Jeff Bezos Quotes & Sayings

E-mail has some magical ability to turn off the politeness gene in a human being. — Jeff Bezos

I've not seen an effective manager or leader who can't spend some fraction of time down in the trenches ... If they don't do that they get out of touch with reality, and their whole thought and management process becomes abstract and disconnected. — Jeff Bezos

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind? — Jeff Bezos

To get something new done you have to be stubborn and focused, to the point that others might find unreasonable. — Jeff Bezos

If there's one reason we have done better than of our peers in the Internet space over the last six years, it is because we have focused like a laser on customer experience. — Jeff Bezos

When it comes to space, I see it as my job, I'm building infrastructure the hard way. I'm using my resources to put in place heavy lifting infrastructure so the next generation of people can have a dynamic, entrepreneurial explosion into space. — Jeff Bezos

We are pioneers and the history of pioneers is not that good. — Jeff Bezos

We've done price elasticity studies, and the answer is always that we should raise prices. We don't do that, because we believe
and we have to take this as an article of faith
that by keeping our prices very, very low, we earn trust with customers over time, and that that actually does maximize free cash flow over the long term. — Jeff Bezos

We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details ... . — Jeff Bezos

Determine what your customers need, and work backwards. — Jeff Bezos

There's so much stuff that has yet to be invented. There's so much new that's going to happen. People don't have any idea yet how impactful the internet is going to be and that this is still Day 1 in such a big way. — Jeff Bezos

Do something you're very passionate about, and don't try to chase what is kind of the "hot passion" of the day. — Jeff Bezos

Mediocre theoretical physicists make no progress. They spend all their time understanding other people's progress. — Jeff Bezos

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

If you're competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering. — Jeff Bezos

I like to be counted on. — Jeff Bezos

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

What consumerism really is, at its worst is getting people to buy things that don't actually improve their lives. — Jeff Bezos

Any business plan won't survive its first encounter with reality. The reality will always be different. It will never be the plan. — Jeff Bezos

If you're long-term oriented, customer interests and shareholder interests are aligned. — Jeff Bezos

It is very difficult to get people to focus on the most important things when you're in boom times. — Jeff Bezos

Failure comes part and parcel with invention. It's not optional. — Jeff Bezos

The three most important things in retail are location, location, location. The three most important things for our consumer business are technology, technology, technology. — Jeff Bezos

Teachers, who are really good create that environment where you can be very satisfied by the process of learning. If you do something and you find it a very satisfying experience then you want to do more of it. The great teachers somehow convey in their very attitude and their words and their actions and everything they do that this is an important thing you're learning. You end up wanting to do more of it and more of it and more of it. That's a real talent some people have to convey the importance of that and to reflect it back to the students. — Jeff Bezos

I know Elon, we're very like minded in many ways. We're not conceptual twins. One thing I want us to do is go to Mars, but for me it's one thing. He's singularly focused on that. I think motivation wise, for me I don't find that Plan B idea motivating. I don't want a plan B for Earth, I want Plan B to make sure Plan A works. — Jeff Bezos

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. — Jeff Bezos

For people who are readers, reading is important to them. — Jeff Bezos

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. — Jeff Bezos

I very much believe the Internet is indeed all it is cracked up to be. — Jeff Bezos

There'll always be serendipity involved in discovery. — Jeff Bezos

Things never go smoothly. — Jeff Bezos

I think the definition of a book is changing. — Jeff Bezos

We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and they're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient. — Jeff Bezos

Go to bed early and wake up early. The morning hours are good. — Jeff Bezos

One of the things that gets me up in the morning is knowing that customer expectations are always rising, and I find that very exciting. — Jeff Bezos

You know you're not anonymous on our site. We're greeting you by name, showing you past purchases, to the degree that you can arrange to have transparency combined with an explanation of what the consumer benefit is. — Jeff Bezos

If you're doing anything interesting in the world, you are going to have critics. You can't stop it. Move forward. It's not worth losing any sleep over. — Jeff Bezos

You cannot make a business case that you should be who you are not — Jeff Bezos

We're working to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system. Accomplishing this mission will take time, and we're working on it methodically. — Jeff Bezos

Our garage was basically science fair central. — Jeff Bezos

You don't chose your passion, your passion choses you — Jeff Bezos

Humans are unbelievably data efficient. You don't have to drive 1 million miles to drive a car, but the way we teach a self-driving car is have it drive a million miles. — Jeff Bezos

We can't be in survival mode. We have to be in growth mode. — Jeff Bezos

Our point of view is we will sell more if we help people make purchasing decisions. — Jeff Bezos

You have to use your judgment. In cases like that, we say, 'let's be simple minded. We know this is a feature that's good for customers. Let's do it. — Jeff Bezos

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. — Jeff Bezos

If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful. — Jeff Bezos

If you don't understand the details of your business you are going to fail. — Jeff Bezos

Though we are optimistic, we must remain vigilant and maintain a sense of urgency. — Jeff Bezos

But there's so much kludge, so much terrible stuff, we are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet. That's where we are. We don't get our hair caught in it, but that's the level of primitiveness of where we are. We're in 1908. — Jeff Bezos

