Jeff Bezos was able to turn a book retail idea into Amazon Inc AMZN — one of the biggest businesses of all time.
WealthLetters, an account on Twitter that compiles business and investing tips, compiled a list of Bezos’s secrets for success from more than 20 years of shareholder letters.
Here are are a few highlights:
- Think Long Term: Most companies are focused on the short to medium term (the next few years). Instead, Amazon focused on 10 years down the road. Through this lens, Bezos was able to recognize an opportunity that many other businesses around him could not see because they were too focused on the short-term success of their companies.
- Embrace Failure: Many people think that successful people are always just that: successful. But most people in Bezos’s position are able to talk about their failures before they were able to finally make it. If one is trying to avoid any potential mistake, they may become handcuffed instead of moving forward freely, knowing that if you do fail at something, you can always bounce back.
- Be Extreme: If Bezos had been content with Amazon just being a bookstore, we wouldn’t be talking about him today. But he had a vision for the company that he was able to bring to fruition by always pushing the envelope and taking things to the next level.
Whether you are looking for more success in business or just your life in general, it’s never a bad idea to hear what some of the most influential people have learned through their experiences.
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