Jeff Bezos says All Successful People Should Be “Waking Up Every Morning Terrified”

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon is today world's wealthiest man alive with an estimated net worth of $150 billion and now he advised his top-level employees to wake up terrified for years. Bezos recommended fear to drive work ethic and innovative thinking, even though things are going well for them.

A news came that Bezos in a 1999 shareholder letter wrote, "I constantly remind our employees to be afraid, to wake up every morning terrified.....Our customers have made our business what it is." He further wrote," And we consider them to be loyal to us – right up until the second that someone else offers them a better service."

Bezos holds the opinion that Complacency is the kiss of death in business and in life. That's why Jeff Bezos recommends using fear in work life. According to Bezos who is regarded as one of the best CEOs of all time, Amazon wanted its employees to remain competitive in the future, employees needed to be scared of no longer being the best and commit to "constant improvement, experimentation, and innovation in every initiative."

Bezos, who made Amazon biggest e-commerce company in the world believes that Being stagnant in business and life, whether you’re the top company in the world or otherwise, does not give way for success and innovation. As a matter of fact, he claims that becoming too comfortable with anything is a sure fire way to breed complacency and lose your edge and innovation.

Bezos thinks he doesn't allow a fear of failure to keep him from learning or trying new things. As for example Amazon has moved beyond just selling books online when it was started in 1994. From health care to groceries to meal-kits, Amazon is known for its risk-taking ventures and launch of a growing number of industries since its inception.

Bezos again in a 2016 shareholder letter wrote, "To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it's going to work, it's not an experiment,... Failure and invention are inseparable twins."

Bezos’ ethos and principles have some point of candour in itself. As stated by the Harvard Business Review, a certain type of fear is important — worrying about opportunity costs, personal financial security, or ability to obtain funding for a given venture are all positively associated with an entrepreneur’s persistence in pursuing their goals.

Another successful businessperson like PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi also uses fear to guide her next moves forward in today's competitive business market.