Brian Gubernick breaks down the day one mentality, a concept Jeff Bezos uses to keep Amazon from becoming complacent. It means staying energetic, customer-focused, and willing to take risks. Gubernick challenges you to assess whether your business, relationships, health, and wealth still have that founding energy.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I'm going to be discussing the day one mentality. Now, what is day one mentality? First, I'd like to say that this concept is day one mentality. It, I think it was, it became popular, it was made popular by Jeff Bezos, but the first time I actually ever heard about it was from my business partner, Chris Suarez. This is something I should have known about and somehow I missed it, but Chris taught myself and others about this concept. He had a very detailed presentation around it and how Amazon has in fact applied it in their world, how Bezos has applied it to his company Amazon, and how that's played out there. I am not going to go in as nearly as much detail as Chris did that day, but I want to give you this idea around day one mentality. I want to share with you what it means, and I want to talk about how we can apply it in a variety of places in our world. This is the No Days Off movement. Every day we're getting better at something. I think the mentality that is the Day One Mentality certainly will help us push and get better in various aspects of our world. So this Day One Mentality, what is it? It's associated with an approach to work and run a business that emphasizes a sense of innovation, a sense of urgency, a sense of assertiveness and willingness to take risks. It oftentimes, day one mentality is referring to that drive, that inspiration, that excitement, that enthusiasm that existed the day you opened the doors for business. In addition, the day you opened the doors, you were probably heavily focused, maybe insanely focused on the customer experience. You know, what their experience, what their service was from you, or if you had a product, how much that product meant to that customer. You probably, you know, as a startup specifically, or when you first opened your doors, you were in love with what it is you were launching. That energy that I just described, that urgency, that innovation, that is typically present on the very first day of a new project or a new business or a new venture. Now, this concept, as I said earlier, it came from, from Jeff Bezos. I think he's the one that made it a bit more popular. And we all know what Amazon's about. You know, the company's, I don't know, 25+ years old, and it is a behemoth. It is massive. And Bezos has been incredibly sensitive around maintaining this day one mentality. Why? Well, because it's really easy, especially in a business of that size, to move to day two. And what is day 2? Day 2 in this, if you're to compare it to day 1, day 2 is the day you maybe become a little less enthusiastic or a little less customer-centric or a little less risk, you know, I should say more risk-averse. Maybe you don't have that same passion. So Bezos, in a behemoth of a company in Amazon, has spent a career making certain that that company remains with that day one mentality. Now, aspects of the day one mentality, things like extraordinarily high standards, setting ambitious goals, a default aggressive, a bias to action, an entrepreneurial spirit that encourages innovation and experimentation. Long-term thinking, like a focus on strategies and tactics that are not just going to win the day or win the week or win the month, but are going to win the year or win the decade, you know, or win the century even in Amazon's case. Agility and adaptability, being willing to embrace change, recognizing that the world is constantly changing and having to be flexible and adapt. These are aspects of the day one mentality. By adopting this day one mentality, organizations and individuals are really aiming to just maintain the energy and the customer focus and the experience, which is all counter to complacency, which is what day two and beyond could potentially look like. So why am I talking about this? First thing, maybe the first focusing question: where's your business at right now? If you look at your business, if you're running a business and you're listening to this today, if you do a true analysis, if you take a step back, do you have a day one mentality in your business? Are you operating like the way you were operating the first day you opened the doors? Do you have that same entrepreneurial spirit? Do you have that same drive? Are you as customer-centric? Are you as passionate? Or are you cruising a bit? Are you not adapting to change at the pace you once did? If that's the case, if you're operating more day 2 and beyond, what would it look like if you fired the engines back up and began to change the company mentality to that of a day 1? What would that entail? How would you infuse that energy back into the company? It may not be as simple as just walking in and saying, "Hey gang, it's day one again." What's missing? Who would you have to bring in? What projects would you have to take on? Something to think around today. Now, the next focusing question is to take this mentality outside of your business. I want you to think about other aspects of your life. Let's talk about relationships. I know that's one we focus on quite a bit here at No Days Off. Look at your relationships, all of them. Are they day one? Are you treating them with day one mentality, or is it day two or beyond? Let's look at your significant other. If you, if you have a significant other, you know, I think we all remember day one. Now some of us wake up every day like it's day one, and others of us, man, it is day— I won't even name it. That lack of day one mentality could very well be the reason why that relationship is just not where you'd like it to be. How about your health? About your day one? How about when you decided— because we've all made this decision multiple times in our life— I'm going to be healthier today, and you actually took action steps to do that? You changed your food, you changed your workout, you changed your routine, and you had a day one mentality around it. So you were focused, you were, uh, excited You were innovative. You were adapting to change. No matter the obstacle, you were overcoming it. Where are you at with respect to your health right now? Is it still a day one mentality? I think for many of our listeners, absolutely. And for others, are you kind of getting it in now and again, but not quite like you did when you were last fired up over your New Year's resolution? What should you be doing, or could you be doing, to get back to day one mentality with respect to your health? And as it pertains to your wealth, you know, you go to a seminar, you listen to a No Days Off episode, you have a coaching call, whatever it may be, and you're all fired up around wealth building. That's a day one mentality. Does that spirit, does that energy wane though? Where are you at right now? I mean, something as important as wealth, as health, as relationships, I think these things deserve some day one mentality around them, right? So the focusing question: where does this day one mentality— I think the overarching focusing question— where does this day one mentality need to be re-implemented in your life, in your business, in your world? And if it was in fact done, what might that do for you? Just something really, really interesting, I think, to think about. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
