Consider your point of view as temporary

Not the advice Barack and Mitt are getting from their advisors as they prepare for tonight’s debate.  But great advice Jeff Bezos gave to the folks at 37signals yesterday in a 90 minute visit.

Jeff said that people who are right a lot of the time are people who change their minds.  They revise and reconsider points of view and are open to new ideas and information.

Certainly true of Zappos, and of 37signals, two companies that uniquely combine innovation and adaptation.

I’ve been in plenty of companies where this wonderful flip-floppiness was called “Lack of conviction.” When due dates are approaching at the speed of sound, margins are increasingly thinner, and clients are exponentially more fearful, who wants someone who can’t stick to his decisions?

Apparently, the most innovative and smartest companies in America.