During a meeting, Jeff Bezos called customer service to prove a point to his team. He laughed at how awkward it was as they all stayed silent.

Running a billion-dollar business means making sure everything works perfectly.

No matter how big a company is, it can still fail if it doesn’t stay on top of things.

Jeff Bezos, the former CEO of Amazon and a billionaire, focused on making sure his company was in great shape when he first took charge.

During an interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast in December 2023, Jeff Bezos reminisced about a stunt he pulled to get his point across to his staff during Amazon’s early years.

Bezos said the stunt was uncomfortable but was important to get to the truth.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

According to his account, the data suggested customers waited just 1 minute to reach customer service, but he had received anecdotal evidence from complaints contradicting this.

During a meeting, when a team member attempted to assure him that everything was running smoothly, he disagreed and took steps to prove otherwise.

Speaking on the podcast he said: “I have a saying which is: when the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right.”

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Jeff Bezos called Amazon customer service – clip from Lex Fridman Podcast 405 with Jeff Bezos. Guest bio: Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin.

♬ original sound – Lex Fridman

“It doesn’t mean you just slavishly follow the anecdotes then, it means you go examine the data.”

“It’s usually not that the data is being miscollected, it’s usually that you’re not measuring the right thing.”

Bezos, aged 60, mentioned that he dialed customer service to determine the expected wait time.

He chuckled as he recounted how he and his team silently waited.

Bezos went on to say that they waited for about 10 minutes before finally getting through.

One can only imagine the satisfaction on Bezos’ face, feeling he had proved his point.

He added: “It dramatically made my point that something was wrong with the data collection. ”

“That set off a whole chain of events where we started measuring it right.”

“That is an example of truth telling. That is an uncomfortable thing to do but you have to seek the truth even when it is uncomfortable.”

People on social media undoubtedly found the entire stunt quite hillarious.

One user wrote: “Imagine sitting in the boardroom waiting in silence for 10min for customer service to pick up after you just told Jeff the data shows it is only 60 seconds and everything is fine lol.”

Another added: “Imagine working in the call centre and Jeff rings you himself hahaha”

“Sounds like someone massaging the numbers to please the boss,” joked another.

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