In This Episode: Humans mostly pay attention to the short term. If we can lift our eyes and look much farther out, not only does that benefit us personally, but business leaders that truly have Uncommon Sense sometimes take it to the extreme, and their results, actual and still in the works, can be absolutely mind-blowing.

071: Taking It To the Extreme

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Show Notes

*

* The “Easter Egg” (extra bit cut out) is included separately below the transcript [Jump There].

* Meier’s article about his boss.

* Consumer Reports on the most-satisfying car.

* Results from investing in AMZN at IPO is from here, and the rankings are from Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires list.

* Bezos explains civilization of stasis.

* There are also some illustrations within the transcript. Click any of them to see larger.

Transcript

Humans mostly pay attention to the short term. If we can lift our eyes and look much farther out, not only does that benefit us personally, but business leaders that truly have Uncommon Sense sometimes take it to the extreme, and their results, actual and still in the works, can be absolutely mind-blowing.

Welcome to Uncommon Sense. I’m Randy Cassingham.

In last week’s episode I talked about leadership and how making long-term investments in employees can pay off. I promised that this week, I’ll look at how that might be taken to the extreme.

My examples are names you’ve heard. You may have positive or negative feelings about these people, but this isn’t about them per se. It’s about their vision, and how far out they’re looking. I suspect you’ll hear something you didn’t know about these men. They are: Jeff Bezos (the founder of Amazon.com), Elon Musk (the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX), and Bill Gates (the founder of Microsoft).

Let’s start with Gates. He’s famously known for his early Microsoft mantra, “A computer on every desktop, and Microsoft software in every computer.” That’s not something any company can do in a quarter. Or a year. Or a decade. It’s a plan borne of long-term thinking, a mindset that made Gates the richest man alive. How nice for him, but if he stopped there, then he’d just be another rich guy who made money by helping others be more productive. If he truly has a long-term thinking mindset, he’s not going to stop there.

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