Gems from Jeff Bezos in discussion with Lex Fridman
- payalgarland
- Feb 13, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 28, 2024
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, imparted many gems in an engaging 2-hour interview conducted by Lex Fridman. It also gives the audience an introduction to the business of rockets and space!
Here are some of the gems that jumped out and could be useful as a framework in your organization. (Click here to watch the interview)
Every high performing organization needs a culture of truth telling. It is okay to be uncomfortable about it.
Treat every day like Day 1. Restart fresh every day, and make new decisions about customers, product and principles.
When data and anecdotes disagree go with the anecdote and doubt the metrics. Metrics can be incorrect for many reasons. Jeff once received an Amazon customer service call hold time metric that contradicted what he was hearing. He personally tested the metric by calling Amazon customer service and discovered that the metric was inaccurate.
Be stubborn on the vision but flexible on the details.
Disagree and commit. It saves arguments.
Compromise as a resolution mechanism is low energy, but does not lead to truth seeking. Do not make decisions based on who gets exhausted first, escalate instead.
PowerPoint decks (No) vs. Meeting Memos (Yes). Meeting participants typically spend the first 30 minutes reading the memo (6 pages). This leads to an elevated discussion.
Decision-making involves two-way door vs. one-way door decisions. One-way door decisions need more time and thought. There is either no coming back if it turns out to be the wrong decision, or it is very costly and very time-consuming to reverse it.
Invention and efficiency can be at odds with each other. Invention requires 'Wandering'. This may mean we do not know how long a meeting will last.
There are a thousand ways to shoot down a new idea. That is where being smart and intuition comes in.
IQ is not a single dimension.
Cost Reduction means inventing a better way.
Compensate for 'Optimism Bias'. Consider the negative or bad information until proven otherwise.
Focus on the big things and issues that are needed 10 years from now. Then have dedicated teams focus on the paper cuts.
Problems are impossible to solve if we are thinking short term. Think long term and stretch thinking horizons.
Want to operationalize some of Jeff Bezos's principles in your organization? Get in touch to see how we can help.
