Jeff Bezos – Rules of life
Over the years, Jeff Bezos has given many interviews sharing his experience and offering advice on how entrepreneurs can become more successful in business.
Here’s a compilation of five of the most powerful business lessons he learned along his journey.
1. Be stubborn but flexible.
It might seem like mutually exclusive traits, but it is possible to be both stubborn and flexible. As a matter of fact, being stubborn in the pursuit of your goals (but flexible in how you go about it) has helped Bezos to succeed. He explained in a Fast Company article that “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.”
2. Follow your gut.
In the business world, instinct is more important that data sets, according to Bezos.
“If you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so. But it turns out in life that your most important decisions are always made with instinct and intuition,” he said.
3. Start small.
Bezos favours a personal touch over a massive corporate apparatus, especially in a company’s early stages. He noted that Amazon had just five employees when it opened its doors.
“It’s hard to remember for you guys, but for me it’s like yesterday I was driving the packages to the post office myself, and hoping one day we could afford a forklift,” Bezos said.
4. Don’t rush growth and think long-term.
A lot of people want success, and they want it now. However, making a mark in an industry or transforming your startup into a profitable one in under a year is next to impossible. “Think long term and do not sacrifice long-term value for short-term results.” – is one of the main Amazon business principles, according to Bezos.
5. Learn from your competitors.
It’s a good idea to keep a close eye on your competitors. Bezos admitted that Amazon watches its rivals in order to “learn from them, see the things that they were doing for customers and copy those things as much as we can.” After all, if something isn’t broke, why fix it? It’s better to build on something that’s already proven to work and put your own twist to it.
Sources: foxbusiness.com, webpronews.com