Ground Control To Major Jeff

Jeff Bezos will be flying to space on the first crewed flight of the New Shepard, the rocket ship made by his space company, Blue Origin. The flight is scheduled for July twentieth, just fifteen days after he is set to leave his job as CEO of Amazon. I hope it is a safe journey for him and the crew.

Space could be the only frontier not yet conquered by Amazon. I wonder if he will be scouting out new warehouses for Amazon?

Think what you will about Mr. Bezos. The wealth he enjoys is unimaginable to those of us anchored on earth. I read that his wealth is now equal to the gross national product of New Zealand. Wealth aside, his jaunt into space could be providing a lesson for all of us.

Regardless of one’s wealth or success, we all need to keep learning and challenging ourselves. Sometimes that involves risk. In order to jump into that astronaut suit I bet Jeff had to bone up on telemetry, physics, astronomy, astrology and every possible content area related to space. Running Amazon required science but flying around in space is real science.

And that’s the lesson from Jeff Bezos in space. Regardless of where we are in our careers, we should all take on that new project at work or apply for that job that will stretch you. Take the risk, stretch yourself, even on earth.

I give Jeff Bezos a lot of credit but when I retire, blasting into space would not be the first thing I would do.