Jeff Bezos describes himself as a reflective leader, and this has to do with the way he makes decisions.
“If I make, say, three good decisions a day, that’s enough,” Bezos said in a September 2018 conversation with David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group and president of the Economic Club of Washington. “And they must be of the highest quality possible.”
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According to Bezos, this is an idea he borrowed from Warren Buffett.
“Warren Buffett says he is satisfied if he makes three good decisions a year,” Bezos said. “So, you know, I really believe that.”
The Amazon founder and fourth-richest man in the world said that logic comes down to the actual role of a senior executive.
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“As a top executive, you are paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions,” he said. “Your job is not to make thousands of decisions every day.”
Bezos protects his ability to make decisions by taking care of his mind and body, he explained.
Why Bezos values his eight hours of sleep
It might be easy to imagine that the founder of the #1 Fortune 500 company doesn’t sleep much. But this is far from true in the case of Bezos, who likes to sleep eight hours a night.
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He explained his logic to Rubenstein: If he reduced his sleep from eight to four hours, he could gain enough waking time to make 133 decisions a day instead of 100. Bezos wasn’t convinced.
“Is it really worth it if the quality of those decisions could be lower because you are tired, grumpy or for any other reason?” he asked.
According to Bezos, rest is what improves the final result.
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“I think better, I have more energy, my mood is better, all those things,” he said. “I prioritize this [ao sono]unless you are traveling between different time zones. Sometimes it’s impossible, but I’m very disciplined about it.”
He acknowledged, however, that this wasn’t always possible when Amazon was starting out.
“When Amazon had a hundred people, it was a different story,” he said. “But Amazon is not a startup. And all of our senior executives work the same way I do. They work with the future in mind.”
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Mornings are for doing things without rushing
And when he wakes up, Bezos doesn’t immediately dive into big decisions or anything work-related. He starts the day slowly on purpose.
“I like to do things slowly in the morning,” he said. This includes reading the newspaper and having breakfast with your children before they go to school.
His first meeting isn’t until 10 a.m., and he reserves everything that requires more mental effort—what he calls his “high IQ meetings”—for before lunch. After that, the window closes.
“At 5 pm, I’m already thinking: I can’t reflect on this today, let’s try again tomorrow at 10 am”, he said.
A different bet from the group that is always connected
Bezos’ daily routine is quite different from that of some of his biggest competitors and other high-level executives.
Elon Musk has said that he works well beyond a standard week and sleeps about six hours a night.
“I tried to sleep less, but overall productivity drops,” said the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX in an interview with Joe Rogan in 2021.
Other leaders also seek to reduce the volume of daily decisions, but through different paths. Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama, for example, were known for simplifying everyday decisions — especially regarding their wardrobe — to preserve mental energy for the really important decisions.
“You’ll notice that I only wear gray or blue suits,” Obama said in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2012. “I’m trying to reduce the number of decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m going to eat or wear. Because I already have too many other decisions to make.”
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