebody who becomes rich or is
could do anything you got to be excited
about working on that for 10 years so
you got to have a big enough coal then
you know you attract the best people and
you retain them and you keep them
focused and then my experience you don’t
go wrong you know maybe you don’t get it
next year or maybe you fail entirely and
you discover something more exciting to
work on with the same set of people do
something you’re very passionate about
and don’t try to chase what is kind of
the hot passion of the day I think we
actually saw this I think you see it all
over the place in many different
contexts but I think we saw it in the
internet world quite a bit where you
know it’s sort of peak of the sort of
internet you know mania and say 1999 you
found people who were you know very
passionate I mean they kind of left that
job and decided I’m gonna you know do
something in the internet because it’s
you know it was almost like the you know
the 18-49 Gold Rush in a way I mean you
find that people if you go back and
study the history of the 18-49 Gold Rush
you find that you know at that time
everybody who was in was within the
shouting distance of California was you
know they might have been a doctor but
they quit being a doctor and they
started panning for gold and that that
almost never works and even if it does
work
you know according to some metric
financial success or whatever it might
be I suspect it leaves you ultimately
unsatisfied so you really need to be
very clear with yourself and I think one
of the best ways to do that is this
notion of projecting yourself forward to
age 80 looking back on your life and
trying to make sure you’ve minimized the
number of regrets you have that works
for that works for career decisions it
works for family decisions you know do
you want I have a 14 month old son and
it’s very easy for me to if I think
about myself when I’m 80 I know I want
to watch that little guy grow up and so
it’s I don’t want to be 80 and think
shoot you know I missed that whole thing
and I don’t have the kind of
relationship with my son that I wished I
had and so on and so on so if you think
about that
so I guess another thing that I would
recommend to people is that they always
take a long term point of view and I
think this is something about which
there’s a lot of controversy you know
there’s a you know there’s a you know
something a lot of people and I’m just
not one of them believe that you should
live for the now I think what you do is
you think about the the the great
expanse of time ahead of you and try to
make sure that you’re planning for that
in a way that’s gonna leave you
ultimately satisfied so this is just my
this is the way it works for me and I
mean this is everybody needs to find
that for themself so I think there are a
lot of paths to satisfaction and you
need to find one that works works for
you I remember asking my dad – I want a
new basketball shoes because I was a
basketball junkie back then he’s like
well your shoes work if you want a new
pair of tennis shoes you have to go out
there and get a job and I’m like dad I’m
12 years old and it just so happens he
was playing poker with his buddies and
one of his buddies just like well I got
a job for you I’ve got these garbage
bags that we distribute you could sell
the door-to-door I’m like okay and it
was when I was selling them and realized
he that I’d like to sell and that I
could sell and that I recognized that
selling was it was about providing the
service and creating value for people
that
I knew that I would literally back then
I knew that I could always succeed I
mean I remember I was 16 I think when I
started a stamp company and started
going to stamp shows and trade shows and
just working a little bit harder than
other people and and trading up from one
stamp to the next I remember one time I
started with a quarter and bought a
stamp and left with $50 thinking hey if
I could do this I could do anything and
and it’s not that everything worked I
failed a lot but I never ever felt like
I I wouldn’t be able to work hard enough
to succeed I think everybody has their
own passion their own thing that they’re
interested in
you’re very alert to the things that
that are in the sphere of influence of
that passion so your passion has led you
to change the world frankly with Amazon
but yet you’ve got the origin you’ve got
Bezos exploration this why can’t
something like you just rest on your
loss well I you know I love what I do I
also have four kids I have a wife that I
love I have a lot of passions and
interests but I one of them is the pace
of change I love the fact that I get to
work with these smart big smart teams
the people I work with are so smart and
they’re all their self selected for
loving to invent on behalf of customers
and so you know it’s not
do I love every moment of every day
no that’s why they call it work there’s
you know there’s always there are things
that I that I don’t enjoy but if I’m
really objective about it and I look at
it I’m so lucky to be working alongside
all these passionate people and I love
it how do you remain nimble because
there is somebody in their dorm room who
could eat you up for lunch the next day
you know I my belief on this is first of
all that’s completely correct and you
can’t you can never sure anybody that
that can’t happen but I think if you
have a customer-centric culture that
cures a lot of ills because we wake up
