1. Long-Term Thinking 🌳
- “It’s Still Day 1” – Bezos’s famous philosophy about staying innovative and hungry
- Focus on long-term value over short-term profits
- Make decisions thinking 3+ years ahead
- Be willing to be misunderstood for long periods
2. Customer Obsession 🎯
- Always start with the customer and work backwards
- Lower prices create a virtuous cycle of growth
- Customer trust is earned by doing hard things well over time
- Make decisions based on what’s best for customers, not competitors
3. Decision Making Process 🤔
- Two types of decisions:
- Type 1: Big, irreversible (“one-way doors”) – decide slowly
- Type 2: Reversible (“two-way doors”) – decide quickly
- “Disagree and commit” principle to move forward despite disagreement
- High-quality decisions don’t need to be slow
4. Innovation Philosophy 💡
- “Big winners pay for many experiments”
- Embrace failure as a natural part of innovation
- Be willing to be misunderstood while innovating
- “Wandering” is necessary for invention
5. Leadership Principles 👥
- Hire missionaries, not mercenaries
- Look for people who will raise the team’s average
- Focus on work-life harmony rather than balance
- Get 8 hours of sleep to make better decisions
Major Success Stories 📈
- Amazon Prime: Started as a controversial “all-you-can-eat” shipping program
- AWS: Came from solving Amazon’s own cloud computing needs
- Kindle: Aimed to improve upon physical books
- Alexa: Inspired by Star Trek’s computer
Personal Philosophy 🌟
- Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice
- Focus on things you can control
- Be resourceful and self-reliant
- Trust is earned through consistent performance
- Most regrets come from inaction, not action