Fearless, Fanatical, Failures
How smart companies build a culture that fearlessly innovates, is fanatical about customer servanthood, and is propelled to success through failure
At Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos makes a point to note that it is always Day 1. The company will always act like an aggressive startup.
“I’ve been reminding people that it’s Day 1 for a couple of decades…Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.”
Staying in start-up mentality has served Amazon well, as they are more than a $100 billion dollar company. But even though many businesses want to continue to grow, and maintain that entrepreneurial spirit that helped them achieve such rapid growth, they struggle with how to do so.
Once they hit a certain level of success with a sizeable number of employees, they become more bureaucratic, less aggressive, and less nimble. They turn the page and begin operating on Day 2. No bueno.
The key to preventing the slow decline Bezos describes is to develop a culture where the entrepreneurial mindset is prevalent. You need to cultivate a culture where everyone in the company is equipped and empowered to operate in their daily work in a manner that fuels company growth. And you need to foster an environment where everyone on your team has a strong degree of connectedness and passion for their role, and how it benefits your customers.
Topic Authority:
- Survived 4 corporate restructurings and integrations during 9 years at Johnson & Johnson. Have seen first hand what works in building a thriving culture and what doesn’t
- Organized, designed, and hosted the Entrepreneur Survival Summit, a virtual conference where I interviewed 38 experts on the essential entrepreneur mindset companies need to build and grow a thriving business
- Deconstructed the success factors most conducive to building a thriving business through interviewing 100+ entrepreneurs on my podcasts, I Am the One: Entrepreneur Edition and The Customer Magnet Show
A Few of My Published Articles on the Topic:
- How to build a culture of entrepreneurship in your business (Inc.)
- 11 Ways to cultivate a winning startup culture (Inc.)
- How a disconnected corporate culture cost United Airlines $800 million overnight (Inc.)
- 5 Characteristics of a culture that develops and executes breakthrough ideas (Entrepreneur)
- 147 Entrepreneurs told me their keys to success. Here are the top 3 (Inc.)
- How to get better at taking risks. According to a former pro-poker player (Inc.)
- 5 Things I had to unlearn after quitting my corporate job (Inc.)
- 1 Common mistake that causes great businesses to produce mediocre results–And 3 steps to fix it (Inc.)
- Why tons of failure is the key to success, according to Seth Godin (Inc.)
- Failure doesn’t automatically lead to success. Embrace these lessons to make sure it does (Inc.)
