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Think ecommerce, and one name comes to mind Jeff Bezos. 

In 1993, Bezos quit his job at DE Shaw and was driving across the US from New York to Seattle. Writing the business plan on this drive, he started an online bookstore out of his garage on July 5, 1994. He was sure that his company would change customers’ buying behaviours – and it sure did!

Amazon started by selling books online, and over the last 27 years has expanded into various categories such as shopping, cloud technologies, entertainment, music devices, space rockets… the list continues. Today, the internet giant enjoys a market capitalisation of $1.7 trillion with total revenue of $386 billion. 

Amazon’s founder is now one of the world’s richest people and an internet tycoon with a total asset value of $191.4 billion. Apart from his main business, he also established a spaceflight company, Blue Origin, in 2000. He is a bona fide visionary, and his journey is an inspiration to many entrepreneurs.

Here are some of Jeff Bezos’ most powerful quotes on entrepreneurship and success that will motivate you to be a successful founder:

“One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passion; your passion chooses you.”

“If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.”

“What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you – what used to be a tailwind is now a headwind – you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn’t a strategy.” 

“Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.”

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

“If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.”

“All of my best decisions in business and in life have been made with heart, intuition, guts… not analysis.”

“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.”

“The smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.”

“In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.”

“If you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so. But it turns out in life that your most important decisions are always made with instinct and intuition, taste, heart”

“Cleverness is a gift; kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard.”