We are our choices. Build yourself a great story. Jeff Bezos More Quotes by Jeff Bezos More Quotes From Jeff Bezos If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we stay focused on the customer, ultimately we'll turn out all right. Jeff Bezos customer-satisfaction stay-focused educational Any business plan won't survive its first encounter with reality. The reality will always be different. It will never be the plan. Jeff Bezos encounters business reality You don't choose your passions; your passions choose you. Jeff Bezos young-entrepreneurs entrepreneurship passion All businesses need to be young forever. If your customer base ages with you, you're Woolworth's. Jeff Bezos growth motivation forever A lot of people – and I’m just not one of them – believe that you should live for the now. I think what you do is think about the great expanse of time ahead of you and try to make sure that you’re planning for that in a way that’s going to leave you ultimately satisfied. This is the way it works for me. Jeff Bezos believe people thinking There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Jeff Bezos maps mean needs The most important single thing is to focus obsessively on the customer. Our goal is to be earth's most customer-centric company. Jeff Bezos focus important goal A company shouldn't get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn't last. Jeff Bezos shiny-things entrepreneur lasts Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient. Jeff Bezos company resilient customers You want to look at what other companies are doing. It's very important not to be hermetically sealed. But you don't want to look at it as if, 'OK, we're going to copy that.' You want to look at it and say, 'That's very interesting. What can we be inspired to do as a result of that?' And then put your own unique twist on it. Jeff Bezos important unique interesting I think technology advanced faster than anticipated. In that whirlwind, a lot of companies didn't survive. The reason we have done well is because, even in that whirlwind, we kept heads-down focused on the customers. All the metrics that we can track about customers have improved every year. Jeff Bezos technology years thinking Advertising is the price you pay for unremakable thinking. Jeff Bezos social-media pay thinking The great thing about fact-based decisions is that they overrule the hierarchy. Jeff Bezos hierarchy decision facts Our premise is there are going to be a lot of winners. It's not winner take all. Other people do not have to lose for us to win. Jeff Bezos business winning people One of the things that gets me up in the morning is knowing that customer expectations are always rising, and I find that very exciting. Jeff Bezos knowing expectations morning When [competitors are] in the shower in the morning, they're thinking about how they're going to get ahead of one of their top competitors. Here in the shower, we're thinking about how we are going to invent something on behalf of a customer. Jeff Bezos showers morning thinking We watch our competitors, learn from them, see the things that they were doing for customers and copy those things as much as we can. Jeff Bezos copies business watches If you can't feed a team with two pizzas, it's too large. Jeff Bezos business success life If you never want to be criticized, for goodness sake don't do anything new. Jeff Bezos motivation inspiration business Teachers, who are really good create that environment where you can be very satisfied by the process of learning. If you do something and you find it a very satisfying experience then you want to do more of it. The great teachers somehow convey in their very attitude and their words and their actions and everything they do that this is an important thing you're learning. You end up wanting to do more of it and more of it and more of it. That's a real talent some people have to convey the importance of that and to reflect it back to the students. Jeff Bezos real attitude teacher