Close Ad

Jeff Bezos Thinks All Successful People Should Be “Waking Up Every Morning Terrified”
Tech CEO Jeff Bezos
Skills

Jeff Bezos Thinks All Successful People Should Be “Waking Up Every Morning Terrified”

When the world’s richest person offers a nugget of life advice, we’re inclined to take it to heart.


Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and incidentally the world’s richest person, has been advising his top level employees to wake up terrified for years.

"I constantly remind our employees to be afraid, to wake up every morning terrified," Bezos wrote in a 1999 shareholder letter. "Our customers have made our business what it is," he continued, "and we consider them to be loyal to us -- right up until the second that someone else offers them a better service."

It may sound intense and unrealistic, but when you take a step back, Bezos’ suggestion actually makes a whole lot of sense. Being stagnant in business and life, whether you’re the top company in the world or otherwise, does not give way for success and innovation.

In fact, becoming too comfortable with anything is a sure fire way to breed complacency and lose your edge and innovation.

[Read about the way Jeff Bezos is redefining work-life balance]

"To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it's going to work, it's not an experiment," Bezos wrote in a 2016 shareholder letter. "Failure and invention are inseparable twins."

It turns out that Bezos' ethos isn't far from the truth. According to Harvard Business Review, a certain type of fear is important -- worrying about opportunity costs, personal finance security, or ability to obtain funding for a given venture are all positively associated with an entrepreneur's persistence in pursuing their goals.

“It just makes me more aggressive to get this thing going as fast as I can,” one HBR interviewee commented.

Hot Stories

Pamela Anderson Opens Up About Her 9 Disastrous Weddings
Why Pamela Anderson Can't Stop Getting Married

Pamela Anderson has it all: beauty, fame and success. So why can’t the most famous blonde find her fairytale ending? Why is Pamela so unlucky in love and what dark secrets lie behind her seemingly glamorous life?

Keep ReadingShow less
Life Stories
Woman wearing a tie-dye shirt, two little kids holding a heartbreaking sign and two people holding hands.

Poor Boy Begs For Money to "Bury My Mama" With Heartbreaking Sign

Facebook/ Shannon Mount and Facebook/Jennifer Fife

A week ago, 11-year-old Kayden Ely experienced the devastating loss of his mother, Shannon Mount. Her unexpected passing didn't just leave Kayden and his four siblings without their mom, it also left the family in dire financial straits.

Desperate to raise funds for his mom's funeral, Kayden took to the streets of his small town in Georgia begging for help. For two days the heartbroken little boy stood next to the railroad tracks, holding a sign that read, "Please help me bury my mama!"

Keep ReadingShow less
Uplifting News
Man standing with two daughters, a black purse and a handwritten note (inset)

Grieving Daughter Finds Note In Fossil Purse While Thrifting

Courtesy Anna Harp and Courtesy of Abrielle Clausing (via People.com)

Thrifting can net all sorts of treasures. Shoppers can snatch up everything from vintage clothes to mid-century modern furniture to kitschy knick-knacks, all without breaking the bank.

But for one grieving woman, she found a hidden gem that was truly priceless.

Keep ReadingShow less
Uplifting News