7 Successful Lessons from The Richest Man in the World

The year was 1994.

On a hot summer day in Bellevue, young Jeff Bezos stood alone in his parent’s garage, his mind racing.

He had a grand plan, a plan that would change the way people shop forever. He called it the “Everything Store”, a virtual place that will exist solely online, where everyone could purchase almost anything.

Twenty years later, Everything Store became known as Amazon.com, with billions of dollars in sales worldwide.

What grew as a crazy idea in 1994, turned into one of today’s most successful business. How did that happen?

To answer that, we have to look deeper, and find out what makes Bezos different from most people. What essentially are his secrets to success?

1. He understands customers

When Bezos implemented Amazon.com’s book reviews feature, it was a risky move. He knew that he would receive backlash from publishers who might receive negative reviews. But he believed that the future of shopping lies in the hands of the consumers. Amazon encouraged customers to post their feedback, even if they are critical or negative. It paid off. Customers loved the feature, and they contributed their insights with abundance. Book reviews on Amazon became a central feature that created a sense of trustworthiness in consumer’s mind.

Bezos understood early on that the advantage of an online business was in measuring customer behavior. Over the years, Amazon constantly adds features that are aimed of making their customers happy which, in turn, further bolsters the company’s sales.

2. He understands frugality

Amazon started as a simple, small space in Washington state. There was no fancy lobby, no upscale meeting rooms. Employees pay for their own parking tickers. Snacks in the office aren’t free. When traveling, employees stay in double rooms.

Being frugal is in Bezos’ DNA, and it allows him to focus on things that are important: Amazon’s customers and its continuous drive for innovation.

3. He makes his own rules

In Amazon, to propose any new idea, instead of having a meeting filled with fancy PowerPoint slides, employees start by producing a written 6-page document, and provide compelling arguments for their ideas. Then those involved, including Bezos himself, must take time to read and dissect it.

Bezos also had another rule, called the “Two-Pizza Team”. No team should be so big that you can’t feed it with two pizzas. In Bezos’ mind, large groups are less productive, so the company is organized into small units of 10 or less.

4. He thinks for the long term

When e-books first entered into the market, publishers sold them at prices comparable to their retail versions. Bezos had a different strategy. He slashed e-books’ price to $9.99. On average, each e-book sold made a loss of about 5 dollars.

It took a long time but eventually, prices began to drop and other publishers began to adopt the same strategy. By then, Amazon had already become the “go-to” destination for e-books. Once he had control of the market, it laid the foundation for one of his company’s biggest success, the Kindle.

5. He is not afraid of taking risks

Prior to having that grand idea in his parent’s garage, Bezos had a secure job at a hedge fund company. He quit, set up “Everything Store” in his parent’s garage and poured his entire savings to make it a reality.

In Amazon, Bezos created a “Just Do It” award, given to employees who tried and succeeded, and also… to those who tried and failed.

The risk is worth the reward. Taking risk is always preferable to being too fearful to move.

6. He makes decisions based on data

It was no accident that Amazon started by selling books. That was a result of careful analysis of hard facts. Books do not spoil, they can be shipped easily without breaking, they are seldom returned and they’ll never expire. Books are the perfect vehicle for e-commerce.

Every aspect of the business, from sales data to customer behavior, is quantifiable. Meetings are not about customer anecdotes, but rather Excel sheets filled with relevant data and metrics.

7. He stays hungry

Amazon started with books, but no sooner had they gained a foothold in that market, they conquered music, movies, electronics, and toys. Later came Kindle. Now Amazon even provides cloud computing services to big business, the US government, and even NASA.

Bezos believes that there are no products and services Amazon couldn’t sell. To him, the future is a world of possibilities, opportunities and inventiveness… and he’s hungry for all that it brings.

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