Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos explains why the Fire Phone disaster was actually a good thing
Brent Lewis
But according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the Fire Phone is a "tiny little blip" compared to some of the larger experiments his company is working on now.
"If you think that's a big failure, we're working on much bigger failures right now. And I am not kidding. And some of them are going to make the Fire Phone look like a tiny little blip," Bezos said in an interview with the Washington Post's executive editor Martin Baron on Wednesday.
Bezos is famous for his knack of taking experiments and accepting failure as a learning experience. He reitereated his thinking during the interview.
"The size of your mistakes needs to grow along with [the company]," Bezos said. "If it doesn't, you're not going to be inventing at scale that can actually move the needle."
And to do so, you need to make "big, noticeable" mistakes. He continued:
"The great thing is when you take this approach, a small number of winners pay for dozens, hundreds of failures. And so every single important thing that we have done has taken a lot of risk taking, perseverance, guts, and some of them have worked out, most of them have not.
That has to happen at every scale level, all the way down, and you have to take shots...you always learn something and you move on."
This approach has led to a number of failed projects, like its hotel-booking site Amazon Destinations and auction site Amazon Auction. But it's also led to massive successes, such as its Amazon Web Services and the Amazon Echo, which is why Bezos likes to call Amazon "the best place in the world to fail."
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- Saudi Arabia wants China to help fund its struggling $500 billion Neom megaproject. Investors may not be too excited.
- Catan adds climate change to the latest edition of the world-famous board game
- Tired of blatant misinformation in the media? This video game can help you and your family fight fake news!
- Tired of blatant misinformation in the media? This video game can help you and your family fight fake news!
- JNK India IPO allotment – How to check allotment, GMP, listing date and more
- Indian Army unveils selfie point at Hombotingla Pass ahead of 25th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas