#MaverickMonday - Jeff Bezos, CEO

MAVERICK: Someone who bucks the current trend to stand up for a greater belief or cause. They are our living, breathing GameChangers

Jeff Bezos defines the 2016 business-minded #GameChanger. After founding Amazon.com in 1994, his relentless work ethic and incomparable courage has grown Amazon into a $107 BILLION business!

Bezos does not hold back in his quest to grow his business and brand. That relentless attitude is a huge factor in being a #GameChanger. Why? Because to make that step into being a leader, you need to have courage. That courage gives you the strength to know that while you're being different from the pack, you're out there PURSUING YOUR DREAMS.

You might've heard about SpaceX with Elon Musk, trying to get people to Mars, or Virgin Galactic with Richard Branson, trying to drive space tourism. Both of those were founded in 2002 and 2002, respectively, while Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos' brainchild) had been working on their own secret space mission SINCE 2000! 2 years may not seem like a long time, but when you're planning on building billion-dollar equipment to pursue an industry that is not being pursued by anyone except the richest government in the world, you've got to have some audacity. For being the first player in the game, that takes some serious guts! (Side note: Most of Blue Origin's plans are being kept classified, but I wouldn't be surprised if reports came out in the next couple of years of Bezos' progress surpassing Musk's and Branson's.)

Have you ever bought anything off Amazon.com? Or better yet, have you ever been to any website containing 'amazon' in the URL? Bezos has grown his massively successful e-commerce business from general retail to: AMAZON FRESH (people can get vegetables, fruits, and common pantry items mailed to them), E-BOOKS aka KINDLE (save those 15 pounds of books you're carrying around), AMAZON VIDEO (move over Netflix/Hulu/HBO, Bezos can take you on too), AMAZON PRIME (no one ever heard of reliable, free, 2-day shipping before Amazon), or AMAZON DASH & AMAZON ECHO (look those up yourself if you're really interested).

Think about how many times we've stopped pursuing our goals midway because we were afraid of the outcome. We can learn from Jeff Bezos in this regard. Not only has he seen his projects through until the end, but he has inspired over 230,000 employees to see through his vision too... And let's be honest, there is always push back. You'll never be able to convince everyone of your vision on the first go around. But it takes some passion, resiliency, and courage. To be honest, I thought sending fruit and veggies through home delivery would be weird, but I was surprised to know my boss in fact uses that service. Had Jeff Bezos and Amazon been too nervous and not courageous enough to see that goal through, they would have never found people who need that service (like my boss)! The possibility is there, everyone! Just find that courage - believe hard enough.

As we talk about in our #GameChanger seminar, Transitioning from Follower to Leader, Jeff Bezos has exemplified the necessary leadership ideal of courage, by being relentless in the pursuit of his goals and not worrying about what the status quo had to say. In any part of his career he did not let up moving into a different industry or market. He's changed the status quo and he's changed the game. Rightfully so, he is today's #MaverickMonday and he is a #GameChanger.