If there’s one thing I hope you take away from my conversation with Juan Damia on the Born2Unicorn podcast, it’s this:

You don’t need to be right all the time. You just need to know how fast you’re wrong.

That’s it. That’s the shift. That’s what changes everything.

Most entrepreneurs are stuck chasing perfection. They want the pitch to be flawless, the product to be complete, the plan to be airtight. I get it. But here’s the truth: progress beats perfection. Always. And in a world that moves as fast as ours, the ability to quickly realize what’s not working and course correct is your greatest advantage.

Let’s rewind to the big question Juan opened with: Can I build a business like Amazon?

It’s the question I’ve been answering for over two decades. And the answer is yes, but not the way most people think. People look at Amazon today and forget how it started. Bezos was rejected by 60 investors. He was just another founder with an idea. What made him different wasn’t brilliance. It was his focus. His clarity. His obsession with the customer.

That obsession became culture.

And culture isn’t perks. It’s not ping pong tables or catered lunches. It’s not something you slap on a poster or toss on your website. Culture is what you believe. It’s the actions that follow those beliefs. At Amazon, everything, every decision, every product, every hire, ties back to four core beliefs:
1. Customers will never want things slower.
2. They’ll never want to pay more.
3. They’ll always want more selection.
4. They want clear, honest, responsive service.

That’s alignment. That’s strategy. That’s culture.

Most startups don’t fail because their tech breaks. They fail because their culture never forms. Or worse, they build a culture of fear, of perfectionism, of slow, bloated decision-making. And then they wonder why they can’t ship fast, why innovation stalls, why their teams are burned out.

You want to build a company like Amazon?

Then start acting like one.

Build a culture that values the customer over your ego. Create systems that encourage experimentation. Reward fast learning, not just flawless execution. Give your teams permission to try, to fail, to discover. That’s how you find the big ideas.

And here’s something most people miss. The Amazon culture isn’t about tech. It’s about narrative.

At Amazon, PowerPoint isn’t allowed in meetings. Instead, teams write six-page memos. They write press releases before they build products. Why? Because writing forces clarity. Because stories create shared understanding. And because a good story, backed by data, drives better decisions than a chart ever could.

People ask me all the time how to balance data and creativity. That’s the wrong question. They were never meant to compete. Data helps you see. Story helps you act. Marry the two, and now you’ve got direction.

Everything I’ve learned about growth, I’ve learned by testing. Building. Listening. Failing. Trying again. Whether it was scaling Future Now, writing books with Jeffrey, or transforming my health, what moved the needle was the same every time: progress, not perfection.

And yes, that includes taking care of yourself. You can’t build anything sustainable if you’re running on fumes. I’ve been there. It doesn’t work. The people who win long term are the ones who align their beliefs with their habits, their story with their actions.

That’s the real game.

When you pitch your business, don’t lead with your bio. Don’t lead with your tech stack. Lead with your clarity. Lead with a razor-sharp understanding of your customer’s problem. Tell a story that shows you get it. Then show how your solution fits. Keep it simple. Keep it clear.

And always remember, great storytelling is never about fiction. It’s about impact.

So no, you don’t need to be right all the time.

You just need to know how fast you’re wrong and be ready to do something about it.

That’s how you build something that lasts.