Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reveals one thing he avoids to help him focus
The billionaire tech mogul shares his secrets to success
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Your support makes all the difference.If anyone knows a thing or two about success, it’s Amazon’s billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos.
Currently the third richest person in the world, according to Forbes, the 53-year-old took to the stage at the invite-only Summit Series in Los Angeles to discuss his work and offer advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur today.
In the candid interview with his younger brother, Mark, Bezos shared some of his key personal and professional philosophies, one of which was to avoid multitasking.
“I don't like to multi-task. If I'm reading my email I want to be reading my email," the tech mogul explained.
It’s a trait that he picked up at school, explaining that as a child he would refuse to move on from a project until he felt it had been completed, reports Tech Crunch.
Occasionally, this resulted in his teacher physically picking him up and moving his chair so that he would progress onto the next task, he confessed.
The Amazon.com and Blue Origin founder also revealed that he approaches everything with a child-like curiosity, explaining that becoming a “domain expert” in something can be inhibiting when it comes to ideation.
“You can be trapped by that knowledge,” he said.
Meeting the right life partner is crucial too, he added, praising his wife of 24 years, MacKenzie, for her resourcefulness: “I wanted a woman who could get me out of a third-world prison,” he said.
Bezos also stressed the importance of finding a work-life balance, explaining that he excels at work when he is happy at home and he encourages his employees to establish a similar equilibrium.
Like many successful businesspeople, Bezos also insists on taking risks and living without regrets.
He admitted that leaving his job in financial software engineering to launch Amazon was a risk, but with a company now worth $430bn under his belt, it probably isn’t one he regrets taking.
“If [Amazon] failed, I would be very proud when I was 80 that I tried,” he said.
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