Being an entrepreneur is like swimming inside the sea top layered with burning oil. The only way to survive is to cross it despite all odds but you can’t put head out in between, or else you would be burnt. Trust, it’s an art and there are only a few ones who know the secret sauce to achieving it in style!
Imagine if you could soak in the art and the knowledge the topmost sough-after entrepreneur and world’s richest man has to offer? Yes, we are talking about Jeff Bezos!
The Cheif Executive Officer and founder of Amazon Inc, Jeff Bezos is widely respected in various global entrepreneurial circles.
In the short 26 years worth of time, he has set up his company as an e-commerce giant which minted a net income of $11.59 billion in 2019 alone.
Thus, it can be safe to say that belongs to the elite group that knows a few things about how to hire, fire and run an organisation with extreme dexterity. Undoubtedly, these are essential traits that every entrepreneur must know.
Life Lessons From Bezos
Unusually brilliant, there’s a lot to learn from this man. As a 10-year-old, during a road trip with his grandparents, Bezos understood that intelligence isn’t the only thing that will set him up in life.
In 2010, while addressing graduates of Princeton, he said that cleverness is a gift which, if it is able to successfully seduce you, then it can be detrimental to one’s choices.
During the same convocation ceremony, he also said when one grows 80 years old and he or she is asked to narrate the most personal version of their life, then that person is more likely to be telling the most compact and meaningful version of their series of choices which landed them where they belonged.
In short, what Bezos wanted to convey was – We are the choices we make.
Now, in order to determine what choices will be making the biggest impact on your life story, he wants people to ask them the following questions-
- Will you be following your passion or let inertia take hold of your life and be your guide?
- Are you willing to be original by shedding all dogmas?
- Are you inclined towards choosing a easy life or a life which entails you to be of service and adventure?
- Will you let yourself to fall prey to negative criticism, or are you willing to follow your convictions?
- Are you gonna own your mistakes and apologise or you will simply bluff to get it out of the way?
- Are you willing to guard your heart against rejection, or will you be acting when you fall in love?
- Are you willing to risk it or play it safe?
- When the going gets tough, will you give up or be relentless instead?
- Will you choose to become a builder instead of a cynic?
- Are you willing to be kind instead of being clever at the expense of others?
We know this list doesn’t look easy. That’s simply because it isn’t. Most of the things listed above are very hard to exercise in execution. But, if you are willing to rise above the normal then you have to find a way!
You need to decide if you will let criticism and self-doubt control your life or if you will finally get started on that one crazy idea that keeps knocking at your heart!
Sure, naysayers will always deter you, because that’s their job. But, on the other hand, what if you actually gave your goals a go and actually succeeded? Also, research shows a person is more likely to regret all the things he or she didn’t do in his or her life. So, get started now and carry forward the wisdom Jeff Bezos imparted to achievers!
