Thread by @DanRose999

One of the most important things I learned from Jeff Bezos was to develop a bias for action. He wasn't always right, but he was always ready to act (and he was right much more than wrong). Like the time we were flying to Chicago and nearly wound up in Paris. Here's what happened:

In 2004, I joined Steve Kessel's newly formed digital team to incubate the Kindle. This was Amazon's first hardware project, a somewhat daunting initiative for a retailer. Jeff had met the CEO of Motorola who invited him to Chicago for a tour and meetings, and he brought us along

Steve brought me + 2 other people from the team, we got on Jeff's plane in Seattle. Jeff was fired up from the start, posing strategy questions & brainstorming our approach to hardware, software and content (my job). He had us captive for 4 hours and didn't waste a second.

When he asked about our strategy for getting book publishers on board with digital books, I mentioned we would need a DRM solution (like Apple had done with music). There was a small start-up based in Paris that had already built DRM for e-books and we might want to acquire them.

When Jeff heard this he said "let's fly straight to Paris and buy this company." I thought he was kidding but he was dead serious. Steve reminded him they had 2 days of operating reviews scheduled with the exec team later that week, but Jeff said he would move or cancel them.

Steve ultimately convinced Jeff to keep the existing itinerary. (Steve and I would eventually fly to Paris and acquire Mobipocket as our DRM for Kindle). I later asked Steve if Jeff was really serious about going to Paris.

Steve said "one thing I've learned working for Jeff is that he is a man of action. If there's a traffic jam on the highway, he'd rather take the side roads even if it takes him longer to reach his destination. He must always be moving. It's inspiring, and sometimes infuriating."

Amazon later adopted "bias for action" as one of their core values, and I watched Jeff demonstrate it many times. I learned to incorporate this mentality into my own style as an executive, and I have often been told in performance reviews that it is one of my biggest strengths.

Whenever there's doubt about whether to act or wait, I always err on the side of taking action. There has to be good reason to wait, otherwise I want to get moving. I'd rather fail trying than succeed by not acting. This has served me well in my career, and I thank Jeff for it.