Thread by @wolfejosh

This = MASTER CLASS.

A must-read (or hear if you wait until tomorrow when Bezos reads it to Congress) in entrepreneurship, leadership, value-creation, invention, immigration, philanthropy, environmental stewardship.

The team alongside Jeff Bezos writing this is 💯

LETS DIG IN

2/ The nod to his Cuban immigrant adopted father who came alone at 16––and didn’t speak English.

The nod to his grandfather and savvy appeal to humble roots and family contribution to space + defense (important for Blue Origin)––and the inspiration...

3/ The humble origins of Amazon––getting money from his friends + family––and explaining to VCs “what the internet” was...

The honesty from Day One; his 2000 shareholder letter––starts: “Ouch”. (That kind of TRUTH gave him permission to fail + be honest—versus misleading + lying

4/ The obsession on customers––

and the IMPORTANT preemptive argument against “monopoly” criticisms that will come...

that “customer trust is HARD to win and EASY to lose”...

5/ The fact that 80% of Americans like Amazon––

and TRUST Amazon “do the right thing”*
only their personal doctor or the U.S. Military more...

*ps when was the last time you had a dispute with Amazon not in your favor (so savvy + long-term wise)

We can’t outsource to China.

6/ Amazon has invested–––like a BAZILLION in this country ($270B over last 10yrs)
Way more than nearly anyone.
Created 175,000 new jobs + 700k indirect jobs

And it still a relatively small 1% of $25T global retail (which is insanely large market share btw) and 4% of US retail–

7/ Great part about how Amazon NEEDS small business to succeed. It does not want to like, you know, crush them, it wants the 1.7M SMBs + 200,000+ entrepreneurs to grow...

8/ TRUST is the ultimate currency––and it can be gone in a moment.

Here Jeff talks to wages + workers––albeit briefly as this is where he WILL take heat + tought questions

Then he turns to the pensions, teachers, fire, police retirement plans + others who own 80% of Amazon

9/ He then turns to the environmental efforts––

by far the biggest impact for the environment will be trucking (NOT Tesla)––and Amazon will have the biggest autonomous fleet––and has more solar + wind installs too (crazy but true).

10/ He ends with Buffett-like masterstroke

“I believe Amazon should be scrutizined...our responsibility is to make sure we pass such scrutiny with flying colors”

And an appeal to patriotism

“It’s not a coincidence Amazon was born in this country...”

11/ An absolute MASTER CLASS.

The contrast between Jeff Bezos...
(and Zuck is SO stark––let alone Musk even more so).

Parting advice:
pick the RIGHT heroes to learn the RIGHT lessons from.

Read their words––and their cash flow statements;)
blog.aboutamazon.com/policy/stateme…