“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” -Jeff Bezos
This is a special episode of Will’s Personal Development Podcast. This is part two to my discussion on “Billionaire Lessons I Learned from Jeff Bezos.” You can listen to part one and its counterpart article by clicking here.
For those who are unfamiliar, Jeff Bezos built and grew Amazon.com into one of the world’s leading eCommerce websites. In the process, he became one of the richest men in the world.
In this episode, I dive into some of the even cooler business strategies and life advice revealed in the book The Everything Store. Be prepared to learn:
- how to surpass how the best do things.
- how long you should stick with a test that failed.
- how to prevent your business from going obsolete.
- if it is your responsibility or the customer’s to innovate.
- if you should stay in your lane or branch out into new industries.
- Jeff Bezos’s leadership style, personality traits, and management qualities.
Without futher ado, please enjoy the episode:
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Contents
Is Jeff Bezos an Introvert or Extrovert?
Based on many other articles I’ve read online about Bezos, the book accounting his story (The Everything Store), and videos of him, I’d peg his character traits as an assertive, staunch, decisive introvert.
While he does seem to have a quiet nature, he also holds many strong characteristics of what’s needed in a leader. He is bold with his vision. He does not tolerate screw-up’s. He is demanding in what he wants from himself and his employees.
If you’ve ever talking to a higher-up Amazon employee, as I have, you’ll hear that working long hours (60+ per week) is baked into the culture of the company. You either love it or you find a different company.
Jeff Bezos’s Leadership Traits
As Warren Buffett says, great leadership styles come in all shapes and forms, but you have to get people to believe in you before they get to the top of the hill and can see over to prove it.
Jeff is clearly someone who stands up for himself and asserts his point when he needs to. Based on his book, he also seemed to have a bit of Steve Job’s temper when things go wrong or someone beneath him screwed up.
Warren calls Jeff one of the greatest CEO’s of our era. There is definitely much we can learn from him. My only advice I’d add here is to take consider not adopting the angry side to his personality. Bill Gates, another incredible CEO, has reflected on Steve Job’s management style and argued that he could have achieved his same level of success (if not a greater level) without being so mean. Gates gets asked this a lot and that’s the answer he often repeats.
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Sharing what I learn on my own journey from knowing nothing to learning how to achieve happiness, wealth, performance, and success with data, real stories, history, and science. The info comes from the best in the field, from athletes to billionaires to businessmen to artists to historians to scientists. The knowledge is sourced from the vast amount of books, interviews, videos, documentaries, and other research I’ve consumed.
Want to hear another awesome podcast episode?
Listen to this episode where I talk about how you can compete with people better than you in every way by clicking here.
Here is the question of the day for you: What is the #1 lesson you learned from listening to this episode and how will you put it into action immediately? Please let me know in the comments below.
I want to conclude with another Jeff Bezos quote:
“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.“
Links Mentioned in the Episode
- The book The Everything Store (affiliate link)
