In this wonderful video by Jeff Bezos about why Amazon acquired Zappos, Jeff shares four important lessons. The short talk is peppered with stories from the early Amazon days. This is a must-see video for all entrepreneurs and want-to-be entrepreneurs.
If you don’t have 9 minutes to spend on this one, here is a quick summary of the four lessons that Jeff shares:
1. Obsess over customers: We pay attention to our competition but that’s not where we put our energy. We truly obsess
2. Invent: Really important to invent. Any time we have a problem we don’t have “either/or” thinking. We try to invent where we try to have both. We need to invent on their behalf. We also need to listen to our customers.
3. Think Long-term: It is actually much rare than you think. Most of the initiatives we take may actually to take 5-7 years to pay any dividends for us. It may pay dividends to our customers immediately but our shareholders may have to wait a long time to see the returns. It is a huge competitive advantage to think long-term.
4. It’s Always Day 1: There’s always more invention in the future, always more customer innovation and new ways to innovate over customers.
For those of you who are willing to make that investment, please click Play below and be ready to be thrilled.
Have a great Thursday!
Hat Tip: Mike Stelzner (Twitter: @Mike_Stelzner) for pointing the video. Thanks Mike.