Jeff Bezos' 25-year-old stress cure is to 'make the first phone call, or send the first email'—and a recruiter says it lands even harder in 2026

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With economic uncertainty, AI anxiety, and a brutal job market weighing on workers everywhere, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a counterintuitive theory on coping with stress—and thinks most people get it completely wrong.

Back in 2001, the then-new tech billionaire, fresh off Amazon’s 1997 IPO, took to the stage at the Academy of Achievement Summit in San Antonio to lay out a take on what actually causes stress. And in his eyes, it has nothing to do with workload, grueling hours, or needing a holiday.