Jeff Bezos commits himself to make ‘three good decisions a day,’ inspired by Warren Buffett’s philosophy of making smart choices

Jeff Bezos characterizes himself as a thoughtful leader, and it comes down to how he makes decisions. “If I make, like, three good decisions a day, that’s enough,” Bezos said in a September 2018 conversation with Carlyle Group cofounder and Economic Club of Washington president David Rubenstein. “And they should just be as high a quality as I can make them.” It’s an idea he borrowed from former Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, Bezos said. “Warren Buffett says he’s good if he makes three good decisions a year,” Bezos said. “And so, you know, so I really believe that.” The Amazon founder and the world’s fourth-richest man said this logic comes down to what a senior leader is actually there for. “As a senior executive, you get paid to make a small number of high-quality decisions,” he said. “Your job is not to make thousands of decisions every day.” Bezos safeguards his decision-making by taking care of his mind and body, he explained Why Bezos cherishes his eight hours of sleep It might be easy to assume the founder of the No. 1 Fortune 500 company doesn’t get much sleep. But that couldn’t be further from the truth for Bezos, who likes to get eight hours of sleep each night. He ran his logic for Rubenstein: If he cut his sleep from eight hours to four, he might get back enough waking time to make 133 decisions a day instead of 100. Bezos wasn’t sold. “Is that really worth it if the quality of those decisions might be lower because you’re tired or grouchy or any number of things?” he said. Rest, according to Bezos, is the input that makes the output better. “I think better, I have more energy, my mood is better, all these things,” he said. “I prioritize [sleep], unless I’m traveling in different time zones. Sometimes it’s impossible, but I am very focused on it.” To be sure, Bezos said this wasn’t always possible when Amazon was first founded. “