When one thinks about the children of rich people, we tend to see them as spoiled and perhaps out of touch. Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife Mackenzie Scott chose a very different approach to child rearing, choosing to let their children use knives from the age of four.
This is a controversial parenting decision that, probably for once has no standing on the parent’s wealth, dexterity in children of that age is not a given, but in a Summit interview that Jeff and his brother Mark gave, the billionaire explained how his parenting philosophy of self-reliance and resourcefulness also applied to his company, Amazon.com Inc.
During the interview he revealed that the approach was due to Mackenzie’s pragmatic perspective and declared that she would have “much rather have a kid with nine fingers than a resourceless kid,” calling it “a fantastic attitude about life.” That is why “sharp knives” were used starting at four years old and power tools by ages 7 or 8.
His brother tried to make light of the comments by stating “Luckily you have resourceful kids with 10 fingers.” To which Bezos added with a laugh, “So far.”
Jeff Bezos and how his home life philosophy transitioned to his company
Questionable parenting choices aside, Bezos does seem to emphasize self-reliance and hands-on problem-solving abilities in his personal and in his professional life. According to multiple sources, this approach is not just his ex-wife’s doing, it was learned during his own childhood.
During his formative years, he spent summers at his grandfather’s remote ranch, where he apparently witnessed the value of hands-on problem-solving firsthand. Life in remote ranches is not easy today and it definitely was not fifty years ago when he went there as a child, and so making do with what you had was a valuable life skill. The 60’s and 70’s still had some of that can-do attitude from post-war America, where you just rolled up your sleeves and got to work.
Seeing how his grandfather just fixed broken equipment and faced situations without having to call for help, even roping in young Bezos so that he would learn was a lesson that he would not forget when entering the corporate world. And clearly bleeds over every area of his life, including raising his children.
When he founded Amazon, he apparently decided to carry on the same spirit of determined problem-solving through failures and obstacles going so far so as to state in Amazon’s 1997 shareholder letter, “Given a 10% chance of a 100X payout, you should take that bet every time.”
While the company has had many problems and complaints from both workers and consumers over the years, it is not up for debate how successful he has become and the high standards that he has for anyone who is employed there. He is also quite fond of innovation, always looking for the next best way to make something new or improve on what is already established, which is what has given his company an edge for the past few years.
While this all sounds very aspirational, the reality is that we cannot forget that we are dealing with a person who would apparently prefer to see his children maimed and his workers exploited and underpaid than bend and admit he is wrong. The attributes he looks for and fosters are great when you are at the top, but those who do not have the money that he does (and always did) to pave the way and smooth out any inconvenience might want to take a more risk averse approach. Or at the very least a more cooperative approach, where we acknowledge that doing everything on our own is not sustainable.
发表回复