No, this blog post is not a prelude to the Rolling Stones song “I can’t get no (satisfaction)”. Ha quite the opposite. But now, I’m betting the song is stuck in your head! Sorry, not sorry.
This week I’m sharing a video of Jeff Bezos, a billionaire entrepreneur., who raises the question: “are you alert & looking for your passion? Do you have a calling? Does work feel like work to you?”
Some of this seems so rudimentary, yet it leads to more questions such as “are you letting intellect over-rule your passions”? Ooh. Ouch. Good one, Jeff.
You know, could it be time for you to set your intellect aside and be bold?
Could it be time to take bold bets? When you see success, it will surely compensate for all the things that do not work. It seems so obvious that a company should be open-minded. But what about being an open-minded company that… embraces failure! How many of your business friends are talking about this? Probably not many unless they are in a desperate position, throwing a hail mary at the end of their existence. There has to be harmony between being a company that takes bets and a desperate company and at its wit’s end. Most of the time, as Jeff explains, harmony is found within the meaning. People want to know they are doing something exciting & valuable.
So how do you do something interest and useful while staying nimble and robust? One way is to lean into the future, don’t lean away. Get back up when a failure knocks you down. Adversity is excellent for this!
Be proud of your hard work and choices. Don’t be over-proud of your gifts. Be grateful for your blessings, yes. But make sure you are using your talents to take the following steps in life. You choose to work hard and do hard things!
Don’t be such an expert in your field that you become trapped. Be intentional!
Jeff Bezos hit the nail on the head. You can’t rush. There are no shortcuts. Use your passion to get you along. Work with intention. It’s easy to have ideas, but what are the action steps required to get you to where you want to be? There are a lot of steps to put the theory into practice.
The secret sauce is a combo of stubborn relentlessness (on vision) and flexibility (on details).
One secret Jeff shares are to be clear about envisioning your future. Project yourself to age 80 and look back in time. Look at regrets you might have and proud moments you will have.
In a world where so many live for the moment, Bezos suggests taking a long-term perspective. You can live for now AND think about the expansive time ahead. How will you feel satisfied when you’re 80 years old?
What’s your path to satisfaction?
Give the video a watch and hear all of this from Jeff Bezos himself.
I hope my sales team watches this, and I hope this helps you too!