I really like this video (8 minutes), not just for what it says, but also for what it doesn’t say.
As Jeff Bezos stands comfortably in front of the YouTube camera, in a garden, with a flip chart, I’m reminded of the “it’s good to be king” refrain in Mel Brooks’ classic History of the World Part 2. There are experts all over the place — the Web, blogs, Twitter, et al., generate experts more than anything else — but Bezos is someone who’s 15 years down the path now and looking back on it with engaging and seemingly genuine good humor and good intentions. There’s no urgency here, and no embarrassment about giving advice. It’s delightfully simple understatement.
As he talks about Amazon.com’s history and the recent purchase of Zappos.com, he uses the simple motif of the flip chart, hand written, to punctuate his points as well as anybody ever has with PowerPoint or Keynote. You’ll see what I mean if you watch.
He boils it down to four simple points:
The occasion is the acquisition of Zappos.com, which generates a lot of positive comments near the end.
Note: if you can’t see the video on this site, you can click here to go to the source on YouTube.
Comments
I’ve been a fan of Jeff Bezos and Amazon for a long time. Thanks for the interesting post.
Thanks for posting this, Tim. I really appreciate Jeff’s emphasis on establishing a good customer foundation and thinking on a long-term basis. This is a timely contribution for tenderfoot as well as veteran entrepreneurs. Keep those great articles coming!
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