We are our choices. Build yourself a great story.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Resilience in innovation means discovering endless opportunities rather than being discouraged by perceived limits.
This quote by Jeff Bezos emphasizes the importance of resilience in the context of innovation. While the Gold Rush symbolizes the pursuit of a limited resource, Bezos argues that innovation is an ongoing process that continuously generates new questions and opportunities. Rather than feeling disheartened by perceived limits, one should embrace the endless possibilities that come with innovation, indicating that there is always something new to explore and create.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about entrepreneurship, you might quote Bezos to inspire innovation and persistence.
More from Jeff Bezos
All quotes →Work hard, have fun and make history.
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.
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.
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.
We've done price elasticity studies, and the answer is always that we should raise prices. We don't do that, because we believe -- and we have to take this as an article of faith -- that by keeping our prices very, very low, we earn trust with customers over time, and that that actually does maximize free cash flow over the long term.
Similar quotes
We always say Jordan is not rich in natural resources - we don't have oil or gas like some of our neighbors do - but I think in terms of human resources, we are quite lucky and we are really trying to foster an environment of innovation and technology. I think Jordan will emerge as a center of innovation in the Middle East.
When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts.
Do you know what my favorite renewable fuel is? An ecosystem for innovation.
The innovative process is a fragile one, dependent on a complex, often messy interplay of imagination, competition, and exchange. Curbing new ideas hurts not only individual creators but the audience for which they create and the posterity that inherits their legacy.
Most innovation is not done by research institutes and national laboratories. It comes from manufacturing - from companies that want to extend their product reach, improve their costs, increase their returns. What's very important is in-house research.
Most of us understand that innovation is enormously important. It's the only insurance against irrelevance. It's the only guarantee of long-term customer loyalty. It's the only strategy for out-performing a dismal economy.