Ex-Amazon VP reveals what it's really like working with Jeff Bezos
Former Amazon VP Ethan Evans joins Sam Parr and Shaan Puri to describe working under Jeff Bezos, from his harsh feedback and customer obsession to how Prime began and Evans's happier life after Amazon.
The gist
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Evans says Bezos gave mostly criticism, and that the Fire Phone, a $170 million hardware write-off, came from believing his own vision was perfect.
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Bezos stayed close to customers by forwarding complaint emails with a single question mark, giving leaders 24 hours to explain what went wrong.
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Evans says the free shipping minimum dropped from $100 to $25, the point where customers bought two items, enough profit to cover shipping.
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Evans says leaving Amazon raised his happiness from seven or eight out of 10 to 11 out of 12, working about 20 hours a week.
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Evans credits Shaan with getting him to follow a 10-year plan, and says caring about the person first, from Leadership and Self-Deception, softens hard feedback.
"On the positive side, you taught me about the value of 10-year plans and 10-year lists... I dug out my old 10-year plan which I had written but done nothing with and now I pay much more attention to that."
▶ Play at 28:33"There is. It comes from a book a little bit less known called Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Institute. But basically, you have to see the person as a human, not as a machine to fix. So, I have to care about the person first. And that doesn't change what I say. ..."
▶ Play at 1:11:02What they recommend · 2 picks
"There is. It comes from a book a little bit less known called Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Institute. But basically, you have to see the person as a human, not ..."
"On the positive side, you taught me about the value of 10-year plans and 10-year lists... I dug out my old 10-year plan which I had written but done nothing with and now I pay m..."
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