The World’s Richest Man Just Revealed One of His Secrets to Success

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The Jeff Bezos Secret to Success Worth Stealing

While there’s a long list of secrets rich people won’t tell you, the richest one of the them all is spilling one of his winning strategies.

Jeff Bezos, who recently dethroned Bill Gates as the richest man in the world, transformed e-commerce with the creation of Amazon.com in 1994. What started as an online bookstore is now the world’s largest online retailer, worth over $400 billion. That level of success doesn’t come without hard work, ingenuity, and lifetime of valuable lessons learned. (Find out the five little life skills that promise success, according to science.)

One of those lessons requires you to do a little bit of time travelling. During an interview at Summit’s LA17, Amazon’s founder and CEO said that when he came to a crossroads where he would have to make a potentially life-changing decision, he would put his mindset “forward to age 80.” This mental exercise ensured that he would make a decision with the minimal amount of future regret. Basing his decisions on what he would regret the least made the right choice clear to him, he revealed. (You’ll never guess what Amazon was almost called.)

There you have it: Fast forward your life a bit, and you’ll feel better about your choices. Now, you’ll be ready to create your own success story.

Plus: 9 Billionaires Share Their Definition of Success