Amazon's 70% Success Target

A framework for setting and achieving goals in organizations, based on Amazon's philosophy that hitting 70% of goals indicates the right balance between ambition and realism.

Core Philosophy

• Don't aim to hit 100% of goals - indicates goals are too conservative
• Don't hit 0% of goals - indicates unrealistic target setting
• Target 70% goal achievement rate
  • Shows you're stretching enough
  • Not overstretching or being unrealistic
  • Prevents building a culture of consistently missing expectations

Why This Works

• Forces ambitious but achievable goal setting
• Prevents sandbagging or setting easy targets
• Creates healthy tension between aspiration and execution
• Allows for growth and learning from missed targets
• Maintains motivation while pushing boundaries

Application to Other Areas

• Elon Musk applies similar thinking to process/feature removal
  • Aims to add back ~10% of removed items
  • If adding back less than 10%, not removing enough
  • If adding back more than 10%, being too conservative with removals

Key Insight

• Setting the right level of challenge is critical
• Need measurable benchmarks to assess if goals are appropriately ambitious
• Culture of stretching without breaking is ideal
• Balance between pushing limits and maintaining achievable targets