0: you guys will find that you have

3: passions and having a passion is a gift

6: I think we all have passions and you

8: don't get to choose them they pick you

11: but you have to be alert to them you

13: have to be looking for them and when you

15: find your passion it's a fantastic gift

18: for you because it gives you direction

19: it gives you purpose you could have a

22: job or you can have a career or you can

24: have a calling and the best thing is to

26: have a calling and if you find your

27: passion you'll have that and all your

29: work won't feel like work to you many

31: many kids and many grown-ups do figure

34: out over time what their passions are

37: and sometimes we let our I don't think

41: it's that hard I think what happens

43: though sometimes is that we let our

45: intellectual selves overrule those

48: passions and so that's what needs to be

51: guarded against my job one of my jobs as

54: the leader of Amazon is to encourage

58: people to be bold

59: and people love to focus on things that

62: aren't yet working and that's good it's

65: human nature that kind of divine

67: discontent can be very helpful but you

70: really you know it's incredibly hard to

72: get people to take bold bets and you

75: need to encourage that and if you're

76: gonna take bold bets they're gonna be

78: experiments and if their experiments you

81: don't know ahead of time go they're

82: going to work experiments are by their

85: very nature prone to failure but big

88: success is a few big successes

90: compensate for dozens and dozens of

93: things that didn't work so you know bold

95: bets AWS Kindle Amazon Prime our 3rd

100: party seller business all of those

102: things are examples of bull bets that

105: that did work and they pay for a lot of

108: experiments I've made billions of

111: dollars of failures at amazon.com

113: literally billions of dollars of

115: failures and

118: you know you might remember pets calm or

121: Cosmo or you know give myself a root

125: canal with no anesthesia very easily

127: none of those things are fun but but

131: they also they don't matter what really

134: matters is companies that don't continue

136: to experiment companies that don't

138: embrace failure they eventually get in

142: the desperate position where they only

145: thing they can do is we could kind of

147: Hail Mary bet at the very end of their

148: corporate existence

150: whereas companies that are you know

152: making bets all along even you know big

155: bets but not bet the company bets I

157: don't I don't believe in bet the company

159: bets that's when you're desperate that's

161: that's the last thing you can do it's

164: not you can be out of work and you have

168: terrible work-life balance you know even

170: though you've got all the time in the

171: world right you could just feel like oh

173: my god you know I'm miserable and you

175: would be draining energy and so you have

178: to find that harmony it's a much better

180: word and I think for most people it's

183: about meaning people want to know that

186: they're doing something interesting and

188: useful and for us you know because of

191: the challenges that we have chosen for

193: ourselves we get to work in the future

196: and it's super fun to work in the future

198: for the right kind of person do you need

200: to be if you nimble and robust so you

205: need to be able to take a punch and you

208: also need to be quick and and and and

210: innovative and and doing new things at a

212: high speed that's that's the best

214: defense against the future and you have

216: to always be leaning into the future if

218: you're if you're leaning away from the

221: future the future is gonna win every

223: time never ever ever lean away from the

225: future we all have adversity in our

227: lives yeah I I would I would I doubt if

230: you really you know if you know somebody

233: any friend or anybody that you talk to

236: there's no lack of adversity and the and

241: by the way that's good because it's what

243: teaches us how to get back up you fall

245: down you get back up it always happens

248: and you know you get certain gifts in

251: life and you want to take advantage of

253: those but you I guess my advice on

257: adversity and success would be to be

264: proud not of your gifts but of your hard

268: work and your choices so you know you

271: may be the kinds of gifts you get light

273: you know you might be really good at

274: math it might be really easy for you

276: that's a kind of gift but practicing

280: that math and taking it to the next step

282: that could be very challenging and hard

285: and take a lot of sweat that's a choice

289: you can't really be proud of your gifts

291: because they were given to you you can

294: be grateful for them and thankful for

296: them and but your choices you choose to

