Amazon Unbound

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.

“Like a lot of things at Amazon, it was ready, fire, aim,”

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

Colleagues said he exhibited almost inhuman levels of discipline, sitting in meetings for ten hours a day and digesting dense and complex documents without flagging.

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

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

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

The fifty-cent word “plenipotentiary” was used inside the team to describe what he wanted: an assistant invested with full powers to take action on behalf of users, like call for a cab or place a grocery order.

Jassy and his fellow managers asked searing questions of their underlings and hammered anyone without suitable answers or who didn’t embrace accountability for a problem within their purview.