Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): The 20 Smartest Things Jeff Bezos Has Ever Said

13. “When [competitors are] in the shower in the morning, they’re thinking about how they’re going to get ahead of one of their top competitors. Here in the shower, we’re thinking about how we are going to invent something on behalf of a customer.”

14. “A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn’t last.”

15. “I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”

16. “If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you’re going to double your inventiveness.”

17. “If you never want to be criticized, for goodness’ sake don’t do anything new.”

18. “If you’re long-term oriented, customer interests and shareholder interests are aligned.”

19. “Invention requires a long-term willingness to be misunderstood. You do something that you genuinely believe in, that you have conviction about, but for a long period of time, well-meaning people may criticize that effort. When you receive criticism from well-meaning people, it pays to ask, ‘Are they right?’ And if they are, you need to adapt what they’re doing. If they’re not right, if you really have conviction that they’re not right, you need to have that long-term willingness to be misunderstood. It’s a key part of invention.”

20. “You want to look at what other companies are doing. It’s very important not to be hermetically sealed. But you don’t want to look at it as if, ‘OK, we’re going to copy that.’ You want to look at it and say, ‘That’s very interesting. What can we be inspired to do as a result of that?’ And then put your own unique twist on it.”

The article The 20 Smartest Things Jeff Bezos Has Ever Said originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Morgan Housel.

Morgan Housel has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Amazon.com and has a disclosure policy.

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