Trust

THE WAY YOU earn trust, the way you develop a reputation is by doing hard things well over and over and over. The reason, for example, that the US military, in all polls, has such high credibility and reputation is because, over and over again, decade after decade, it has done hard things well.

It really is that simple. It’s also that complicated. It’s not easy to do hard things well, but that’s how you earn trust. And trust, of course, is an overloaded word. It means so many different things. It’s integrity, but it’s also competence. It’s doing what you said you were going to do—and delivering. And so we deliver billions of packages every year; we say we’re going to do that, and then we actually do it. And it’s also taking controversial stances. People like it when you say, “No, we’re not going to do it that way. I know you want us to do it that way, but we’re not going to.” And even if they disagree, they might say, “We kind of respect that, though. They know who they are.”

It is also helpful to have clarity. If we are clear that we are going to do this and we aren’t going to do that, then people can opt in or opt out. They can say, “Well, if that’s Amazon’s position or Blue Origin’s position or AWS’s position on something, then I don’t want to be part of that.” And that’s okay. We live in a big democracy with lots of opinions, and I want to live in that world. I want to live in a place where people can disagree. What I want, too, is to live in a place where people can disagree and still work together. I don’t want to lose that. People are entitled to their opinions, but it is the job of a senior leadership team to say no.

One of the things that’s happening inside technology companies is that there are groups of employees who, for example, think that technology companies should not work with the Department of Defense. In my view, if big tech is going to turn its back on the Department of Defense, this country is in trouble. That just can’t happen. And so the senior leadership team needs to say to people, “Look, I understand these are emotional issues. That’s okay, and we don’t have to agree on everything, but this is how we’re going to do it. We are going to support the Department of Defense. This country is important. It is still.”

I do know that people are very emotional about this issue and have different opinions, but there is truth in the world. We are the good guys. I really believe that. And I know it’s complicated. But the question is: Do you want a strong national defense, or don’t you? I think you do. And so we have to support that.

We all want to be on the side of civilization. It’s not exclusively only in the United States. What kind of civilization do you want? Do you want freedom? Do you want democracy? These are big principles that supersede the other kinds of questions. And so that’s where you should go back to.