Jeff Bezos Quotes
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If you invent frequently and are willing to fail, then you never get to that point where you really need to bet the whole company.
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You can work long, hard, or smart, but at Amazon.com you can’t choose two out of three.
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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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It’s very important for entrepreneurs to be realistic. So if you believe on that first day while you’re writing the business plan that there’s a 70 percent chance that the whole thing will fail, then that kind of relieves the pressure of self-doubt.
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If you can't feed a team with two pizzas, it's too large.
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When you receive criticism from well-meaning people, it pays to ask, ‘Are they right?’ And if they are, you need to adapt what they’re doing. If they’re not right, if you really have conviction that they’re not right, you need to have that long-term willingness to be misunderstood. It’s a key part of invention.
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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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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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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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We are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet.
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Our garage was basically science fair central.
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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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You're not going to make Hemingway better by adding animations.
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If you look at academic studies, you can see that stock prices are most closely correlated with cash flow. It's such a straightforward number. Cash flow is what will drive shareholder returns.
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I like having the digital camera on my smart phone, but I also like having a dedicated camera for when I want to take real pictures.
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If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we stay focused on the customer, ultimately we'll turn out all right.
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E-mail has some magical ability to turn off the politeness gene in a human being.
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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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Millions of people were inspired by the Apollo Program. I was five years old when I watched Apollo 11 unfold on television, and without any doubt it was a big contributor to my passions for science, engineering, and exploration.
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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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The book is not really the container for the book. The book itself is the narrative. It's the thing that people create.
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I wouldn't be surprised if history records Tim Berners-Lee as the second Gutenberg.
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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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We innovate by starting with the customer and working backwards. That becomes the touchstone for how we invent.