Effective process is not bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is senseless process. — Jeff Bezos

Invention is by its very nature disruptive. If you want to be understood at all times, then don't do anything new. — Jeff Bezos

I'm not saying that advertising is going away. But the balance is shifting. If today the successful recipe is to put 70 percent of your energy into shouting about your service and 30 percent into making it great, over the next 20 years I think that's going to invert. — Jeff Bezos

One of the things that I hope will distinguish Amazon is that we continue to be a company that defies easy analogy. This requires a lot of innovation, and innovation requires a lot of random walk. — Jeff Bezos

Our vision is every book ever printed in any language in under 60 seconds. — Jeff Bezos

If you decide that you're going to do only the things you know are going to work, you're going to leave a lot of opportunity on the table. — Jeff Bezos

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

If you're not doing something that people will remark on, then it's going to be hard to generate word of mouth. — Jeff Bezos

Because, you know, resilience - if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you'd be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn't a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities. — Jeff Bezos

I wouldn't be surprised if history records Tim Berners-Lee as the second Gutenberg. — Jeff Bezos

People who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. — Jeff Bezos

If you double the number of experiments you do per year you're going to double your inventiveness. — Jeff Bezos

I think if people read more, that is a better world. — Jeff Bezos

The smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they'd already solved. They're open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking. — Jeff Bezos

The thing that motivates me is a very common form of motivation. And that is, with other folks counting on me, it's so easy to be motivated. — Jeff Bezos

There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second. — Jeff Bezos

Our premise is there are going to be a lot of winners. It's not winner take all. Other people do not have to lose for us to win. — Jeff Bezos

Where you are going to spend your time and your energy is one of the most important decisions you get to make in life. — Jeff Bezos

The best customer service is if the customer doesn't need to call you, doesn't need to talk to you. It just works. — Jeff Bezos

One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don't choose your passions; your passions choose you. — Jeff Bezos

You want to look at what other companies are doing. It's very important not to be hermetically sealed. But you don't want to look at it as if, 'OK, we're going to copy that.' You want to look at it and say, 'That's very interesting. What can we be inspired to do as a result of that?' And then put your own unique twist on it. — Jeff Bezos

Seek instant gratification - or the elusive promise of it - and chances are you'll find a crowd there ahead of you. — Jeff Bezos

We've got thousands of investors counting on us. And we're a team of thousands of employees all counting on each other. That's fun. — Jeff Bezos

No communication is terrible! — Jeff Bezos

What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you - what used to be a tail wind is now a head wind - you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn't a strategy. — Jeff Bezos

People who are right most of the time are people who change their minds often. — Jeff Bezos

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. — Jeff Bezos

Position yourself with something that captures your curiosity, something that you're missionary about. — Jeff Bezos

Good ideas will always get funded, so that's not going to be a problem. But you will see that it will be harder and harder for bad ideas to get funded. — Jeff Bezos

If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we stay focused on the customer, ultimately we'll turn out all right. — Jeff Bezos

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends. — Jeff Bezos

We change our tools and then our tools change us. — Jeff Bezos

If you're going to invest in an Internet stock, you must be a long-term investor. — Jeff Bezos

It's not an experiment if you know it's going to work. — Jeff Bezos

If you think about the long term then you can really make good life decisions that you won't regret later. — Jeff Bezos

Lowering prices is easy. Being able to afford to lower prices is hard. — Jeff Bezos

You want your customers to value your service. — Jeff Bezos

The Net is pretty cool, but the physical world is the best medium ever. — Jeff Bezos

The Post is famous for its investigative journalism. It pours energy and investment and sweat and dollars into uncovering important stories. And then a bunch of websites summarize that [work] in about four minutes and readers can access that news for free. One question is, how do you make a living in that kind of environment? If you can't, it's difficult to put the right resources behind it ... Even behind a paywall, websites can summarize your work and make it available for free. From a reader point of view, the reader has to ask, 'Why should I pay you for all that journalistic effort when I can get it for free from another site?' — Jeff Bezos

If you can't tolerate critics, don't do anything new or interesting. — Jeff Bezos

What's dangerous is not to evolve. — Jeff Bezos

I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying. — Jeff Bezos

I'm a genetic optimist. — Jeff Bezos

Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. — Jeff Bezos

Part of company culture is path-dependent - it's the lessons you learn along the way. — Jeff Bezos

On the Internet, companies are scale businesses, characterized by high fixed costs and relatively low variable costs. You can be two sizes: You can be big, or you can be small. It's very hard to be medium. A lot of medium-sized companies had the financing rug pulled out from under them before they could get big. — Jeff Bezos

You don't want to negotiate the price of simple things you buy every day. — Jeff Bezos

If we think long term, we can accomplish things that we couldn't otherwise accomplish. — Jeff Bezos

Feel free to cover Amazon any way you want. Feel free to cover Jeff Bezos any way you want. — Jeff Bezos

The death knell for any enterprise is to glorify the past
no matter how good it was. — Jeff Bezos