Jeff Bezos Quotes
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I think one of the things people don't understand is we can build more shareholder value by lowering product prices than we can by trying to raise margins. It's a more patient approach, but we think it leads to a stronger, healthier company. It also serves customers much, much better.
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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.
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Percentage margins don't matter. What matters always is dollar margins: the actual dollar amount. Companies are valued not on their percentage margins, but on how many dollars they actually make, and a multiple of that.
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There'll always be serendipity involved in discovery.
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You're not going to make Hemingway better by adding animations.
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If you can't feed a team with two pizzas, it's too large.
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Your margin is my opportunity.
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Percentage margins are not one of the things we are seeking to optimize. It’s the absolute dollar free cash flow per share that you want to maximize, and if you can do that by lowering margins, we would do that. So if you could take the free cash flow, that’s something that investors can spend. Investors can’t spend percentage margins.
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The killer app that got the world ready for appliances was the light bulb. So the light bulb is what wired the world. And they weren't thinking about appliances when they wired the world. They were really thinking about - they weren't putting electricity into the home. They were putting lighting into the home.
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I try to spend my time on areas that I think are important for the future, and where I think I can add value.
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It is very difficult to get people to focus on the most important things when you're in boom times.
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If you're long-term oriented, customer interests and shareholder interests are aligned.
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There are two ways to extend a business. Take inventory of what you're good at and extend out from your skills. Or determine what your customers need and work backward, even if it requires learning new skills. Kindle is an example of working backward.
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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.
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We are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet.
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Am I going to regret leaving Wall Street? No. Will I regret missing the beginning of the Internet? Yes.
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It's hard to find things that won't sell online.
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We're working to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system. Accomplishing this mission will take time, and we're working on it methodically.
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Do something you're very passionate about, and don't try to chase what is kind of the "hot passion" of the day.
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People loved their horses, too. But you don't keep riding your horse to work just because you love it.
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Our garage was basically science fair central.
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The Internet is disrupting every media industry...people can complain about that, but complaining is not a strategy. And Amazon is not happening to book selling, the future is happening to book selling.
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You know, if you make a customer unhappy they won't tell five friends, they'll tell 5,000 friends. So, we are at a point now where we have all of the things we need to build an important and lasting company, and if we don't, it will be shame on us.
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I don't want to use my creative energy on somebody else's user interface.