Jeff Bezos is a name synonymous with e-commerce giant Amazon. But that’s not all the world’s once-richest man has done. Before founding Amazon in 1994, he worked at a hedge fund, where he rose to become senior vice-president at the age of 30.
Given his success at running an ecommerce businesses, one through which independent businesses sold a record $4.8 billion during the holiday season, his letter of resignation as chief executive last week to to spend more time on other interests, such as space exploration, came as a shock to the business world.
Mr Bezos is a business tycoon that many entrepreneurs strive to emulate, but his business journey hasn't always been paved with roses, and he encountered a number of failures throughout his career. Shortly after its debut in 2014, Amazon’s Fire Phone spiralled downwards, costing Amazon $170 million in losses.
In an interview with Business Insider in 2014, Mr Bezos says he's suffered "billions of dollars of failures at Amazon".
As the business world reflects on Mr Bezos’s career at Amazon, I share key life lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from him.
Don’t get comfortable
Mr Bezos led what many would perceive as a comfortable life when he worked at a hedge fund. Had he stayed, his life would probably be filled with fewer financial failures and more predictability. But he didn’t succumb to that feeling and didn’t want to be filled with regret later in life.
“When you think about the things that you will regret when you’re 80, they’re almost always the things that you did not do. They’re acts of omission. Very rarely are you going to regret something that you did that failed,” he said. Think about how your life would change if you took risks or welcomed failure. Even though he endured multiple failures, that didn’t stop him from expanding Amazon and developing new services.
Take life one step at a time
When he started Amazon in 1994, did Mr Bezos envision that people would depend on it for groceries? Or that his e-commerce platform would be the business that many depended on during a pandemic? Maybe. He had an idea and he followed it. He wanted to sell books, and that’s what he did at first. He took it one step at a time. Today he wants to attend to his space exploration interest, and that could lead to another revolutionary venture. Sometimes, potential entrepreneurs overwhelm themselves before they embark on their journey. They think about how risky their journey would be if it expanded at a rapid pace or how they would be unable to handle failure, and that thinking puts them off. Take one step at a time. Start small and then slowly expand your operations.
Your customers are your business’s foundation
When Mr Bezos started his journey, many people thought he was crazy to compete with book giants such as Barnes & Noble and that he would lose when the latter took their business online. When his team worried about the competition, he advised them to focus on their customers. “No matter what the drama is, whatever the external distraction is, your response to it should be to double down on the customer, satisfying them," he said. "Not just satisfying them, delighting them."
Embrace innovation
“If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you're going to double your inventiveness,” Mr Bezos has said. This mindset isn’t exclusive to Amazon, but is one shared by most innovative companies, like Google with its Google Labs and innovative governments like the UAE’s, where innovation is at the core of strategising and planning. If your business doesn’t innovate, it won’t grow. And if you don’t experiment with it, you will never know its full potential.
Jeff Bezos is an innovative visionary whose business lessons are applicable to life. Embrace innovation and take risks – and life – one step at a time.
Manar Al Hinai is an award-winning Emirati journalist and entrepreneur, who manages her marketing and communications company in Abu Dhabi
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Malcolm & Marie
Directed by: Sam Levinson
Starring: John David Washington and Zendaya
Three stars
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Veere di Wedding
Dir: Shashanka Ghosh
Starring: Kareena Kapoo-Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania
Verdict: 4 Stars
2018 ICC World Twenty20 Asian Western Regional Qualifier
The top three teams progress to the Asia Qualifier
Final: UAE beat Qatar by nine wickets
Third-place play-off: Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia by five runs
Table
1 UAE 5 5 0 10
2 Qatar 5 4 1 8
3 Saudi 5 3 2 6
4 Kuwait 5 2 3 4
5 Bahrain 5 1 4 2
6 Maldives 5 0 5 0
Tips to keep your car cool
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
- 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
- 150 tonnes to landfill
- 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal
800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
What is 'Soft Power'?
Soft power was first mentioned in 1990 by former US Defence Secretary Joseph Nye.
He believed that there were alternative ways of cultivating support from other countries, instead of achieving goals using military strength.
Soft power is, at its root, the ability to convince other states to do what you want without force.
This is traditionally achieved by proving that you share morals and values.
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies direct from Dubai to Rio de Janeiro from Dh7,000 return including taxes. Avianca fliles from Rio to Cusco via Lima from $399 (Dhxx) return including taxes.
The trip
From US$1,830 per deluxe cabin, twin share, for the one-night Spirit of the Water itinerary and US$4,630 per deluxe cabin for the Peruvian Highlands itinerary, inclusive of meals, and beverages. Surcharges apply for some excursions.
The biog
Name: Greg Heinricks
From: Alberta, western Canada
Record fish: 56kg sailfish
Member of: International Game Fish Association
Company: Arabian Divers and Sportfishing Charters
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 0
Manchester City 2
Bernardo Silva 54', Sane 66'
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Rain Management
Year started: 2017
Based: Bahrain
Employees: 100-120
Amount raised: $2.5m from BitMex Ventures and Blockwater. Another $6m raised from MEVP, Coinbase, Vision Ventures, CMT, Jimco and DIFC Fintech Fund
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