Real masters have "game-breaking thinking"

Source | Mercy Reading Club

In 2020, Bezos ranked first on the rich list with a value of 200 billion.

Amazon, which he single-handedly founded, has also become the world's largest e-commerce platform, with a market value of more than $160 million.

At this point in life, it is already the peak, but Bezos has not stopped.

In July of this year, he finally realized his dream of traveling to space, and his next goal is to build a road to space.

From an online bookstore to a $1.6 trillion business giant, from land to space, Bezos has been creating legends.

Anyone's success can be traced, Bezos is no exception, let's walk into Bezos's life with Zi Xin to see how he became the richest man in the world step by step.

1

Never give up in the face of challenges

We often say that the road to success is not easy, and Bezos can reach the peak of life, there must be his advantages.

Bezos is a heavy sci-fi fan, and his first sci-fi dream started with the smart speaker Echo.

However, the birth of Echo is full of twists and turns, among which the technical difficulties of "far-field speech recognition" have made experts stop.

Because the crosstalk and background noise of life, the echo of walls and ceilings, are beyond the range of what current computers can recognize.

Just when everyone felt that identification was impossible, only Bezos insisted, saying "we don't care, hire more people, take time to solve problems".

In the first round of closed testing, faced with a slow and clumsy machine, people commented: "It will fail and be stupid", believing that it will be another failed product of Amazon after smartphones.

Team members have said that it is undoubtedly a waste of resources to continue research, but in the face of many doubts and bad reviews, Bezos did not give up.

With his insistence on taking a hard time, the team spent time amassing a huge database of voice communication, and Echo finally came out with a new look with the support of massive data.

At this moment, the Echo is truly "intelligent", it can chat with humans, broadcast news, weather, songs, and even order products......

After 4 years of hard work, the smart speaker Echo has sold more than 100 million units, and it has become popular on the Internet in an instant.

There are many passes on the road of life, some people are frightened by difficulties, and some people face difficulties and cross the rapids.

Bezos, undoubtedly, is the latter.

Zi Xin believes that if a person does not have that hard work, he will naturally have no way to overcome the multiple obstacles in life, and he can only stand out from everyone, and only by not being afraid of the wind and waves can he have the last laugh.

Song Kun, a Chinese girl who has attracted the attention of the world, is also such a brave person.

In 2012, she and her teammates completed a 40,000-nautical-mile round the world race after more than 300 days without a machine motor and only controlling the sails under the natural wind.

From Port St. Catherine, London, head south across the equator, through the nautical hazard zone at 40 degrees south latitude, then along Australia all the way north, through Asia, to North and South America, and finally back to London, a full circle around the world.

In these more than 300 days of sailing, in addition to all kinds of inconveniences in life, there are more non-stop wind and waves, sail failures, accidental injuries, and competition from opponents...... Many players dropped out of the tournament halfway through.

And Song Kun chose to face it bravely, and finally became the first Chinese woman in history to complete a round-the-world sailing.

There is a saying: "The road to success is not crowded because there are too few people who persevere." ”

I believe that a firm and brave person will not be afraid of temporary difficulties, and only by withstanding the tempering of suffering can he meet the applause of the future.

The so-called aura of life is accumulated little by little.

2

If you want to break the game, you have to innovate

Nature pays attention to "natural selection, survival of the fittest", and human society is no exception.

In 1999, Amazon suffered internal and external troubles, first with serious losses, and then many competitors eyeing it.

For example, eBay has a wide range of products, Walmart has low prices, and technology giants such as Google and Apple are waiting for it.

Amazon wants to tide over the crisis, if it fights price, category, and technology, it is obviously the next policy.

So, he made a lot of comparisons and found that their logistics couldn't keep up.

Therefore, Bezos has redesigned the logistics system, and Amazon members can receive the goods after 2 days of shopping.

At the same time, he developed the e-book Kindle, and also proposed to rent cloud computing services to other enterprises to help enterprises reduce network operation and maintenance costs.

This series of differentiation methods proved to be effective, and in the spring of 03, Amazon turned a profit, and with the sharp rise in stock prices, Bezos's value also rose.

Zixin believes that whether it is a person or a work, if you want to be better than others, you must get out of the crowd and find your own advantages, so as to stand out from the crowd and stand at the highest point.

Bezos knows this well, eschewing competitive advantages with his rivals and instead finding new ways to be different from them.

In his last letter to shareholders when he stepped down as CEO of Amazon this year, he said: "Any living thing avoids death for a lifetime, and when you measure the temperature, acidity, and moisture of a living organism, they are very different from the measurements in the surrounding environment, and when the creature dies, they blend into the surrounding environment, so only differentiation can keep you alive." ”。

Indeed, it is precisely because of this little differentiation that Amazon has quickly become the world's largest online shopping platform.

Some time ago, there was a vegetable seller aunt in Hunan who became popular.

The reason is that her dishes were sold out quickly, and when she looked deeper, she found that her aunt was too business-minded.

The aunt found that young people have a lot of pain points in selling vegetables and cooking.

For example, when I come back from work every day, I don't know what to buy.

So the aunt created her own menu for the week and let the guests choose by themselves.

The young man thought it was troublesome to wash and cut the vegetables, so she helped wash and cut them all and left as soon as she took them.

The aunt also attached cooking tips to the menu for the convenience of young people who can't cook.

With her years of cooking experience, Auntie has met the healthy dietary needs of young people, and the dishes will definitely sell more and earn more.

In fact, this is the case in every industry, competition is everywhere, and only by knowing how to innovate can we stand out.

