We are our choices. Build yourself a great story.
Jeff BezosRead
My view is there's no bad time to innovate.
Interpretation
Innovation should happen at all times, not just when it seems convenient.
Jeff Bezos emphasizes the importance of continuous innovation in business and life. He suggests that there are no inappropriate times for creativity and change, highlighting that seizing every opportunity to innovate can lead to greater success and improvement.
In practice
In a business seminar discussing the importance of adapting to market changes.
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 innovation is not done by research institutes and national laboratories. It comes from manufacturing - from companies that want to extend their product reach, improve their costs, increase their returns. What's very important is in-house research.
If the idea is really new and unique and big, other people will all think it is bad and is going to fail.
My definition of 'innovative' is providing value to the customer.
Innovation is not born from the dream, innovation is born from the struggle
Efficiency innovations arise in industries that already exist. They provide existing goods and services at much lower costs. They are not empowering. Efficiency innovators become the low cost providers within an existing framework.
Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.