Jeff Bezos revealed his secret to Amazon’s success 25 years ago: ‘I asked everyone around here to wake up terrified every morning, their sheets drenched in sweat’
Back in the 90s, Jeff Bezos went on record as hoping his employees would wake up on the wrong side of the bed—for the greater good, or for the customer at the very least.
Don’t get me wrong, fuck Jeff Bezos’ pampered ass. But growing a giant dystopian mega corp out of 250k is kind of impressive.
I know quite a few privileged people with more money than that and every chance in life one could hope for. None of them would be able to achieve anything close to what he did. They simply aren’t ruthless and megalomaniacal enough.
Luck was on his side.
I guarantee you that there were 50 or more people with the same idea at the same time, maybe even with a bigger wad of cash to throw at their company. But luck defines so much in our life throughout our whole career. It's the same, probably more so, with artists. Has a lot to do with who you know.
I also know Bezos worked a lot for this, it wasn't just presented for him on a silver platter, but still. The amount of wealth he's gathered is so shamelessly enormous, there's bound to be victims because of it. And he takes zero responsibility for that.
Bill Gates had exactly the same opportunity. It turns out that when you’re rich and never have to worry about a single thing in your life it gives you room to be very creative.