Bezos’s Words Of Wisdom

Title:  Bezos’s Words Of Wisdom

I recently read a great article from the April 23rd issue of Forbes Magazine “Inside Amazon’s Idea Machine.” (https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2012/04/04/bezos-tips/). In the article Bezos lays out his top 10 leadership lessons.

  1. “Base your strategy on things that won’t change.”
  2. “Obsess over customers.”
  3. “We are willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time.”
  4. “There are two kinds of companies: those that try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.”
  5. “Determine what your customers need, and work backwards.”
  6. “Our culture is friendly and intense, but if push comes to shove we’ll settle for intense.”
  7. “If you want to be inventive, you have to be willing to fail.”
  8. “In the old world, you devoted 30% of your time to building a great service and 70% of your time to shouting about it. In the new world, that inverts.”
  9. “Everyone has to be able to work in a call center.”
  10. “This is Day 1 for the Internet. We still have so much to learn.”

Love these because they’re correct, and they’re super easy for everyone to understand.

I also think it’s important for everyone to have their own top 10 list.  What are the 10 things that guide your behavior at work and in life? I’ve recently been working on my own top 10 list.  As soon as I get it in better shape I’ll release it via this blog (if I can state them in such a manner that they are somewhat politically correct).

I welcome you comments.

Mike Brannan