Zixin believes that the real master, when encountering competition, can calm down to analyze the current situation, reflect on himself, so as to see his own strength, find the best angle to cut into, and devote his ability and talent, he will naturally be far ahead.

3

Growing up is an adventure

Bezos used to say, "If you're not willing to take risks, you won't grow."

Amazon's success today is not unrelated to Bezos' adventurous spirit.

In 1994, at the age of 30, Bezos was already a vice president of an investment banking firm on Wall Street, and a well-paid and stable career was the ultimate goal for most people.

But he chose to resign, intending to sell books on the Internet.

In that era when the Internet was not yet popular, it was impossible to sell books on the Internet.

At first, the company opened a three-square-meter garage and used the wooden door as a desk.

It was in this three-square-meter space that Bezos started his career.

When the website went live, it was a good time to catch up, and the weekly order volume increased exponentially, and Amazon seemed to give birth to wings and quickly gained a place on the Internet.

If his success is to catch up with the trend of the times, then his spirit of daring to take risks, dare to think and dare to do is the fundamental reason why Amazon has stood at the top of business for many years.

I believe that for anyone, when facing life choices, it takes courage, some people are afraid of failure, so they stick to the same stability, and some people choose not to be afraid of failure, so they choose to take risks, and chance and luck often prefer the latter.

In his letter to shareholders in '98, Bezos said: "It's hard to imagine everything in the future, but there are more opportunities and risks ahead than in the past. ”

In the face of the advent of the Internet age, huge opportunities continue to pour in, and in the face of each opportunity, careful and bold choices have undoubtedly made Bezos successful again and again.

He used the Internet to sell goods, vigorously developed network functions and smart products, all of which can be described as "unprecedented", and he also gained a steady stream of wealth.

Someone said of Bezos: "In the age of the internet, Bezos is synonymous with innovation because there is no precedent for everything Amazon does." ”

Because there is no precedent, people will have an instinctive fear of the unknown, but only brave people dare to take the first step in innovation.

In the face of the unknown, some people are brave enough to explore, and some people will be hesitant, and the latter can only taste the bitter fruits of failure.

A farmer was basking in the sun when he was asked, "Have you planted wheat?"

The farmer said, "No, I'm worried about not raining." ”

The man asked, "Then do you grow cotton?"

Farmer: "No, I'm worried that the bugs will eat the cotton." ”

The man asked, "And what did you plant?"

Farmer: "I don't plant anything, I want to make sure it's safe." ”

I believe that if a person only grows up according to the rules, most of them are unknown to others, and only by having the courage to explore the unknown world, life will be wider and wider, and life will be colorful.

4

Only by seeing far can we go far

In 2015, Amazon's retail sales increased dramatically, and in 2017, it turned the previous data upside down.

Behind this rapid growth is the result of Bezos's insistence on long-termism.

Back then, in order to make Amazon grow rapidly, Bezos led the senior management team to study a new business strategy:

That is, first use low-cost and high-quality membership services to attract users to join, so that they can sell products on the website, and the more products, the more customers will follow, and the website revenue will grow day by day.

With more income, the operating cost of the website is also reduced, and the price of goods is also reduced, forming a virtuous circle.

This is known as the "Amazon Flywheel" theory.

In fact, when Bezos first proposed the "Amazon Flywheel" plan, the team executives complained that the move was too risky, and the price was too low, and the website could not afford it.

However, Bezos believes that although attracting users at a low price will consume some manpower and material resources at the beginning, it is necessary to have a long-term spirit and take a long-term view, as long as the traffic comes in, the website will have more room to operate.

Sure enough, the later "Amazon Flywheel" spun up at high speed on its own after a difficult start-up period.

I believe that in any matter, we can not only see the current gains and losses, but also take a long-term view, adhere to long-termism, temporary failure does not affect future success, temporary success does not mean eternal victory, we must learn to persevere.

Although adhering to long-termism is the way of business management, it can also be applied to life growth.

Stephen Gaisce wrote a book called "Micro Habits", in which he went from a mediocre man to a best-selling author.

One of the most important factors is the long-termism.

In order to lose weight, Stephen Geys did a push-up every day, and after two years of perseverance, he not only recovered his body, but also built muscles.

In order to exercise his writing ability, he began to read 1 page of a book every day, write 50 words a day, and became a writer by looking at it and writing it.

Of course, doing a push-up every day and writing 50 words a day will not have any effect in the short term, but when you insist on doing it for 1, 2, 3 years, it is a earth-shaking change, and this is the power of accumulation.

As Bezos said, "If you do one thing and look at the next three years, there are a lot of people competing with you, but if you look at the next seven years, then there are very few people who can compete with you."

Because very few companies are willing to take that long-term view. ”

Zixin believes that the gap between people, sometimes in the persistence day after day, some people are afraid of difficulties and leave in a hurry, and some people can see the gains and losses in the present, and insist on doing everything at the moment, and good luck will come uninvited.

5

From 1994 to 2021, Bezos led Amazon through 27 years, creating one business miracle after another.

From his success, it is not difficult for us to find that the development of the times has given him opportunities, but it is more of a personal effort.

When he encountered difficulties in starting a business, he was more resilient than anyone else, and it was this bravery that allowed him to ride the wind and waves and reach the other side of success.

When starting a business and encountering competition, he is more agile than anyone else, and knows how to find differences in the homogeneous market and break the situation.

In the face of the unknown, we are not afraid of failure and take risks to strive for it, so as to seize the opportunity, take the right path, and successfully reach the top.

In the face of gains and losses, know how to adhere to long-termism, do everything in front of you, and wait for the flowers to bloom.