What makes Jeff Bezos tick? You. From the very beginning Jeff Bezos has always been about the customer. And that ethos flows through the company like a package from your computer to your doorstep.
To Bezos, if the customer isn’t satisfied, what’s the point of being in business? And the Smith house is satisfied. At times it feels like an Amazon fulfillment center with all the boxes. How does Amazon do it?
Driving past the gargantuan Amazon building in Fall River, MA, going 70 mph, it literally takes several seconds. It’s sheer size is breathtaking. It looks like it belongs in another country. But somehow Bezos makes it work. How? Because he’s always had laser-like focus on the customer and not necessarily the competition. There’s a certain zen to being able to run a business like that with focus only on the customer. Don’t worry about the competition.
For investors, the competition is always Mr. Market. Don’t let that ruin your life. Some investors get stuck on questions like “What did the market do today?” and “Wow, isn’t this market driving you crazy?”
Instead of studying their own situation and researching businesses and understanding dividends, for example, they’re focused on something they have ZERO control over: The Market.
There is an important message here, for every investor, in what Bezos is doing. He is focused on making you happy. That’s his business. He doesn’t have to be worried about the competition as long as he focuses on the customer. For investors, focus on yourself and not Mr. Market and you might someday realize what it feels like to be rich like Bezos.
E.J. Smith