Jeffrey Preston “Jeff” Bezos (born January 12, 1964) is an American Internet entrepreneur and investor.
He is a technology entrepreneur who has played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, an online merchant of books and later of a wide variety of products.
Under his guidance, Amazon.com became the largest retailer on the World Wide Web and a top model for Internet sales.
He was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 1999.
In 2013, Bezos purchased The Washington Post newspaper.
All businesses need to be young forever.
There are two kinds of companies: Those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.
If you only do things where you know the answer in advance, your company goes away.
We’ve three big ideas at Amazon, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.
If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.
A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.
Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.
A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn’t last
Any business plan won’t survive its first encounter with reality. The reality will always be different. It will never be the plan
If you never want to be criticized, for goodness’ sake don’t do anything new
I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.
If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.
Part of company culture is path-dependent—it’s the lessons you learn along the way.
I strongly believe that missionaries make better products. They care more. For a missionary, it’s not just about the business. There has to be a business, and the business has to make sense, but that’s not why you do it. You do it because you have something meaningful that motivates you.
It’s harder to be kind than clever.
Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choice
