We are our choices. Build yourself a great story.
Jeff BezosRead
No matter what your mission is, have some notion in your head. Forget the model, whether it's government or nonprofit or profit. Ask yourself the more important question: Is my mission improving the world? Are you sure about it? Seek to disconfirm that all the time. And if you can, change your mission.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of having a mission that positively impacts the world, regardless of the organization type.
Jeff Bezos encourages individuals to focus on the significance of their mission and to continually question whether it genuinely contributes to the betterment of the world. He suggests that one should not become complacent with their mission; instead, they should be willing to change it if it is not fulfilling this critical goal.
Themes
MissionWorldChangeImpactQuestioning
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech at a company meeting, one could use this quote to inspire employees to reflect on their contributions.
More from Jeff Bezos
All quotes →Work hard, have fun and make history.
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If you're not stubborn, you'll give up on experiments too soon. And if you're not flexible, you'll pound your head against the wall and you won't see a different solution to a problem you're trying to solve.
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But there's so much kludge, so much terrible stuff, we are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet. That's where we are. We don't get our hair caught in it, but that's the level of primitiveness of where we are. We're in 1908.
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Because, you know, resilience - if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you'd be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn't a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.
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When you are eighty years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices.
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