What did Jeff Bezos say about teams that hit 100% of their annual goals at Amazon?

Steve Huynh recalls that during Amazon's annual planning some teams bragged about hitting 100% of their goals, and Jeff Bezos pointed out that this meant the goals were not ambitious enough. In Huynh's account, hitting 70 to 80% was the sweet spot, which means failing at 20 to 30% of what a team set out to do. Huynh uses this to argue that a flawless interview story is less credible than one with a believable shortfall.

• Huynh applies the idea to the 'biggest accomplishment' question.
• A story where every number is maximised can backfire because it reads as too perfect.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on A Life Engineered (2026-10-21). Read the whole episode summary →

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