Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson

Look at Earth. It is incredible. Jim Lovell, one of my real heroes, while he was circling around the moon on the Apollo 8 mission, did something amazing. He put out his thumb and realized that, with it at arm’s length, he could cover the whole Earth. Everything he’d ever known, he could cover with his thumb, and he said something amazing. You know ... See more

There are two types of decisions. There are decisions that are irreversible and highly consequential; we call them one-way doors, or Type 2 decisions. They need to be made slowly and carefully. I often find myself at Amazon acting as the chief slowdown officer: “Whoa, I want to see that decision analyzed seventeen more ways because it’s highly cons... See more

I constantly remind our employees to be afraid, to wake up every morning terrified. Not of our competition, but of our customers. Our customers have made our business what it is, they are the ones with whom we have a relationship, and they are the ones to whom we owe a great obligation. And we consider them to be loyal to us—right up until the seco... See more

WE PAY VERY competitive compensation at Amazon, but we have not created that kind of country club culture where you get free massages and whatever the perks of the moment are. And I have always had a bit of skepticism about those kinds of perks because I always worry that people will stay with a company for the wrong reasons. You want people to sta... See more

When I meet with the entrepreneur who founded the company, I’m always trying to figure out one thing first and foremost: Is this person a missionary or a mercenary? The mercenaries are trying to flip their stock. The missionaries love their product or their service and love their customers, and they’re trying to build a great service.

“I’m always trying to figure out one thing first and foremost: Is that person a missionary or a mercenary?” Bezos says. “The mercenaries are trying to flip their stock. The missionaries love their product or their service and love their customers and are trying to build a great service.

When I told my boss, David Shaw, that I was going to do this thing, I went on a long walk with him in Central Park, and he said finally, after a lot of listening, “You know what, Jeff, this is a really good idea. I think you’re onto a good idea here, but this would be a better idea for somebody who didn’t already have a good job.” That actually mad... See more

“We believe that it’s technology married with the humanities that yields us the result that makes our heart sing.” Einstein, likewise, realized how important it is to interweave the arts and the sciences. When he felt stymied in his quest for the theory of general relativity, he would pull out his violin and play Mozart, saying that the music helpe... See more

Bezos says. “In fact, we were packing on our hands and knees on a hard concrete floor.” One of the other iconic origin tales of Amazon, told often by Bezos with his raucous laugh, involved how they figured out a way to make the packing easier.