if let’s say you’re the leader in a
particular arena if your competitor
focused and you’re already the leader
then where does your energy come from
whereas if your customer focused and
you’re already the leader customers are
never satisfied so you always if your
customer focused you’re always waking up
how can we make that customer say wow
how can we you know our energy are
passionate we want to impress our
customers we want them to say wow one
does have to be focused on the short
term and money coming in when creating a
company because otherwise the company
will die so that I think that a lot of
times people think like creating company
is gonna be fun I would say it’s not
it’s really not that fun I mean there
are periods of fun and there are periods
of where to where she’s awful and
particularly if you’re CEO of a company
you actually have a distillation of all
the worst problems in the company
there’s no point in spending your time
on things that are going right so you
only spend on things on your time on
things that are going wrong and and
there are things that are going wrong
that other people can’t can’t take care
of so you’re like the worst you have a
filter for the crappers problems in the
company the most pernicious and painful
problem so I wouldn’t say it’s it’s I
think you have to feel quite compelled
to do it
and have a fairly high pain threshold
and there’s a friend of mine who says
like starting companies like staring
into the abyss and eating glass and
there’s some truth to that we’re staring
into the abyss part is that you’re going
to be constantly facing the
extermination of the company because
most startups fail like 90% ugly
ninety-nine percent of of Starks failed
so I so you that that’s the staring into
the abyss part you can’t stop constantly
saying okay if I don’t get this right
the company will die it should be quite
stressful quite stressful and then if
the eating glass part is you’ve got
you’ve got to do you’ve got to do the
problems you’re gonna start you’re gonna
work with the problem that the company
needs you to work on that promise you
want to work on and so that the that’s
you and I’ve working on problems that
that you’d really wish you weren’t
working on okay so that’s the eating
last part then that goes on for a long
time so how do you keep your focus on
the big picture when you’re constantly
faced with we could be out of business
in a month well it’s just a very small
percentage of mental energies on the on
the big picture like you know you know
you know where you generally had it
heading for and and the factual path is
gonna be some sort of zigzagging thing
in that direction and try not to deviate
too far from the path that that you want
to be on but you’re gonna have to do
that some degree but I don’t want to I
don’t want to diminish that I mean I
think the product the profit motive is
it is a is a good one if the rules of an
industry are properly set up so there’s
something fundamentally wrong with
puppet in fact profit just means that
people are paying you more for whatever
you’re doing then you’re spending to
create it that’s a good thing and if
you’re not if that’s not the case then
you’ll be out of business and rightfully
so sure you’re not adding enough value
my job one of my jobs as the leader of
Amazon is to encourage people to be bold
and people love to focus on things that
aren’t yet working and that’s good it’s
human nature that kind of divine
discontent can be very helpful but you
really you know it’s incredibly hard to
get people to take bold bets and you
need to encourage that and if you’re
gonna take bold bets they’re gonna be
experiments and if they’re experiments
you don’t know ahead of time though
they’re gonna work experiments are by
their very nature prone to failure but
big success is a few big successes
compensate for dozens and dozens of
things that didn’t work so you know bold
bets AWS Kindle Amazon Prime our 3rd
party seller business all of those
things are examples of bold bets that
that did work and they pay for a lot of
experiments I’ve made billions of
dollars of failures at amazon.com
literally billions of dollars of
failures and you know you might remember
pets.com or Cosmo or you know give
myself a root canal with no anesthesia
very easily none of those things are fun
but but they also
they don’t matter what really matters is
companies that don’t continue to
experiment companies that don’t embrace
failure they eventually get in the
desperate position where they only thing
they can do is we could kind of Hail
Mary bet at the very end of their
corporate existence where as companies
that are you know making bets all along
even you know big bets but not bet the
company bets I don’t I don’t believe in
bet the company bets that’s when you’re
desperate that’s that’s the last thing
you can do we’ve probably spent less
money in marketing than any company our
size in the world we have a tiny
marketing department and everybody’s
like white Oracles you know all that
sales and marketing we are the largest
employer of MIT and Caltech engineers in
the world we are the largest employer of
Stanford and Harvard and CMU
mathematicians in the world
we are overwhelmingly dominated by
engineering at Oracle the idea that we
are a sales and marketing company which
people will sometimes write about quite
often is ludicrous on the face of it
because all of our customers who buy
Oracle already happened and if you
already have Oracle there’s nothing a
