The ability to invent occupies a central place in the way of understanding the work of Jeff Bezos. During his speech at the Italian Tech Week 2025, held in Turinthe founder of Amazon highlighted the value of those who propose ideas and find solutions to new problems. A quality that, in his opinion, will continue to be relevant as technology advances.
Its approach focuses on initiative and ingenuity. In a work environment marked by artificial intelligence, Bezos calls for professionals capable of experimenting, questioning how things are done and looking for other ways to solve them.
The lesson he learned fixing a bulldozer with his grandfather
To explain where that mentality comes from, the businessman recalled the summers he spent with his grandfather on the family ranch in Texas. One of the experiences he recounted was repairing a bulldozer, a job that required them to even make the tools they needed.
“We spent a whole summer fixing it. To get the transmission out, we had to build our own crane.”he said. That task taught him to look for solutions with available resources and to persevere when the answer was not within reach.
Bezos links this way of facing difficulties with his business career, from the development of Amazon to his aerospace project, Blue Origin. Creativity, in its explanation, has a practical and everyday application.
What Bezos looks for in the people he works with
The founder of Amazon describes himself as someone who enjoys inventing. “Put me in front of a whiteboard and I can generate a hundred ideas in half an hour”he stated. This willingness to propose and explore possibilities is also one of the qualities that he values in those who join his companies.
His vision involves accepting that some proposals will not work. Experimenting requires testing, reviewing the results and abandoning an idea when it does not work as expected. For Bezos, being comfortable with that process is part of the job of innovating.
“Two kids in a garage scare me more than the competitors I already know”
The importance he attaches to ideas also appears in the way he observes the competition. In a previous interview, the businessman expressed it with a phrase that summarizes his concern for the projects that are still beginning. “Two kids in a garage scare me more than the competitors I already know”.
With that image, Bezos pointed out the ability of a small company to develop something that alters a market. Knowing current rivals is not enough to anticipate a proposal that is still taking shape.
As he explained, this willingness to explore also defines Amazon’s culture. Those who do not enjoy looking for new possibilities or trying ideas that may fail “They don’t stay with the company for long.”.
In the debate about the future of employment, his words place creativity and the willingness to learn among the qualities worth cultivating. They do not ensure that a professional profile is safe from automation, but they do show what Bezos values in a team that must face problems for which there is still no answer.