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Book Description

In Jeff Bezos's own words, the core principles and philosophy that have guided him in creating, building, and leading Amazon and Blue Origin.

In this collection of Jeff Bezos's writings—his unique and strikingly original annual shareholder letters, plus numerous speeches and interviews that provide insight into his background, his work, and the evolution of his ideas—you'll gain an insider's view of the why and how of his success. Spanning a range of topics across business and public policy, from innovation and customer obsession to climate change and outer space, this book provides a rare glimpse into how Bezos thinks about the world and where the future might take us.

Written in a direct, down-to-earth style, Invent and Wander offers readers a master class in business values, strategy, and execution:

  • The importance of a Day 1 mindset
  • Why "it's all about the long term"
  • What it really means to be customer obsessed
  • How to start new businesses and create significant organic growth in an already successful company
  • Why culture is an imperative
  • How a willingness to fail is closely connected to innovation
  • What the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us

Each insight offers new ways of thinking through today's challenges—and more importantly, tomorrow's—and the never-ending urgency of striving ahead, never resting on one's laurels. Everyone from CEOs of the Fortune 100 to entrepreneurs just setting up shop to the millions who use Amazon's products and services in their homes or businesses will come to understand the principles that have driven the success of one of the most important innovators of our time.

Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos is co-published by PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, and Harvard Business Review Press.

Table of Contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. Introduction by Walter Isaacson
  5. A Note on Sourcing
  6. Part 1: The Shareholder Letters
    1. It’s All About the Long Term (1997)
    2. Obsessions (1998)
    3. Building for the Long Term (1999)
    4. Taking the Long View (2000)
    5. The Customer Franchise Is Our Most Valuable Asset (2001)
    6. What’s Good for Customers Is Good for Shareholders (2002)
    7. Long-Term Thinking (2003)
    8. Thinking About Finance (2004)
    9. Making Decisions (2005)
    10. Growing New Businesses (2006)
    11. A Team of Missionaries (2007)
    12. Working Backward (2008)
    13. Setting Goals (2009)
    14. Fundamental Tools (2010)
    15. The Power of Invention (2011)
    16. Internally Driven (2012)
    17. “Wow” (2013)
    18. Three Big Ideas (2014)
    19. Big Winners Pay for Many Experiments (2015)
    20. Fending Off Day 2 (2016)
    21. Building a Culture of High Standards (2017)
    22. Intuition, Curiosity, and the Power of Wandering (2018)
    23. Scale for Good (2019)
  7. Part 2: Life & Work
    1. My Gift in Life
    2. A Crucial Moment at Princeton
    3. “We Are What We Choose”: Address to the Princeton Graduating Class of 2010
    4. Resourcefulness
    5. Why I Went from a Hedge Fund to Selling Books
    6. Finding the Root Cause
    7. Creating Wealth
    8. The Idea for Prime
    9. Thinking Three Years Out
    10. Where the Idea of Amazon Web Services Came From
    11. Alexa, AI, and Machine Learning
    12. Physical Stores and Whole Foods
    13. Buying the Washington Post
    14. Trust
    15. Work-Life Harmony
    16. Recruiting Talent: Do You Want Mercenaries or Missionaries?
    17. Decisions
    18. Competition
    19. Government Scrutiny and Big Companies
    20. The Climate Pledge
    21. The Bezos Day One Fund
    22. The Purpose of Going into Space
    23. It’s Still Day One for America
  8. About the Author
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