Jeff Bezos' Rule of Decision Making

Jeff Bezos has an amazing rule when it comes to decision making.

He calls it the “asymmetric setup”.

The idea is if there’s a 50/50 chance a decision will go right… and if it does... the payoff is 1,000,000:1, then you should go for it. 

It’s a smart way to filter through your decisions, at least in part. After all, you only need the one payoff and you’re set for life.

Here’s an example of how we make use of it:

Just recently, we had a client make a purchase from us completely out of the blue. Never spoken to him before. 

And he bought on the spot. 

Why did he buy on the spot? It’s courtesy of the content system that we spent the last year or so building for ourselves. 

i.e. the investment we put into producing and distributing our own high quality content. 

This is just one example of then dozens of clients that buy from us because they see our content. 

In my mind, it’s an asymmetrical setup. 

Sure, there was some chance that our content wouldn’t generate leads. But it’s a small chance. And I knew if it worked the payoff would be many multiples more the risk. 

But there’s more as it relates to content… 

The foundations we’ve set will continue to reap dividends for years into the future as we scale. Because that’s how content (and authority) works. 

You can see it with how Google rewards high domain authority websites with more traffic. 

Ditto with YouTube for channels with lots of subscribers. 

Sure, there are some short-term cash flow issues to consider when building something like this. But that’s nothing compared to the win that the system could provide.

That’s the appeal of an asymmetric setup.