Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson Hardcover – November 17, 2020

This was a great read. Bezos is a wicked smart dude. He quotes Warren Buffet and Benjamin Graham, Buffett’s teacher at Columbia. Lots of great leadership, business and life wisdom in this book.Reading about the origin of Amazon Web Services (something near and dear to my heart after working in tech for a couple years) was fascinating.AWS sales grew faster than marketplace sales. Amazon had no direct competitor in the cloud for 7 years, which is unheard of.He also goes into reading balance sheets at one point which was really interesting. I didn't read this book expecting a mini masterclass in valuing companies so that was a bonus.

Worth reading. Interesting and quick read. Very inspiring and impressive on how much Amazon has done in such a short period.

Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos offers an incredible look into the mind of one of the most influential entrepreneurs of our time. The book brings together Bezos’ writings, speeches, and reflections, offering a unique perspective on innovation, leadership, and the future of technology during the time when Jeff Bezos was the CEO of Amazon.Overall, the collection is both insightful and inspiring. Bezos’ thoughts on long-term thinking, failure, and customer obsession are deeply thought-provoking, and they provide valuable lessons for anyone interested in business, entrepreneurship, or personal growth.All in all, the book is a must-read for anyone looking to gain insights from one of the world’s most successful business leaders.

Over the last few years, I've had the opportunity to do a deep dive research into Amazon to ask how did Jeff Bezos grow Amazon to the size it is today?And I'm excited to share with you this new book, Invent & Wander, the collected writings of Jeff Bezos. It includes an introduction by Walter Isaacson. This book is a compilation of all of the Letters to Shareholder Jeff Bezos has written over the last 22 years. Part 2 includes additional information and transcripts from interviews Bezos has given over the years.The Amazon.com website went live in July of 1994. Bezos began by selling books online, something that hadn't been contemplated before using this new thing at the time, called the internet. After great initial success, in May of 1997, Amazon filed for an initial public offering (IPO) to raise additional capital to support their already fast growth. The initial stock price was $18 per share, and they raised about $54 million Amazon would use to fund their continued growth. If you had invested $10,000 in 1997, it would be worth about $12 million – a phenomenal 120,000% growth.Jeff Bezos wrote his first 1997 letter to shareholders published in April of 1998. Bezos wrote a new letter every year for the last 22. He renamed shareholders to shareowners in a subsequent letter.Bezos shared his secret sauce for growing Amazon – hidden in plain sight – in each of these letters. The best way to highlight what you will get out of reading these letters is to highlight what Isaacson said in his introduction. "Here are the five that I think are most important:"Focus on the long term. Bezos talked about this in the 1997 letter. It's what I call, Apply Long Term thinking. At Amazon, we will make decisions based on long term investment. Meaning we're not going to do short term Wall Street quarterly earnings thing we look to the future and are planning and investing for the future, number one number two.Focus relentlessly and passionately on the customer. Bezos calls this Obsess over customers and invent on their behalf.Avoid PowerPoint and slide presentations. It is interesting Isaacson included this as a key point. I believe this is one of the keys to Amazon's ability to continue to invent. This process has come to be called the 6-Page Narrative, which is described in the 2017 Letter. In 2004 Bezos send an email to his senior leadership team called the S-team, and said, No longer will PowerPoint presentations be allowed in our senior leadership team meetings. Instead, people will write a narrative and hand it out at the document at the beginning of the meeting. I believe it is one of those critical components to Amazon's invention toolkit they continue to use today.Focus on big decisions. Or, what I call, generate high-velocity decisions. Bezos goes into detail in the 2005 Letter. As an organization grows, it tends to slow down decision making to the point that it negatively impacts growth. So to continue growing, you need to be making decisions quickly. He identifies two types of decisions, Type one and Type two. Type one decisions are big bet the farm decisions, and they should be made slowly deliberately with lots of data. Most decisions in large companies are not Type one decision. They are Type two. Type two decisions are easier to change. You can change your mind and decide to change directions. You can turn around and go back through that door, make another decision, change direction.Hire the right people. In the 1998 Letter, Bezos describes three questions to ask about anyone interviewing for a job. 1) Do you admire this person? 2) Will they raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they are entering? 3) What other dimension do they bring to the job besides skills and experience?So this is just a small synopsis of the book. I recommend you read the shareowners Letters (Part 1), like a book. Then start reading through Part 2 and listen as Bezos adds depth and dimension to the principle he shares in the Letters.Be sure to take notes along the way. There is a lot to learn.

This is an interesting book for a couple of reasons. First, Jeff Bezos is an interesting person who, after finding (or more accurately making) his niche, has become a wildly successful businessman. Although this book does provide good insights into Mr. Bezo's childhood and family life, it is a shame the author didn't (or wasn't allowed to) mine this vein of literary ore more fully. This fact and the second reason combine to make this an interesting book, but not the exceptional narrative it could have been had it taken a more biographical approach. Second, the first half of this book is nothing but Amazon shareholder letters from 1997 through 2019 reproduced in their entirety. This makes for horribly repetitive, dull reading. Don't mistake me, there is great content in these letters from which a talented author could weave together a fascinating narrative of corporate growth and societal change for a highly innovative company. Too bad the author leaves this rich literary vein untapped as well. While I recommend this book to anyone interested in innovation, business strategy, or specifically in the Amazon corporation; I have to wish someone will use this work and other material to actually accomplish what this narrative unsuccessfully attempts - providing greater insight into what makes both Mr. Bezos and Amazon tick (what drives them).