Success means creating more than you consume
“If you want to be successful in business (in life, actually), you have to create more than you consume. Y our goal should be to create value for everyone you interact with.”
Investing
Jeff Bezos's 2020 letter to Amazon shareholders, one of the letters in Day 1: The Amazon Shareholder Letters, 1997–2020.
Stock prices predict future cash flows
“Remember that stock prices are not about the past. They are a prediction of future cash flows discounted back to the present. The stock market anticipates.”
Invention is the root of real value
“Draw the box big around all of society, and you’ll find that invention is the root of all real value creation. And value created is best thought of as a metric for innovation.”
Flexible on details, stubborn on vision
“On the details, we at Amazon are always flexible, but on matters of vision we are stubborn and relentless.”
Climate change is as real as gravity
“[Photosynthesis and gravity] are simply true, as is the reality of climate change.”
Quality offsets belong where alternatives are lacking
“Credible, quality offsets are precious, and we should reserve them to compensate for economic activities where low-carbon alternatives don’t exist.”
Democracy takes work; tyranny is the norm
“Democracies are not normal. Tyranny is the historical norm. If we stopped doing all of the continuous hard work that is needed to maintain our distinctiveness in that regard, we would quickly come into equilibrium with tyranny.”
The world pulls you toward typical
“The world wants you to be typical – in a thousand ways, it pulls at you. Don’t let it happen. Y ou have to pay a price for your distinctiveness, and it’s worth it.”
Being yourself is worth it, not free
“Being yourself is worth it, but don’t expect it to be easy or free.”