Does Bezos tell Amazon employees that ‘wake up every morning’? Here is the truth

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The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, once said that he tells employees that “they wake up terrified every morning” to better serve customers.

Classification:

Context

The comment arises from a letter aimed at Amazon shareholders in 1999, which analyzes the company’s philosophical approach in their relations with customers and the importance of employee productivity.

The statements that Amazon’s founder and billionaire, Jeff Bezos, once said that he tells his employees that “they wake up terrified every morning” circulated online in the late 2024.

A shared video in Tiktok (filed) presented a extract of An interview with Marta Beckwhich describes himself as “author of Best Sellers, coach and speaker “, from an episode of the podcast “The diary of an executive director.” In the clip, Beck said:

I was surprised to discover that Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, says in his quarterly reports and loves to say, in many environments, that he tells all thousands of Amazon employees who work for him … he wants me to Everyone wakes up terrified every morning. And that is the word that uses: terrified. And remain terrified all day, because that makes them productive. But most of these people are barely getting by financially. Wants you to be afraid all the time for he and the Shareholders You can get more things. And they already have so many things!

The Tiktok user who shared the clip added a legend that said: “No one deserves this, you are a lot and you don’t need to live with fear.” At the time of writing this article, this specific Tiktok has shared almost 10,000 times. Other users intervened in the claim on social media platforms, including Instagram (filed), unknown (filed) and Rags (filed).

In fact, Bezos once said that he tells his employees that “they wake up terrified every morning,” but the available evidence suggests a different context than Beck’s. intimate.

In an interview with CNET of 1999, available to see in YouTubeThe interviewer Wendy Walsh asked Bezos around the minute and sixteen seconds: “Once I heard you say that you told the members of your staff that they were afraid of your clients. What does that mean?”

Bezos’s response is:

Well, I ask everyone around for waking up each tomorrow Through sheets soaked in sweat. But to be very precise about what they fear. And they shouldn’t be afraid of our competitors. They should be afraid of our clients. Because those are the people with whom we have a relationship. Those are the people who send us money. And I think our customers are loyal to us until someone offers them a better service.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxn0kav9vno

In addition, it appears in CNET. interview that Bezos He was paraphrasing himself from a 1999 letter to Amazon shareholders recapitulating he The previous year, which was then published in the 2020 book, “Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff “Bezos”, By Bezos and Walter Isaacson.

The corresponding section appears on page 102 of the book Under a title that says “our clients”:

But there is no rest for tired. I constantly remind our employees to be afraid, wake up every morning terrified. Not of our competition, but of our clients. Our clients have made our business what it is, they are with whom we have a relationship and they are with whom we have a great obligation. And we consider that they are loyal to us, until the moment when someone else offers them a better service.

(“Invent and wandering: the writings compiled by Jeff Bezos” by Walter Isaacson and Jeff Bezos)

Although Bezos’s statements at that time seemed to be an exaggerated commitment to the Amazon client, revelations about the company working conditions In later decades they were probably responsible for the online reaction to this comment when he resurfaced.

Snopes recently investigated statements that Amazon initially denied the license to an employee injured in the attack in New Orleans on January 1, 2025, in addition to previous claims of workers urinating in water bottles due to strict demands of time and claims that Amazon workers win so little that they qualify for food coupons.

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