Essay: What I learned from Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
“Space is the final frontier” with this Star Trek reference, Jeff Bezos closed his valedictorian speech at high-school. The reason why Jeff wanted to get wealthy since he was a teenager, was not only to be rich but to get outer space. Early in his life he envisioned that humans won’t be able to life on planet earth endlessly.
Therefore he knew it was mandatory for our kind to explore space. This thinking structure, which is very future orientated is one of Bezos main characteristics he practiced early in his life.
This resonates well with the way her pursued his venture Amazon.com, as his goal was never to have a short term profit but to create long term value. And of course in this connection one has to mention that he founded blue origin, to participate at space exploration. Which depicts another point I observed with many entrepreneurs, they often have more than one business, or a second source of income, or more than one project at a time.
“A Jack of all trades is master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” Jeff as an entrepreneur is a metaphorically said a jack of all trades. A good example are the companies he owns nowadays like the Washington post, Bezos Expeditions, Blue Origin and of course Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos is hungry for life. He wants to find out more about the world around us, no wonder that the url relentless.com still redirects the customer to Amazon.com.
You can agree or disagree, if an entrepreneur needs a greater vision for his business, like taking humanity to outer space. But in Jeff’s case, he is a person that managed to think big very well. No wonder that the first focus of
Amazon.com was to get big fast. Although they had to rearrange Amazon’s motto from get big fast to get our house in order, after decline of the dot com hype in 2000, Bezos continued persistently to push his company further rather
than stagnating at the profitable stage it was in 2002. He took this time of rearranging his logistics system in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, to put emphasis on frugality, which is one main core value of Amazon.com until today.
Another important part that helped Bezos to navigate even through difficult times is the hiring process he learned at D. E. Shaw Co. You can be a determined jack of all trades with a witty brain and a big vision for humanity, but without the right team in in your back nothing will work. Here comes the next trade I observed, as an entrepreneur you have to be able to read people in order to find the right ones for your team. Although I am not really sure if it is possible to raise the standard of your team with every new employee you hire, as this is one of
the main aspects in Jeff’s hiring process. It generally makes a lot of sense for me to include your team in the hiring process in order to give them the chance to vote for the possible candidates, which is the second aspect of Jeff’s hiring technique.
One can say that the obstacles Amazon.com faced and solved define the Amazon that we know today. Where one can see, another truth that is easily observable for most successful businesses. There is no straight line to success, you try, fail, rearrange and most importantly continue. And the resources you invest in your
venture have several effects as an outcome, this process can be summarized in the principal of effectuation.
Effectuation is also evident for Amazon.com, as it started by selling books online and today it is not only an everything store but an everything company. Because, Amazon managed to define itself not only as an online retailor but as a technology company with Amazon web services, the introduction of the Kindle
e-reader and Amazon Prime Video in the first place. Connected to the principal of effectuation is innovation, which is a core value of Amazon.com as well. Most of the time if you observe companies like Amazon
where the principal of effectuation is evident, you find innovation too.
The products and services that defined Amazon as a technology company and in theend as an everything company instead of an everything store, were innovations
like Amazon web services, Kindle or in its early stages their patented one click
ordering process.
Finally, as the very most important step in order to have a successful business is to get started. And I think, Jeff Bezos found a really smart framework, that he based his decision on to quit his well payed and safe job at D. E. Shaw Co., in order to move to Seattle to start selling books online. Bezos’s regret minimization framework. And as he would recall when he is 80 years old he wouldn’t regret having participated at the internet.
In conclusion, Jeff is a future orientated big thinker that rather focuses on longterm value than short term profit. He is a dedicated Jack of all trades, as he has several sources of income and projects. This originates in his curiosity for life. He is able to hire the right employees for his companies, in order to create a team that makes his ideas feasible. Effectuation which is closely connected to innovation is evident at Amazon.com. Jeff’s journey as an entrepreneur started with the decision to take action, which he based on his regret minimization
framework.