We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and they're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.
Entrepreneurs
Jeff Bezos
Born in New Mexico in 1964, Jeff Bezos left Wall Street to found Amazon as an online bookstore in 1994. Guided by 'customer obsession' and the 'Day 1' philosophy, he reshaped industry structures across e-commerce, cloud computing (AWS), and logistics. His ventures extend well beyond retail to include Blue Origin in space exploration and the acquisition of The Washington Post.
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Jeff Bezos's Other Quotes
Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room.
If you double the number of experiments you do per year you're going to double your inventiveness.
I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.
Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.
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.
Related Quotes
Endure and renounce.
-- Epictetus
Fire tests gold; adversity tests strong people.
-- Seneca
Bodily pain does not last without limit; intense pain is brief in duration.
-- Epicurus
If you carve without ceasing, even metal and stone can be engraved.
-- Xunzi
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest.
-- John D. Rockefeller