One Click – Jeff Bezos as the Rise of Amazon.com
Book #1 Read in 2012 (see my entire reading list here)
- Jeff Bezos incorporated Amazon.com and then signed up for a course sponsored by the American Booksellers Association to learn how to start a bookstore. // Sometimes, you have to decide what you’re going to do and then learn how to do it.
- He started working at “the intersection of banking and finance.” People in the status quo didn’t think the two fields could be blended. // bringing two things together is what Steve Jobs did as well. I don’t want to be a status quo person.
- On searching for a wife: “I wanted a woman who could get me out of a third world prison.” ”Life is too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.
- There are currently 1.7 billion people online, but that’s just 1/4 of the world’s population. // the world is much bigger than any of us probably realize
- Most successful entrepreneurs start a company because they are passionate about the business they want to enter. Bezos saw the growth of the Internet and figured someone was going to make money off it. // This worked, but I would not advise it.
- “The internet is like alcohol in some sense. I accentuates what you would do anyway.” – Esther Dyson
- Amazon’s original name was Cadabra, Inc. Later changed to Amazon so it would appear on the top of lists. ”One of the things that people don’t think bout but is really important is that online, you get to places by being able to spell their name.”
- With an introductory course in book selling, some experience buying a few items online, one computer, two engineers, his wife, and a garage, Bezos was ready to start building an online bookstore.
- He promoted Amazon as the “biggest bookstore on earth” though some would argue that it was the smallest bookstore on earth, since they had no inventory.
- The website wasn’t fully finished when the company launched. Customers could order negative quantity of books, and they would credit their card with the price. // It’s never going to be perfect, but you gotta get it out there.
- Early business meetings were held at a nearby coffee shop – inside a Barnes and Noble.
- They allow negative product reviews on their site. ”We will sell more if we help people make purchasing decisions.” These unusual moves taught people that Amazon was a different kind of store.
- “When you are woking very hard and very long hours, you want to be around people who are interesting and fun to be with.”
- Goliath is always in range of a good slingshot. // love this quote
- “If you disappoint people, you lose brand reputation, and that’s worth a lot more to us right now than money.”
- “get big fast” gave way to “turn a profit.” Amazon wasn’t profitable for many, many years. They made a lot of money, but they lost even more.
- “It’s harder to be kind than clever,” Bezos’s dad would say. Very few employees from the early days are still at the company because of Bezo’s reputation for being difficult and demanding.
After a dozen years as a student pastor, and five years a church-starter, I'm the Chief Operating Officer of 
