Jeff Bezos on outsized returns, Kobe Bryant on relentless improvement, and Bill Gates' old resume

Welcome back to the Z Fellows newsletter! Every Monday we share 3 ideas - to help you build companies, ship products, and create your life's work.

1: Jeff Bezos on outsized returns

“Outsized returns often come from betting against conventional wisdom, and conventional wisdom is usually right.

Given a 10 percent chance of a 100 times payoff, you should take that bet every time. But you're still going to be wrong nine times out of ten.

We all know that if you swing for the fences, you're going to strike out a lot, but you're also going to hit some home runs. The difference between baseball and business, however, is that baseball has a truncated outcome distribution. When you swing, no matter how well you connect with the ball, the most runs you can get is four.

In business, every once in a while, when you step up to the plate, you can score 1,000 runs. This long-tailed distribution of returns is why it's important to be bold. 

Big winners pay for so many experiments.“

Source: Jeff Bezos 2015 Shareholder Letter

2: Kobe Bryant on relentless improvement

Kobe Bryant cites his commitment to relentless improvement and preparation as a large reason for his success on the basketball court:

“It doesn’t matter how well you knew my game. It doesn’t matter if we played against each other for years, or were even teammates for a stretch. None of that helped you guard me.

Yes, you might have known I preferred to go one way. That didn’t ultimately matter, because I could just as easily go the other way. Yeah, you might have also thought you knew my cadence and rhythm, except—I didn’t have one. I made a point to adjust the pace of my attack to throw defenders off. In essence, the more you thought you knew about my game, the harder it would actually be to guard me.

You can pick up a nuance or weakness by studying tape and paying attention during workouts. In fact, I was constantly scouting teammates and opponents.

I would learn how physically complete their game was, how perseverant they were, and identify weaknesses right there and then. I would file that away until we eventually played against each other.

What separates great players from all-time great players is their ability to self-assess, diagnose weaknesses, and turn those flaws into strengths.”

Source: The Mamba Mentality: How I Play, by Kobe Bryant

3: Bill Gates’ old resume

Best of The Week

See you next Monday,

- The Z Fellows Team

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