Given what we know now, the trajectory of Jeff Bezos seems almost inevitable. The founder and CEO of Amazon has been relentless in his pursuit of building the most dominant, customer-focused enterprise in modern history. It is fitting, considering he first thought to name his company Relentless.com.
Being the richest person in the world, Jeff Bezos has developed a unique ability to see the world clearly, and by navigating that world successfully, he has achieved things most people did not think possible
Amazon has more than 600 million items for sale and more than three million vendors selling them. They control almost 40 percent of all e-commerce in the United States, half of the cloud-computing industry, a third of the video-streaming market, and sell 42 percent of all paper book.
He has also built a $100 Billion Empire based on books destroying local bookstores in the process. Most would say it is awful. But to some, he is reshaping the entire industry. Amazon is now one of the 100-largest companies in America.
- Be stubborn and flexible
According to Jeff Bezos, good entrepreneurs must be stubborn and flexible. Sticking to the vision is the first part and being flexible about the tactics is the second part. If you are not stubborn, you will give up on it too soon. And if you are not flexible, you will pound your head against the wall, and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.
- Stick With Two Pizzas
Bezos seems to believe in small, autonomous groups. He believes in a “two pizza rules” for teams, meaning that the groups should be small enough to feed with only two pizzas. This generally works out to about 5 to 7 people in a team.
- Never Stop Experimenting
If you ask most CEOs, they will tell you that experimentation is imperative for their business. It is how new innovations are born and how they stay competitive in the market
- Do not be afraid to Invent
Invention is important to Bezos and his team at Amazon. He mentions the words “pioneers” and “explorers” a lot to describe his team at Amazon. He looks for people that like to invent and are always looking for ways to make products better.
- Be obsessed with your customers
Bezos’s main aim was never to become a billionaire, but to produce a service that made life easier for others. Whenever Amazon received a customer complaint, they would do anything possible to improve the experience.
- Focus on the things you can control
Some businesses try to predict the future and guess what the market wants five or ten years from now. This is risky, as the future can be very unpredictable. Instead, Bezos tries to focus on the things that will not change.
- Prioritize what is important
The world’s richest man sleeps eight hours a night, and only sets his first meeting at 10 am. This may sound lazy, but his priority is to eat breakfast with his kids and family and to be alert. At 10 am it is all business, however
- Fear customers, not competitors
Do not be afraid of our competitors, because they are never going to send us money, Bezos once told his team. “Be afraid of our customers, because those are the folks who have the money.” In other words, focus your worry where it really matters.
- Embrace the Fear of Failure
Fear is human nature’s ultimate motivation to learn. And if you are willing to make Failure part of your Job description as an entrepreneur, you will be alright. Failure is part of the job as an entrepreneur. So, if you do not overemphasize it in your daily decision making, you will never be afraid of making the better decision
- Identify and Remove Risk
According to Bezos, the best entrepreneurs do not like risk and work to identify it and remove it in the early days of a business. Good entrepreneurs do not like risk, they seek to reduce risk. Starting a company is already risky, and then you systematically eliminate risk step by step in those early days.
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