"I Got Rich When I Understood This" | Jeff Bezos — Transcript

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1. 0:00I was working at a financial firm in New
2. 0:02York City with a bunch of very smart
3. 0:05people and I had a brilliant boss I much
4. 0:08admired I went to my
5. 0:11boss and told him I was going to start a
6. 0:13company selling books on the
7. 0:16internet he took me on a long walk in
8. 0:18Central
9. 0:19Park listened carefully to me and
10. 0:23finally said that sounds like a really
11. 0:26good idea but it would be an even better
12. 0:29idea for someone who didn't already have
13. 0:31a good
14. 0:33job you can have a job or you can have a
15. 0:36career or you can have a calling and if
16. 0:39you can somehow figure out how to have a
17. 0:41calling you have hit the jackpot cuz
18. 0:43that's the big
19. 0:47deal I met Jeff basos 25 years ago and
20. 0:51he told me Dave I want you to invest in
21. 0:53my company what are you doing I'm going
22. 0:54to start a bookstore in my garage okay
23. 0:57I'm going to put it online people buy
24. 0:59buy online and I'm a ship out of my
25. 1:01garage but but if you invest in me
26. 1:04Dave someday I'm going to be the richest
27. 1:06man in the world I'll do over $100
28. 1:09billion first of all there is no such
29. 1:11thing as a100 billion 25 years ago
30. 1:15statistically there's no such thing
31. 1:18countries didn't have 100 our national
32. 1:20debt wasn't $100 billion and this dude's
33. 1:23telling me at 26 years old that he's
34. 1:26going to be the richest man in the world
35. 1:28cuz he has a garage and the
36. 1:31internet that was his truth do that no
37. 1:34but he did not he did not know it and
38. 1:37neither did I but the difference between
39. 1:39him and I is I was laughing scoffing and
40. 1:41jesting at him and he was already
41. 1:43applauding himself going at the right
42. 1:45way at the perfect time I'm going to
43. 1:47make as much as I can as quickly and I'm
44. 1:49sitting there going there's no way this
45. 1:50is going to be a big business do
46. 1:52something you're very passionate about
47. 1:56and don't try to chase
48. 2:00what is kind of the hot Passion of the
49. 2:04day seen in that light it really was a
50. 2:07difficult choice but ultimately I
51. 2:10decided I had to give it a
52. 2:12shot I didn't think I'd regret trying
53. 2:15and
54. 2:16failing and I suspected I would always
55. 2:19be haunted by a decision to not try at
56. 2:24all after much
57. 2:26consideration I took the less safe path
58. 2:30to follow my passion and I'm proud of
59. 2:33that
60. 2:35choice as a young boy I had been a
61. 2:37garage inventor I'd invented an
62. 2:40automatic gate closer out of cement
63. 2:42filed tires a solar cooker that didn't
64. 2:46work very well out of an umbrella and
65. 2:47aluminum
66. 2:48foil baking pan alarms to entrap my
67. 2:52siblings I'd always wanted to be an
68. 2:55inventor and she wanted me to follow my
69. 2:58passion was a mil military phrase that I
70. 3:01especially love and it says slow is
71. 3:05smooth and smooth is fast and I have
72. 3:08seen that in every Endeavor I've ever
73. 3:10been in that's the kind of thing that
74. 3:12really allows you to make progress you
75. 3:14know you get certain um gifts in life
76. 3:17and you want to take advantage of those
77. 3:19um but you I guess my advice on
78. 3:23adversity and uh success would be to be
79. 3:29be proud not of your gifts but of your
80. 3:33hard work and your choices so you know
81. 3:36you may be the kinds of gifts you get
82. 3:38like you know you might be really good
83. 3:39at math it might be really easy for you
84. 3:42that's a kind of gift um but practicing
85. 3:45that math and taking it to the next step
86. 3:48that could be very challenging and hard
87. 3:51um and take a lot of sweat that's a
88. 3:54choice you can't really be proud of your
89. 3:55gifts because they were given to you um
90. 3:58you can be great f for them and thankful
91. 4:01for them um and but your choices you
92. 4:04choose to work hard um you choose to do
93. 4:07hard things those are choices that you
94. 4:11can be proud
95. 4:13of you can choose we all get to choose
96. 4:15our life stories and um it's the choices
97. 4:18that Define us not our gifts everybody
98. 4:20in this room has many gifts um I have
99. 4:22many gifts you can never be proud of
100. 4:24your gifts because they're gifts they
101. 4:26were given to you you might be you know
102. 4:28tall and or you might be really good at
103. 4:31math or you might be extremely beautiful
104. 4:34or handsome or you know there or there
105. 4:37many gifts and you can only be proud
106. 4:40really of your choices because those are
107. 4:42the things that you are that you're that
108. 4:44you are acting on and one of the most
109. 4:47important choices that each of us has
110. 4:49and you know this just as well as I do
111. 4:52is um you can choose a life of ease and
112. 4:58comfort or you can choose a life of
113. 5:02service and
114. 5:03adventure and when you're 80 which one
115. 5:06of those things you think you're going
116. 5:08to be more proud of you're going to be
117. 5:10more proud of having chosen a life of
118. 5:12service and
119. 5:15Adventure never been a better time to be
120. 5:17alive I mean it's just an incredible the
121. 5:20amount of uh inspiration that the world
122. 5:23generates uh for me and I think for a
123. 5:25lot of people it's just it's insane the
124. 5:28amount of change and convention and
125. 5:33opportunity your life the life you
126. 5:37author from scratch on your own
127. 5:41begins how will you use your gifts what
128. 5:44choices will you make will
129. 5:48inertia be your guide or will you follow
130. 5:51your
131. 5:53passions will you follow
132. 5:56Dogma or will you be original
133. 6:00will you choose a life of
134. 6:02ease or a life of service and
135. 6:07Adventure will you wilt under
136. 6:11criticism or will you follow your
137. 6:14convictions will you Bluff it out when
138. 6:16you're
139. 6:17wrong or will you
140. 6:21apologize will you guard your
141. 6:24heart against
142. 6:26rejection or will you act when you fall
143. 6:29on
144. 6:30love will you play it safe or will you
145. 6:34be a little bit
146. 6:37swashbuckling when it's
147. 6:39tough will you give up or will you be
148. 6:44[Music]
149. 6:46relentless will you be a
150. 6:49cynic or will you be a
151. 6:54builder will you be
152. 6:58clever at the expense of
153. 7:01others or will you be
154. 7:04kind every time you figure out some way
155. 7:07of providing tools and services that
156. 7:09Empower other people to deploy their
157. 7:11creativity you're really on to something
158. 7:13you know you're very lucky if you have a
159. 7:15career a lot of people end up with a
160. 7:18job if you don't love your work you're
161. 7:21never going to be great at it Jules ver
162. 7:24Mark Twain Galileo Newton all the
163. 7:28Curious from the ages would have wanted
164. 7:31to be alive most of all right
165. 7:35now as a civilization we will have so
166. 7:38many gifts just as you as individuals
167. 7:41have so many individual gifts as you sit
168. 7:43before
169. 7:45me how will you use these gifts and will
170. 7:48you take pride in your gifts or pride in
171. 7:51your choices
172. 7:56[Music]