300: work hard you choose to do hard things

303: those are choices that you can be proud

306: of being an inventor requires because

309: the world is so complicated you have to

311: be a domain expert I mean in a way even

313: if even if you're not at the beginning

314: you have to learn learn learn learn

316: learn enough so to become a domain

319: expert but the danger is once you've

321: become a domain expert you can be

323: trapped by that knowledge and so

325: inventors have this paradoxical ability

328: to have that you know 10,000 hours of

331: practice and be a real domain expert and

334: have that beginner's mind have that that

338: look at it freshly even though they know

340: so much about the domain and that's the

344: key to inventing you have to have both

347: and I think that is intentional I think

349: all of us have that inside of us and we

351: can all do it but you have to be

353: intentional about it you have to say

355: yeah I am going to become an expert and

357: I'm gonna keep my beginner's mind you

360: can't skip steps you have to put one

362: foot in front of the other things take

364: time

364: you there are no shortcuts and but but

369: you want to do those steps with you know

372: passion and ferocity it's easy to have

376: ideas it's very hard to turn an idea

378: into a successful product

380: there are a lot of steps in between it

382: takes persistence relentlessness so I

386: always tell people who are you know who

389: think they want to be entrepreneurs it's

391: you need a combination of stubborn

395: relentlessness and flexibility and you

400: have to know when to bewitch and

401: basically you need to be stubborn on

404: your vision because otherwise it'll be

406: too easy to give up but you need to be

409: very flexible on the details because as

412: you go along pursuing your vision you'll

414: find that some of your preconceptions

415: were wrong you're gonna need to be able

418: to change those things so I think taking

421: an idea successfully all the way to the

424: market and turning it into a real

426: product that people care about and that

427: really improves people's lives is a lot

430: of hard work

431: don't try to chase what is kind of the

435: hot passion of the day I think we

438: actually saw this I think you see it all

439: over the place in many different context

441: but I think we saw it in the internet

444: world quite a bit where you know it's

447: sort of peak of the sort of Internet you

451: know mania and say 1999 you found people

454: who were you know very passionate

458: something they kind of left that job and

460: decided I'm gonna you know could do

462: something in the internet because it's

463: you know it was almost like the you know

465: the 18-49 Gold Rush in a way I mean you

468: find that people if you go back and

471: study the history of the 18-49 Gold Rush

473: you find that you know at that time

475: everybody who was in was within the

477: shouting distance of California was you

480: know they might have been a doctor but

481: they quit being a doctor and they

482: started panning for gold and that that

485: almost never works and even if it does

489: work you know according to some metric

492: financial success or whatever it might

493: be I suspect it leaves you ultimately

496: unsatisfied so you really need to

499: be very clear with yourself and I think

502: one of the best ways to do that is this

505: notion of projecting yourself forward to

507: age 80 looking back on your life and

510: trying to make sure you've minimized the

512: number of regrets you have that works

513: for that works for career decisions it

516: works for family decisions you know do

519: you want I have a 14 month old son and

522: it's very easy for me to if I think

524: about myself when I'm 80 I know I want

527: to watch that little guy grow up and so

530: if it's I don't want to be 80 and think

532: shoot you know I missed that whole thing

535: and I don't have the kind of

536: relationship with my son that I wished I

538: had and so on and so on

539: so if you think about that so I guess

541: another thing that I would recommend to

543: people is that they always take a long

545: term point of view and I think this is

548: something about which there's a lot of

550: controversy you know there's a you know

552: there's a you know something a lot of

554: people and I'm just not one of them

555: believe that you should live for the now

557: I think what you do is you think about

560: the the great expanse of time ahead of

563: you and try to make sure that you're

565: planning for that in a way that's gonna

567: leave you ultimately satisfied so this

570: is just my this is the way it works for

572: me and I mean this is everybody needs to

574: find that for themself so there are a

578: lot of paths to satisfaction and you

582: need to find one that works works for

584: you