Amazon's 1997 Shareholder Letter provides a glimpse into the brilliance of Jeff Bezos.
It's a free MBA class in Strategy & Leadership.
Here are 4 lessons from it 🧵
Lesson 1: Choose your words wisely
The letter is 1,617 words.
Customer occurs 25 times.
That word focuses Bezos & focuses the people that look to him for guidance.
Jeff knows that while Amazon's mission is simple, execution is nearly impossible.
To succeed, the company's northstar must be unmistakeable to everyone.
Everything in this letter comes back to the customer.
Lesson 2: Have conviction
Every great entrepreneur has one thing in common.
Conviction.
It's about having a deep-rooted (likely contrarian) belief in an opportunity.
An opportunity that is untapped, undervalued, and unappreciated.
Jeff Bezos shows wild conviction in the early days of Amazon.
He sees a tidal wave that is the Internet.
And he knows that if Amazon is in the best position to surf that wave, it'd become massive.
Lesson 3: Always acknowledge trade-offs
You can't be a clear thinker without being honest about a decision's trade-offs.
Every decision has them.
Despite his confidence, Bezos saw incredible risk in Amazon's grand plan.
Jeff observed two major risks:
1) Other large, public companies saw opportunity in the internet like he did
2) It's a market defined by network effects. Coming in second wasn't an option.
Which meant speed & heavy investment were mandatory.
Lesson 4: Set expectations early & often
I have found that the #1 failure of managers is an inability to set expectations.
Sometimes it's out of fear.
Other times it's an inability to communicate.
But it is crucial to building any business for the long-term.
Jeff Bezos does this masterfully.
From Day 1, he made it crystal clear to shareholders that investing in Amazon is opt-in.
If you expect business performance quarterly...don't invest.
If you expect business performance over the long-term...join the party.
And those are 4 timeless lessons from the Bezos Letters!
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@businessbarista
If you want my full podcast episode (7 min) breaking down the letter, here it is:
bit.ly/3xBvhO7
And here's a link to the letter if you want to read it for yourself!
venturebeat.com/wp-content/upl…
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