Member-only story
Jeff Bezos Says Most People Should Take More Risks. Here’s the Science That Proves He’s Right
Back in 1994 when Jeff Bezos had the idea to start Amazon, he was far from the founder stereotype of some penniless recent grad tinkering in his parents’ garage. At the time, Bezos was already well into a lucrative career in finance. Blowing up that life to sell stuff on the internet was risky, verging on insane.
How did he work up the confidence to take such a huge bet on himself?
How Bezos thought through that decision has been well documented (including by me). It focuses a lot on something he termed the “regret minimization framework.” But clearly the choice wasn’t just about logic. Chutzpah was required too.
Recently, at the New York Times DealBook Summit, the Amazon founder explained how he found the courage. It’s a way of thinking that’s backed by science and available to anyone looking to expand the scope of their ambitions.
Where does Jeff Bezos’s confidence come from?
Onstage at the summit, interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin recalls covering Amazon in its early days as a reporter. The company lost money hand over fist for more than a decade. Everyone thought Bezos was nuts, Sorkin remembers.
