We are our choices. Build yourself a great story.
Jeff BezosRead
Our premise is there are going to be a lot of winners. It's not winner take all. Other people do not have to lose for us to win.
Interpretation
Success is not a zero-sum game; many can achieve it together without others having to fail.
In this quote, Jeff Bezos emphasizes the idea that success is not limited to a select few, and that multiple parties can thrive simultaneously. He challenges the traditional notion that for one person or entity to win, others must necessarily lose, advocating instead for a more collaborative and inclusive approach to achieving success.
In practice
In a motivational speech to a group of entrepreneurs, highlighting the benefits of collaboration.
We are our choices. Build yourself a great story.
Work hard, have fun and make history.
If you're not stubborn, you'll give up on experiments too soon. And if you're not flexible, you'll pound your head against the wall and you won't see a different solution to a problem you're trying to solve.
But there's so much kludge, so much terrible stuff, we are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet. That's where we are. We don't get our hair caught in it, but that's the level of primitiveness of where we are. We're in 1908.
Because, you know, resilience - if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you'd be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn't a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.
When you are eighty years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices.
Most people don't have so much talent that they can become a success all their own. We all need people to help us and lift us up.
When I'm done skating, I guarantee you that I will not look back and remember standing on the podium. I'm going to remember these days - being with the team. Training alone, in my basement. Training when everybody else is sleeping. Doing things that nobody else is doing. Digging down. Seeing what kind of character I truly have. I love that stuff.
If the company depends entirely on you - your creativity, ingenuity, inspiration, salesmanship or charisma - nobody will want to buy it. The risk and the dependency are too great.
I was lucky enough to co-found a business in college that ended up with 400 employees, and I launched 20 different projects while I was there - a project a week.
Anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur like someone else is actually looking in the wrong direction. You don't look out for inspiration, you look in. You have to ask yourself how can I be better today, at solving the problem I am trying to solve for my company. I wouldn't encourage anyone to be like me. Just be like you.
When you achieve your Dreams It's not so much what you get, It's who you become.
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