Title: Invent & Wander

Recommendation: 7.7/10

Summary:

700 characters is a cruel constraint on this rich read. 

Although it’s a compilation of shareholder letters & speech transcripts, freely available across the web, I can honestly say I would not have read this content had it not been a book.

You get a front-row view into Jeff’s vision, beliefs, principles, and decisions that paving the way for Amazon’s wild success.

In 1999 Time picked Jeff as their Person of the Year. With anticipation of a stock market crash, some doubted the pick. But the CEO said, “Stick with your choice. Jeff Bezos is not the internet business. He’s in the customer service business. He will be around for decades to come, well after people have forgotten all the dot.coms that are going to bust.”

This insight aged excellently.

The customer service business is one that has been changed profoundly by Jeff. 

Highlights:

Gradatim Ferociter, step by step, ferociously.

You can work long, hard, or smart. But at Amazon, you can’t pick just ⅔.

The most radical and transformational of inventions are often those that empower others to unleash their creativity to pursue their dreams.

Do we own the process or does the process own us? In Day 2 companies you’ll find it’s the 2nd.

It’s harder to be kind than clever.

We believe that focusing our energy on the controllable inputs to our business is the most effective way to maximize financial outputs every time.

Outsized returns often come from betting against conventional wisdom, and conventional wisdom is usually right.