salesman can tell you about how great it
is to make you buy more GE already uses
it the defense department always you
already is that all of our customers
ninety-eight percent of our sales or
more are to existing Oracle customers if
we don’t have the right product people
don’t buy more we will before the
acquisition we spend three billion
dollars a year in software engineering
the company is all about engineering it’s the only thing that works
of people believe it is and for any
really successful person I think that
everybody’s always struggling and what
happens is you know you just struggle at
a higher level it’s like learning how to
ski or play some sport and you’re just
kind of doing this higher thing but it
doesn’t feel like that if it just feels
like I’m struggling and I think it’s and
and it’s a good feeling I the way I
think of it is I’ve always thought that
it’s like in order to be successful in
life you have to cross a jungle or you
can stay on the other side of the jungle
and not cross the jungle but if you
choose to cross the jungle the jungle
has all sorts of things that can do your
harm and bite you and everything along
those lines and so the West best way to
do that is to go into that with people
who can see things differently and watch
themselves and struggle to make it to
the other side and then what I’ve
discovered along the way is that it’s
always a struggle and I enjoy being in
the drug goal I don’t want to get to the
other side I don’t want to get out so
that’s what it feels like to me
then what’s your advice to these small
business founders today we’re card
you’re gonna need some luck with the
harder you work the luckier you get and
if it doesn’t work out that’s not the
end of the world I just don’t have
anything in common with people that sit
there and say oh my god it was terrible
so it’s over it’s water over the dam
under the bridge get on with it and
start another business the next day or
another career and be honest look in a
mirror and say why didn’t it work out
well it wasn’t the skill set or it
wasn’t I didn’t have the temperament for
it or I was in the wrong place wrong
time
maybe I can afford to do it again maybe
I can’t but people aren’t honest with
themselves they what I’ve always done is
I’ve taken a yellow pad I draw a line
down the middle write out the pros on
one side the cons on another in a sense
that if I let you see it you wouldn’t
laugh at me and then when I get done I
just rip it up and throw it away because
I’ve worked out in my mind what is real
and what isn’t and what I can
but I can’t I think many many kids and
many grown-ups do figure out over time
what their passions are and sometimes we
let our I don’t think it’s that hard I
think what happens though sometimes is
that we let our intellectual selves
overrule those passions and so that’s
what needs to be guarded against kids
are very good about knowing what their
passions are being young and trying
things are so naive and you don’t know
any better
all you do is learn and if you fail it
doesn’t matter and so whether I was nine
ten twelve sixteen twenty one the
failures were irrelevant and you know
whether you’re you know nine twelve
sixteen twenty one twenty two twenty
four you know I’m sleeping on the couch
you know I have a car with a hole in the
floorboard you know I’m living like a
bum and like a student and so what did I
have to lose and so I think that
influenced me as much as anything so it
was you know my dad was like go for it
you know don’t why not what do you got
to lose you know you have to sleep on a
different couch so I think that that was
motivation it’s a gift if you can keep
your childlike sense of wonder and it
helps with creativity it helps to have
fun you know you laugh more and play
more if you keep that childlike sense of
wonder and I think if you you know if
you believe in what you’re doing you
know many people will tell you you know
what why your mistake and why it’ll
never work and you know but if you
really believe passionate what you’re
doing just dist and you know keep going
you know keep pushing on and keep
pushing on and until you either succeed
or at least you but you know you realize
that you know it’s just it’s just not
gonna happen
and and and then live it if you don’t
succeed pick yourself up and and you
know try again and and ultimately you
know if you you know if you’re that
and and if you don’t you’ll have a lot
of fun trying I don’t think that you can
invent on behalf of customers unless
you’re willing to think long term
because a lot of invention doesn’t work
if you’re going to invent it means
you’re going to experiment you have to
think long term so these three ideas
customer centricity long term thinking
and a passion for invention those two go
together that’s how we do it and by the
way we have a lot of fun doing it that
way a lot of times my shows people are
not setting goals that will be something
that somebody who becomes rich or is
could do anything you got to be excited
about working on that for 10 years so
you got to have a big enough coal then
you know you attract the best people and
you retain them and you keep them
focused and then my experience you don’t
go wrong you know maybe you don’t get it
next year or maybe you fail entirely and
you discover something more exciting to
work on with the same set of people do
something you’re very passionate about
and don’t try to chase what is kind of
