More from Jeff Bezos

In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.

JB

Jeff Bezos

Princeton University Commencement 2010, 2010

17:48

Video starts at 17:48 — the moment this quote was spoken

The Story Behind This Quote

Bezos closed his speech by asking the graduates a series of provocative questions: Will you follow dogma or be original? Will you choose a life of ease or a life of service and adventure? Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind? After posing each question, he arrived at this culminating line — a distillation of his entire philosophy about what makes a meaningful life. He also shared how he used a 'regret-minimization framework' when deciding to leave a lucrative Wall Street job to start Amazon, imagining himself at 80 and asking what he would regret not trying.

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