Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
Jeff Bezosamazon.com
Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
When I meet with the entrepreneur who founded the company, I’m always trying to figure out one thing first and foremost: Is this person a missionary or a mercenary? The mercenaries are trying to flip their stock. The missionaries love their product or their service and love their customers, and they’re trying to build a great service.
Jeff Bezos • Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
“We’ve made mistakes, doozies like the Fire Phone and many other things that just didn’t work out. I won’t list all of our failed experiments, but the big winners pay for thousands of failed experiments.”
Jeff Bezos • Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
I constantly remind our employees to be afraid, to wake up every morning terrified. Not of our competition, but of our customers. Our customers have made our business what it is, they are the ones with whom we have a relationship, and they are the ones to whom we owe a great obligation. And we consider them to be loyal to us—right up until the seco... See more
Jeff Bezos • Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they’re entering? We want to fight entropy. The bar has to continuously go up. I ask people to visualize the company five years from now. At that point, each of us should look around and say, “The standards are so high now—boy, I’m glad I got in when I did!”
Jeff Bezos • Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
“The initial start-up capital came primarily from my parents, and they invested a large fraction of their life savings in what became Amazon.com,” Bezos says. “That was a very bold and trusting thing for them to do.”
Jeff Bezos • Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
As the famed investor Benjamin Graham said, “In the short term, the stock market is a voting machine; in the long term, it’s a weighing machine.”
Jeff Bezos • Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
Start with customers and work backward. Listen to customers, but don’t just listen to customers—also invent on their behalf.
Jeff Bezos • Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
Reflect on this from Theodor Seuss Geisel: “When something bad happens you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you.”
Jeff Bezos • Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
Customers love it, it can grow to very large size, it has strong returns on capital, and it’s durable in time—with the potential to endure for decades. When you find one of these, don’t just swipe right, get married.
Jeff Bezos • Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson
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