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I was excited to read this, but didn't find any useful insights. Just the typical 1-2 childhood stories extrapolated to "success" and some superficial comments
by dokein 9y ago
I was excited to read this, but didn't find any useful insights. Just the typical 1-2 childhood stories extrapolated to "success" and some superficial comments on work-life balance.
- k__ 9y agoYes, utter crap. Some guy got lucky, nothing else...
- davidw 9y agoLuck plays a role, but it's not the difference between some guy being Jeff Bezos and working at McDonalds. It's probably more of the difference between being successful in a way that many are - maybe owning a local company or something like that - and having something that blows up like Amazon has.
- Barrin92 9y agoI'd argue the reverse is the case. Between someone like Jeff Bezos and someone working at McDonalds, without disrespecting the latter as there's nothing wrong with it, is not luck but education, aptitude and so forth. But I have trouble seeing the substantial difference between Jeff Bezos and one of his dozens of colleagues at his former job. Many people tried to open online businesses like this, and often it came down to very specific moments in time where the circumstances, the money, the people applying to your company specifically and so on all checked out. And there's really no or very little control you have about this.
- k__ 9y agoThat's what I mean. Success is one thing, but Amazon level success is completly different.
- davidw 9y agoAs far as I can tell, you're arguing the same thing I am. There are a bunch of people like him who are pretty successful people; quite a few who are very successful, but what separates him from them is probably due to some good luck on his part.
- khazhoux 9y agoIt wasn't luck. But his stories mirrors thousands of failures, making any advice/insight useless.
- adamnemecek 9y agoAre you inspired yet? /s
- dogruck 9y agoHe actually dispenses the idea with work-life balance. That’s different than “superficial comments on work-life balance.”
- hinkley 9y agoI’ve met a couple people who quit Amazon in under a month. One saw a poster that said, “work harder, smarter, or faster. But you can’t pick just two” Like Microsoft, the cultural foundation is masochistic bullshit. They’ll never unwind that. And if that’s the only way to be rich then I’ll settle for successful and call it a day.
- manigandham 9y agoDon't work there then... everyone has their own preferences. The moral judgements seem silly.
- majewsky 9y agoIt'd be fun to do a long-time study to see if working at highly competitive places like Amazon increases mortality rates among employees.
- dogruck 9y agoBezos advocates an alternative perspective, which I think you missed. Don’t view work as a necessary evil that you must cope with and minimize. Instead, embrace it as a core aspect of life. Let work elevate your personal life, and let your personal life elevate work.
- krapp 9y ago> Let work elevate your personal life, and let your personal life elevate work. That's nonsense, though, and it's coming from a man whose company will push employees into 60 hour weeks for arbitrary lengths of time, often with little forewarning, because they expect work to be personal life, because "customer obsession."
- manigandham 9y agoThese stories are all the same but people like to read them, the entire self-help industry is based on this. All the major advice is already common sense.
- hkmurakami 9y agoImo his regret minimization framework and work/life harmony are legitimately worth thinking about. I've personally experienced the "unhappy/bored at work -> bad at home" connection in my life.