I just interviewed the man who invented Amazon Prime.

He started a business worth $40 billion today and served on Amazon's board for 15 yrs.

Here are lessons from Bing Gordon that'll save you years of mistakes:

When you have a business idea, take action now before it dies.

• Write 1 paragraph about the idea

• Write a 4 slide business plan

• Write your 1st line of code
When you start a job, ask your boss 2 questions:

1) Who is the best boss you've ever had and what does that mean for me?

2) What does top 10% performance look like?
Hold yourself accountable for high achievement.

If you're a cab driver, drive the most miles

if you're a fisherman, get on the best boat.
How to succeed

• Be a learning machine.
• Find a way to maintain high energy
In college, you don't take classes for content.

You take classes for great professors.

Same with your job.

Pick a company for a great boss.
The best interview question:

"What's your strategy for learning?"
How to set goals:

1) Clear and unambiguous

2) Stretch, but not impossible

3) Under your personal control

4) Time sensitive + context relevant
Don't invite someone to be on your board that you wouldn't pay to have dinner with.
When pitching your startup, your goal is to share 1 insight to investors that they didn't know before.
If you want to help the next generation of business builders, retweet the first tweet below!

https://t.co/IfjYJJnl48
for more top-secret insights, follow me @chrishlad
if you really like this, check out my newsletter where I share frameworks, systems for success and wild business stories:

https://t.co/VxEW9G1YnK

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"I really want to break into Product Management"

make products.

"If only someone would tell me how I can get a startup to notice me."

Make Products.

"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."

MAKE PRODUCTS.

Courtesy of @edbrisson's wonderful thread on breaking into comics –
https://t.co/TgNblNSCBj – here is why the same applies to Product Management, too.


There is no better way of learning the craft of product, or proving your potential to employers, than just doing it.

You do not need anybody's permission. We don't have diplomas, nor doctorates. We can barely agree on a single standard of what a Product Manager is supposed to do.

But – there is at least one blindingly obvious industry consensus – a Product Manager makes Products.

And they don't need to be kept at the exact right temperature, given endless resource, or carefully protected in order to do this.

They find their own way.