Jeff Bezos Speaks on Career Choices

July 20, 2010

When Jeff Bezos got the idea to start Amazon in 1994, it seemed risky and far-fetched to leave his well-paying job in New York City to build a company that sold books online. He was okay with the possibility of failing (after all if you know it is going to work, it’s not true innovation) but thought he’d be forever haunted by the idea if he didn’t try. Ultimately Bezos decided to take the less safe path and give it a shot—and built one of the fastest growing companies in the world. Here is an excerpt of his story as told at the 2010 Princeton Commencement Address:

“I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I’d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles—something that simply couldn’t exist in the physical world—was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I’d been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn’t work since most startups don’t, and I wasn’t sure what would happen after that. MacKenzie (also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row) told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I’d been a garage inventor. I’d invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires, a solar cooker that didn’t work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings. I’d always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion. I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I’m proud of that choice.”

Bezos then poses a series of questions for all of us to consider, including:

• How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?
• Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
• Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
• Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?
• Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
• When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
• Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

Finally he reminds us that we are the sum of our choices. Following our Professional Destiny requires us to be both a dreamer and a doer. It requires us to risk failure and be okay with it. An idea that inspires is worth expressing—so go out and build it into a great story.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Tags: amazon, career choice, fear of failure, jeff bezos, princeton commencement speech, Professional Destiny