I have a strongly held belief that one of the reasons that Amazon has been successful is because we do not obsess over competitors. Instead we obsess over customers. Jeff Bezos More Quotes by Jeff Bezos More Quotes From Jeff Bezos If you think about the long term then you can really make good life decisions that you won’t regret later. Jeff Bezos good-liferegretthinking If you want to be inventive, you have to be willing to fail. Jeff Bezos willingfailingwant The thing about inventing is you have to be both stubborn and flexible. The hard part is figuring out when to be which. Jeff Bezos flexibleinventingstubborn Determine what your customers need, and work backwards. Jeff Bezos inventorybackwardsneeds If you only do things where you know the answer in advance, your company goes away. Jeff Bezos companyanswersknows When you receive criticism from well-meaning people, it pays to ask, ‘Are they right?’ And if they are, you need to adapt what they’re doing. If they’re not right, if you really have conviction that they’re not right, you need to have that long-term willingness to be misunderstood. It’s a key part of invention. Jeff Bezos keyslongpeople Your brand is formed primarily, not by what your company says about itself, but what the company does. Jeff Bezos brandscompanydoe I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, ‘OK, I’m looking back on my life. I want to minimise the number of regrets I have.’ And I knew that when I was 80, I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed, I wouldn’t regret that. But I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. I knew that that would haunt me every day. Jeff Bezos regretagenumbers If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people, But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavours that you could never otherwise pursue. At Amazon we like things to work in five to seven years. We’re willing to plant seeds, let them grow—and we’re very stubborn. We say we’re stubborn on vision and flexible on details. Jeff Bezos visionpeopleyears 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. Jeff Bezos second-chancebusinesstwo 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. Jeff Bezos educationalwaitinginspirational The one thing that offends me the most is when I walk by a bank and see ads trying to convince people to take out second mortgages on their home so they can go on vacation. That's approaching evil. Jeff Bezos vacationbusinesshome We change our tools and then our tools change us. Jeff Bezos tools Be proud of your choices, not your gifts. Jeff Bezos be-proudproudchoices What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. 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 choices. Jeff Bezos differenceskindnessgraduation Entrepreneurs must be willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time. Jeff Bezos misunderstoodentrepreneurlong Where you are going to spend your time and your energy is one of the most important decisions you get to make in life. Jeff Bezos importantenergydecision What consumerism really is, at its worst is getting people to buy things that don't actually improve their lives. Jeff Bezos consumerismworstpeople Above all else, align with customers. Win when they win. Win only when they win. Jeff Bezos win-windesignwinning I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying. Jeff Bezos regretmotivationinspiring
