Amazon Unbound

“One of the paradoxes of growth is that growth creates complexity and complexity is the silent killer of growth,”

“Day two is stasis, followed by irrelevance, followed by excruciating, painful decline, followed by death,” he had said earlier that year on stage at an all-hands meeting. “And that is why it is always Day one.”

Internet historians would view Webvan as the ultimate symbol of Silicon Valley’s arrogant rush to create a future that people didn’t want.

Jeff always said that when you focus on the business inputs, then the outputs such as revenue and income will take care of themselves.”

Jeffisms: about one-way and two-way doors; how double the experimentation equals twice the innovation; how “data overrules hierarchy” and there are “multiple paths to yes”—an Amazonian notion that an employee with a new idea who gets a negative reaction from one manager should be free to shop it to another, lest a promising concept get smothered in

Bezos liked to say Amazon was “stubborn on vision, flexible on details,”

Amazon’s principle #10, “frugality”: Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.

was a typical Bezos move—brilliant, and rather cruel.

His influence stemmed not from his 16 percent ownership stake but from twenty-five years of prophetic invention, strategic foresight, and disciplined management.