I Got Rich When I Understood This Jeff Bezos

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 have hit the jackpot cuz that's the big deal I met Jeff basos 25 years ago and he told me Dave I want you to invest in my company what are you doing I'm going to start a bookstore in my garage okay I'm going to put it online people buy buy online and I'm going ship out of my garage but but if you invest in me Dave someday I'm going to be the richest man in the world I'll do over A1 billion first of all there's no such thing as a100 billion 25 years ago statistically there's no such thing countries didn't have 100 our national debt wasn't $1 billion and this dude's telling me at 26 years old that he's going to be the richest man in the world cuz he has a garage and the internet that was his truth think do that no but he did not he did not know it and neither did I but the difference between him and I is I was laughing scoffing and jesting at him and he was already applauding himself going at the right way at the perfect time I'm going to make as much as I can as quickly and I'm sitting there going there's no way this is going to be a big business do something you're very passionate about and don't try to chase what is kind of the hot Passion of the day seen in that light it really was a difficult choice but ultimately I decided 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 as a young boy I had been a garage inventor I'd invented an automatic gate closer out of cement filed tires a solar cooker that didn't work very well out of an umbrella and aluminum foil baking pan alarms to entrap my siblings I'd always wanted to be an inventor and she wanted me to follow my passion there was a military phrase that I especially love and it says slow is smooth and smooth is fast and I have seen that in every Endeavor I've ever been in that's the kind of thing that really allows you to make progress you know you get certain um gifts in life and you want to take advantage of those um but you I guess my advice on adversity and uh success would be to be proud not of your gifts but of your hard work and your choices so you know you may be the kinds of gifts you get like you know you might be really good at math it might be really easy for you that's a kind of gift um but practicing that math and taking it to the next step that could be very challenging and hard um 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 um you can be great ful for them and thankful for them um and but your choices you choose to work hard um you choose to do hard things those are choices that you can be proud of you can choose we all get to choose our life stories and um it's the choices that Define us not our gifts everybody in this room has many gifts um I have many gifts you can never be proud of your gifts because they're gifts they were given to you you might be you know tall and or you might be really good at math or you might be extremely beautiful or handsome or you know there or there many gifts and you can only be proud really of your choices because those are the things that you are that you're that you are acting on and one of the most important choices that each of us has and you know this just as well as I do is um 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 you think you're going to be more proud of you're going to be more proud of having chosen a life of service and adventure' never been a better time to be alive I mean it's just an incredible the amount of uh inspiration that the world generates uh for me and I think for a lot of people it's just it's insane the amount of change and convention and opportunity 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 and 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 on 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 [Music] 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 every time you figure out some way of providing tools and services that Empower other people to deploy their creativity you're really on to something you know you're very lucky 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 Jules ver 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 [Music]