the hot passion of the day I think we
actually saw this I think you see it all
over the place in many different
contexts but I think we saw it in the
internet world quite a bit where you
know it’s sort of peak of the sort of
internet you know mania and say 1999 you
found people who were you know very
passionate I mean they kind of left that
job and decided I’m gonna you know do
something in the internet because it’s
you know it was almost like the you know
the 18-49 Gold Rush in a way I mean you
find that people if you go back and
study the history of the 18-49 Gold Rush
you find that you know at that time
everybody who was in was within the
shouting distance of California was you
know they might have been a doctor but
they quit being a doctor and they
started panning for gold and that that
almost never works and even if it does
work
you know according to some metric
financial success or whatever it might
be I suspect it leaves you ultimately
unsatisfied so you really need to be
very clear with yourself and I think one
of the best ways to do that is this
notion of projecting yourself forward to
age 80 looking back on your life and
trying to make sure you’ve minimized the
number of regrets you have that works
for that works for career decisions it
works for family decisions you know do
you want I have a 14 month old son and
it’s very easy for me to if I think
about myself when I’m 80 I know I want
to watch that little guy grow up and so
it’s I don’t want to be 80 and think
shoot you know I missed that whole thing
and I don’t have the kind of
relationship with my son that I wished I
had and so on and so on so if you think
about that
so I guess another thing that I would
recommend to people is that they always
take a long term point of view and I
think this is something about which
there’s a lot of controversy you know
there’s a you know there’s a you know
something a lot of people and I’m just
not one of them believe that you should
live for the now I think what you do is
you think about the the the great
expanse of time ahead of you and try to
make sure that you’re planning for that
in a way that’s gonna leave you
ultimately satisfied so this is just my
this is the way it works for me and I
mean this is everybody needs to find
that for themself so I think there are a
lot of paths to satisfaction and you
need to find one that works works for
you I remember asking my dad – I want a
new basketball shoes because I was a
basketball junkie back then he’s like
well your shoes work if you want a new
pair of tennis shoes you have to go out
there and get a job and I’m like dad I’m
12 years old and it just so happens he
was playing poker with his buddies and
one of his buddies just like well I got
a job for you I’ve got these garbage
bags that we distribute you could sell
the door-to-door I’m like okay and it
was when I was selling them and realized
he that I’d like to sell and that I
could sell and that I recognized that
selling was it was about providing the
service and creating value for people
that
I knew that I would literally back then
I knew that I could always succeed I
mean I remember I was 16 I think when I
started a stamp company and started
going to stamp shows and trade shows and
just working a little bit harder than
other people and and trading up from one
stamp to the next I remember one time I
started with a quarter and bought a
stamp and left with $50 thinking hey if
I could do this I could do anything and
and it’s not that everything worked I
failed a lot but I never ever felt like
I I wouldn’t be able to work hard enough
to succeed I think everybody has their
own passion their own thing that they’re
interested in
you’re very alert to the things that
that are in the sphere of influence of
that passion so your passion has led you
to change the world frankly with Amazon
but yet you’ve got the origin you’ve got
Bezos exploration this why can’t
something like you just rest on your
loss well I you know I love what I do I
also have four kids I have a wife that I
love I have a lot of passions and
interests but I one of them is the pace
of change I love the fact that I get to
work with these smart big smart teams
the people I work with are so smart and
they’re all their self selected for
loving to invent on behalf of customers
and so you know it’s not
do I love every moment of every day
no that’s why they call it work there’s
you know there’s always there are things
that I that I don’t enjoy but if I’m
really objective about it and I look at
it I’m so lucky to be working alongside
all these passionate people and I love
it how do you remain nimble because
there is somebody in their dorm room who
could eat you up for lunch the next day
you know I my belief on this is first of
all that’s completely correct and you
can’t you can never sure anybody that
that can’t happen but I think if you
have a customer-centric culture that
cures a lot of ills because we wake up
if let’s say you’re the leader in a
particular arena if your competitor
focused and you’re already the leader
then where does your energy come from
whereas if your customer focused and
you’re already the leader customers are
never satisfied so you always if your
customer focused you’re always waking up
how can we make that customer say wow
how can we you know our energy are
passionate we want to impress our
customers we want them to say wow one
does have to be focused on the short
term and money coming in when creating a
