Our Leadership Principles aren’t just a pretty inspirational wall hanging.
These Principles work hard, just like we do.
Amazonians use them, every day, whether they’re discussing ideas for new projects, deciding on the best solution for a customer’s problem, or interviewing candidates.
It’s just one of the things that makes Amazon peculiar……..
Once, on a mindfulness retreat, I remember our instructor asked us to do one of those odd exercises that are a specialty of meditation teachers. He got us to stand in a circle, then he asked us all to take a step forward. After a few seconds of silence he said, “Now try not to have taken that step.” I had never heard—or more importantly experienced—anything that struck me more powerfully with the pointlessness of certain regrets. Continue reading
Having realized that we can depend on no outside authority in bringing about a total revolution within the structure of our own psyche, there is the immensely greater difficulty of rejecting our own inward authority, the authority of our own particular little experiences and accumulated opinions, knowledge, ideas and ideals. Continue reading
“The people who push our buttons most can be our best teachers – they can show us where we are not finished with our own work. It means that all the jerks who show up in my life are there to teach me something. Continue reading
The real curse is not complexity so much as “complicatedness,” by which we mean the proliferation of cumbersome organizational mechanisms—structures, procedures, rules, and roles—that companies put in place in an effort to deal with the mounting complexity of modern business . Continue reading
“May you have a good friend to keep you out of trouble — and a best friend to help you go looking for it.” – Robert Brault
The eagle has the ability to soar high above a valley, visually taking in miles upon miles of terrain, yet also able to zero in on a mouse on the ground, swoop down, and capture it in his claws. “I think he decided something that I hope every young person here will decide, I think he decided very young to write his own life story,” he said.
“I think he decided before he could have possibly worked it all out and before fate and time could work their will on him, he decided he would never be disempowered, he decided not his grace nor his place nor the expectations of others would strip from him the power to write his own story,” Clinton continued.
“He figured out from a very young age who he was and what he believed and how he could live through the consequences of acting in line with his beliefs,” he said. “Not many people make it to that last step.” Continue reading
“But today’s society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness. Continue reading 
ONE TUSK 