American industrialist & Amazon founder (1964- )
We like to pioneer, we like to explore, we like to go down dark alleys and see what's on the other side.
JEFF BEZOS
60 Minutes, December 1, 2013
I was one of those people who every time I looked at something it looks like it could be improved -- there's something wrong with it. So I'd go through, like, how could this restaurant be better? So I've always had that kind of idea.
JEFF BEZOS
interview, Business Insider, April 28, 2018
I would never say no to something the team wanted to do, but I might say yes to something the team didn't want to do. You want there to be multiple ways to get to 'yes' because you want to encourage risk-taking.
JEFF BEZOS
Business Insider, July 16, 2015
If you double the number of experiments you do per year you're going to double your inventiveness.
JEFF BEZOS
Inc., May 7, 2014
If you're customer-focused, you're always waking up wondering, how can we make that customer say, wow? We want to impress our customers -- we want them to say, wow. That kind of divine discontent comes from observing customers and noticing that things can always be better.
JEFF BEZOS
GeekWire, September 17, 2013
Life's too short to hang out with people who aren't resourceful.
JEFF BEZOS
Business Insider, July 16, 2015
The secret is we're on, like, our seventh generation of fulfillment centers. And we have gotten better every time. When I was driving the packages myself, one of my visualizations of success is that we might one day be big enough that we could afford a forklift.
JEFF BEZOS
60 Minutes, December 1, 2013
One thing that I tell people is ... if you're going to do anything new or innovative, you have to be willing to be misunderstood. If you cannot afford to be misunderstood, then for goodness' sake, don't do anything new or innovative.
JEFF BEZOS
Business Insider, April 28, 2018
The long term approach is rare enough that it means you're not competing against very many companies. 'Cause most companies wanna see a return on investment in, you know, one, two, three years.
JEFF BEZOS
60 Minutes, December 1, 2013
You can have the best technology, you can have the best business model, but if the storytelling isn't amazing, it won't matter. Nobody will watch.
JEFF BEZOS
Business Insider, July 16, 2015
If you have a customer-centric culture, that cures a lot of ills. Let's say you're the leader in a particular arena, if you're competitor-focused and you're already the leader, then where does your energy come from? Whereas, if you're customer focused, and you're already the leader, customers are never satisfied.
JEFF BEZOS
GeekWire, September 17, 2013
If you're not stubborn, you'll give up on experiments too soon. And if you're not flexible, you'll pound your head against the wall and you won't see a different solution to a problem you're trying to solve.
JEFF BEZOS
Business Insider, July 16, 2015
Life is full of different risks. And I think that, when you think about the things that you will regret when you're 80, they're almost always the things that you did not do. They're acts of omission.
JEFF BEZOS
Business Insider, April 28, 2018
Part of company culture is path-dependent--it's the lessons you learn along the way.
JEFF BEZOS
Business Insider, July 16, 2015
The common question that gets asked in business is, why? That's a good question, but an equally valid question is, why not?
JEFF BEZOS
Wired, November 13, 2011
We're building what's called a private cloud for them [the C.I.A.] ... because they don't want to be on the public cloud.
JEFF BEZOS
60 Minutes, December 1, 2013
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.
JEFF BEZOS
Forbes, April 23, 2012
As companies get bigger, they have something to lose. When they do, the natural tendency is to get risk-aversive. They lose their boldness. They lose the spirit to innovate. They lose their pioneering qualities. I am bound and determined not to let that happen to Amazon.com.
JEFF BEZOS
Playboy, Feb. 2000
I strongly believe that missionaries make better products. They care more. For a missionary, it's not just about the business. There has to be a business, and the business has to make sense, but that's not why you do it. You do it because you have something meaningful that motivates you.
JEFF BEZOS
Business Insider, July 16, 2015
I think of the internet like this big, new, powerful technology.... We haven't learned as a civilization and a human species how to operate that yet. We as a civilization are still figuring all of that out. It gives us fantastic capabilities. The fact that I can look up almost anything on Wikipedia in five seconds is an unbelievable capability that just simply didn't exist 20 years ago. And so on and so on. But we're also finding out that these powerful tools enable some very bad things, too, like letting authoritarian governments interfere in free democratic elections in the world. This is an incredibly scary thing.
JEFF BEZOS
Business Insider, April 28, 2018