“I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.” — Jeff Bezos
When it comes to career advice, Jeff Bezos says you can choose between a job, a career, and a calling.
if you figure out your calling, according to Bezos, you hit the jackpot.
To choose his path, Jeff Bezos checked in with his Future Self at 80 years old.
He decided he didn’t want to live with regrets and that, even if he failed, if he didn’t try his decision would haunt him.
Ultimately, Jeff says as the author of your life, the best choice you can make is to use your gifts and live a life of service and adventure.
And your life will be defined by the choices you make as you author your life.
Will You Choose a Job, a Career, or Your Calling?
You can choose a job, a career, or a calling. According to Jeff Bezos, if you can figure out your calling, you hit the jackpot.
Jeff Bezos said:
“I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people.
And I had a brilliant boss, I much admired.
I went to my boss, and told him I was going to start a company selling books on the internet.
He took me on a long walk in Central Park.
Listened carefully to me and finally said, that sounds like a really good idea.
But it would be an even better idea, for someone who didn’t already have a good job.
You can have a job, or you can have a career, or you can have a calling.
And if you can somehow figure out how to have a calling, you hit the jackpot because that’s the big deal.”
Will Your Decision to Not Try Haunt You?
Regret can haunt you. Bezos didn’t want to live a life of regret.
He took the less safe path.
Jeff Bezos said:
“It was a difficult choice. But ultimately, I decided that I had to give it a shot.
I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing.
And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all.
After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion.
And I’m proud of that choice.”
Which Choices Will You Regret When You’re 80 Years Old?
Will you regret trying and failing, or not trying at all.
Jeff Bezos used his 80 year-old Future Self to make his toughest decision.
Jeff Bezos said:
“I went away, thought about this. I was trying to make a decision. I finally figured out that I didn’t want to have regrets.
I pictured myself as an 80-year-old and asked myself, ‘Would I regret leaving this company and walking away from my annual bonus?’.
You know when I am 80, I am not going to remember any of this.
But If I don’t try, I will definitely regret not having tried.
Even if I fail, I would not have any regrets.”
Don’t Be Proud of Your Gifts, Be Proud of Your Choices
You can be grateful for your gifts. You can be thankful for them. But don’t be proud of them.
Be proud of your choices.
It’s not the gifts you’re born with. It’s what you do with your gifts and the choices you make.
Jeff Bezos said:
“You get certain gifts in life and you want to take advantage of those.
But you, it’s my advice on adversity and success would be to be proud, not of your gifts, but of your hard work and your choices.
So you might be really good at math.
It might be really easy for you.
That’s a kind of gift, but practicing that math and taking it to the next step that could be very challenging and hard, and take a lot of sweat.
That’s a choice.
You can’t really be proud of your gifts, because they were given to you.
You can be grateful for them, and thankful for them.
But your choices,
You choose to work hard.
You choose to do hard things.
Those are choices that you can be proud of.”
You Can Choose Your Life Story
You define your life story by the choices you make, not by your gifts.
Jeff Bezos said:
“You can choose.
We all get to choose our life stories, and it’s the choices that define us, not our gifts.
Everybody in this room has many gifts.
I have many gifts.
You can never be proud of your gifts, because they’re gifts.
They were given to you.
You might be tall or you might be really good at math, or you might be extremely beautiful or handsome, or…
There are many gifts and you can only be proud of your choices because those are the things that you are acting on.”
Will You Choose Ease and Comfort, or Service and Adventure?
Which person will your Future Self be more proud? The one who chooses ease and comfort. Or the you that chooses service and adventure?
Bezos ventures a guess that choosing a life of service and adventure will be a choice you can be proud of over your lifetime.
Jeff Bezos said:
“And one of the most important choices that each of us has, and you know this just as well as I do, is you can choose a life of ease and comfort, or you can choose a life of service and adventure.
And when you’re 80, which one of those things are you going to be more proud of?
You’re going to be more proud of having chose a life of service and adventure.”
What Choices Will You Make as the Author of Your Life?
You author your life from the choices you make.
Jeff Bezos said:
“Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life, the life you author from scratch on your own begins.
How will you use your gifts?
What choices will you make?
Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service?
An adventure?
Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?
Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?
Will you be clever, at the expense of others, or will you be kind?”
Empower Others to Deploy Their Creativity
If you don’t love your work, you won’t be great at it. According to Bezos, one way to really add value to the world is to empower other people to deploy their creativity.
Jeff Bezos said:
“Every time you figure out some way of providing tools and services that empower other people to deploy their creativity, you’re really onto something.
You’re very luck if you have a career, a lot of people end up with a job.
If you don’t love your work, you’re never going to be great at it.
Now is the Most Amazing Time To Use Your Gifts
Did you ever think you were born in the wrong time period? Think again. Jeff Bezos says now is the greatest time to be alive, and it’s when the greatest, most curious minds would have wanted to live.
Jeff Bezos said:
“Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton.
All the curious from the ages, would have wanted to be alive most of all right now.
As a civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts, as you sit before me.
How will you use these gifts?
And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?”
Read the Book Amazon Unbound, by Brad Stone
For more background, biography, and perspective on Jeff Bezos and the kind of company that Amazon is, read the book Amazon Unbound:
Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire Kindle Edition, by Brad Stone (Amazon)
Watch Jeff Bezos’ Speech to Princeton’s Graduating Class of 2010
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos gave the Baccalaureate address to Princeton University’s Class of 2010:
Video – Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos delivers graduation speech at Princeton University
Call To Action
- Reflect on where you are in terms of your job, your career, and your calling.
- Reflect on the key choices that Jeff Bezos shared that define and author the story of your life.
- Practice using your Future Self to avoid regrets and choose the paths and make the choices your Future Self will be proud of.
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