company because otherwise the company
will die so that I think that a lot of
times people think like creating company
is gonna be fun I would say it’s not
it’s really not that fun I mean there
are periods of fun and there are periods
of where to where she’s awful and
particularly if you’re CEO of a company
you actually have a distillation of all
the worst problems in the company
there’s no point in spending your time
on things that are going right so you
only spend on things on your time on
things that are going wrong and and
there are things that are going wrong
that other people can’t can’t take care
of so you’re like the worst you have a
filter for the crappers problems in the
company the most pernicious and painful
problem so I wouldn’t say it’s it’s I
think you have to feel quite compelled
to do it
and have a fairly high pain threshold
and there’s a friend of mine who says
like starting companies like staring
into the abyss and eating glass and
there’s some truth to that we’re staring
into the abyss part is that you’re going
to be constantly facing the
extermination of the company because
most startups fail like 90% ugly
ninety-nine percent of of Starks failed
so I so you that that’s the staring into
the abyss part you can’t stop constantly
saying okay if I don’t get this right
the company will die it should be quite
stressful quite stressful and then if
the eating glass part is you’ve got
you’ve got to do you’ve got to do the
problems you’re gonna start you’re gonna
work with the problem that the company
needs you to work on that promise you
want to work on and so that the that’s
you and I’ve working on problems that
that you’d really wish you weren’t
working on okay so that’s the eating
last part then that goes on for a long
time so how do you keep your focus on
the big picture when you’re constantly
faced with we could be out of business
in a month well it’s just a very small
percentage of mental energies on the on
the big picture like you know you know
you know where you generally had it
heading for and and the factual path is
gonna be some sort of zigzagging thing
in that direction and try not to deviate
too far from the path that that you want
to be on but you’re gonna have to do
that some degree but I don’t want to I
don’t want to diminish that I mean I
think the product the profit motive is
it is a is a good one if the rules of an
industry are properly set up so there’s
something fundamentally wrong with
puppet in fact profit just means that
people are paying you more for whatever
you’re doing then you’re spending to
create it that’s a good thing and if
you’re not if that’s not the case then
you’ll be out of business and rightfully
so sure you’re not adding enough value
my job one of my jobs as the leader of
Amazon is to encourage people to be bold
and people love to focus on things that
aren’t yet working and that’s good it’s
human nature that kind of divine
discontent can be very helpful but you
really you know it’s incredibly hard to
get people to take bold bets and you
need to encourage that and if you’re
gonna take bold bets they’re gonna be
experiments and if they’re experiments
you don’t know ahead of time though
they’re gonna work experiments are by
their very nature prone to failure but
big success is a few big successes
compensate for dozens and dozens of
things that didn’t work so you know bold
bets AWS Kindle Amazon Prime our 3rd
party seller business all of those
things are examples of bold bets that
that did work and they pay for a lot of
experiments I’ve made billions of
dollars of failures at amazon.com
literally billions of dollars of
failures and you know you might remember
pets.com or Cosmo or you know give
myself a root canal with no anesthesia
very easily none of those things are fun
but but they also
they don’t matter what really matters is
companies that don’t continue to
experiment companies that don’t embrace
failure they eventually get in the
desperate position where they only thing
they can do is we could kind of Hail
Mary bet at the very end of their
corporate existence where as companies
that are you know making bets all along
even you know big bets but not bet the
company bets I don’t I don’t believe in
bet the company bets that’s when you’re
desperate that’s that’s the last thing
you can do we’ve probably spent less
money in marketing than any company our
size in the world we have a tiny
marketing department and everybody’s
like white Oracles you know all that
sales and marketing we are the largest
employer of MIT and Caltech engineers in
the world we are the largest employer of
Stanford and Harvard and CMU
mathematicians in the world
we are overwhelmingly dominated by
engineering at Oracle the idea that we
are a sales and marketing company which
people will sometimes write about quite
often is ludicrous on the face of it
because all of our customers who buy
Oracle already happened and if you
already have Oracle there’s nothing a
salesman can tell you about how great it
is to make you buy more GE already uses
it the defense department always you
already is that all of our customers
ninety-eight percent of our sales or
more are to existing Oracle customers if
we don’t have the right product people
don’t buy more we will before the
acquisition we spend three billion
dollars a year in software engineering
the company is all about engineering it’s the only thing that works
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