We are our choices. Build yourself a great story.
Jeff BezosRead
The special ops guys and the firefighters around the world have this great phrase. They say, 'Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast,' and that is true. Everything I've accomplished in my life has been because of that attitude.
Interpretation
Taking your time to do things carefully leads to greater efficiency in the long run.
The quote emphasizes the importance of a deliberate and careful approach to tasks. Jeff Bezos reflects on how a mindset focused on smooth and steady work, rather than rushing, has contributed to his successes. It's a reminder that patience and precision often yield better results than haste.
In practice
In a team meeting to discuss project timelines, you might say this quote to encourage careful planning over rushing.
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.
What good is it to have a belly if there's no fire in it? Wake up, drink your passion, light a match and get to work.
Busyness is not a reason for not getting other things done. It is an excuse for not claiming your true priorities.
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
I have found that if I spend the first hour of my day at home, I get more done, and less people steal my time.
When my record company rejected 'Full Moon Fever', I was hurt so bad. I was pretty far along in my career at that point. I'd never had anything rejected; I'd never really even had a comment. So when that happened, it was really just a board to the forehead. But then, finally, I picked myself up.
When I was growing up, I was told you could be anything you want to be, but I didn't really believe that because you couldn't be president. Like, I knew that; we never had a black president.
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