Jeff Bezos: “Every startup is unlikely to work… But that doesn’t mean you can’t be optimistic”

Thought the odds of success were low. Told all of our early investors that I thought there was a 30% chance of success by which I just been getting your money back, not what actually happened. Because that's the truth. Every startup company is unlikely to work. It's helpful to be in reality about that. But that doesn't mean you can't be optimistic. So you kind of have to have this duality in your head. On the one hand, you know what the baseline statistics say about startup companies. On the other hand, you have to ignore all of that and just be 100% sure it's going to work. And you're doing both things at the same time. You're holding that contradiction in your head. But it was so exciting from 1994 when the company was founded, to 1995 when we opened our doors, all the way until today. I find Amazon so exciting, and it's, like, full of pain, full of problems. There's so many things that need to be resolved and worked and made better and et cetera. But on balance, it's so fun. It's such a privilege. It's been such a joy. I feel so grateful that I've been part of that journey. It's just been incredible. So.