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

by Walter Isaacson (Introduction), Jeff Bezos (Contributor)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 3,105 ratings
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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.

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  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harvard Business Review Press
  4. Publication date
    November 17, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    7.76 x 5.08 x 0.74 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1647820715
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1647820718
  8. See all details
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  1. There are three criteria he instructs managers to consider when they are hiring: Will you admire this person? Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group he or she is entering? Along what dimension might this person be a superstar?
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  2. People who love all fields of knowledge are the ones who can best spot the patterns that exist across nature.
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  3. “You know the business plan won’t survive its first encounters with reality,” he says. “But the discipline of writing the plan forces you to think through some of the issues and to get sort of mentally comfortable in the space. Then you start to understand, if you push on this knob, this will move over here and so on. So, that’s the first step.”
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From the Publisher

Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos, With an Introduction by Walter Isaacson

jeff bezos, amazon, creating, building, principles, philosophy, business, success, leadership, lead

Editorial Reviews

Review

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller

About the Author

About Contributors Jeff Bezos and Walter Isaacson:
This book is a collection of writings and public statements by Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon. Bezos is also the founder of aerospace company Blue Origin, which is working to lower the cost and increase the safety of spaceflight, and he is owner of the Washington Post. In 2018, he founded the Bezos Day One Fund, which focuses on funding non-profits that help homeless families, and on creating a network of tier-one preschools in low-income communities. Bezos graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University in 1986, and was named TIME Magazine's Person of the Year in 1999.

Walter Isaacson is the author of several books, including The Innovators and Leonardo da Vinci.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business Review Press; 1st edition (November 17, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1647820715
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1647820718
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.76 x 5.08 x 0.74 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 3,105 ratings

About the author

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Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson

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Walter Isaacson is writing a biography of Elon Musk. He is the author of The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race; Leonardo da Vinci; Steve Jobs; Einstein: His Life and Universe; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution; and Kissinger: A Biography. He is also the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. He is a Professor of History at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chairman of CNN, and editor of Time magazine.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
3,105 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Flia8aR
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous reading!!!
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024
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It is interesting to see the in-depth of Bezos letters, his simple but profound strategy… and not to forget, his passion for a better world. We can learn much from this book.
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EmJo
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2021
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There are important take aways in this book. Although it is often repetitive, perspectives on management and space exploration show real genius. It's an amazing story of what a determined, smart and intuitive person can accomplish in a mere twenty five years. Bezos is a giant whose drive and innovation will make him the top leadership success story of the twenty first century.
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Steve Anderson
5.0 out of 5 stars Hidden in Plain Sight Lessons on how Bezos Grows Amazon
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2020
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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.
80 people found this helpful
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Skittles
5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty insightful
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2024
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I enjoyed this book. I especially enjoyed the history of how the company got started. This is so inspiring! Jeff Bezos has such a positive attitude toward the future of the world and America.
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Matt Brady
3.0 out of 5 stars Very repetitive, but some good takeaways
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2024
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The entire first half of the book is letters to shareholders for the last 25 years. This is a bit dry to read through, especially as someone familiar with Amazon’s approach to business. The second half is full of anecdotes, but it is rather repetitive. You reread stories about Jeff’s life multiple times, which is certainly redundant. While I did take away some good lessons about Amazonian culture and learned more about Jeff Bezos, I am overall disappointed in the lack of diversity in stories and overall structure of this book.
One person found this helpful
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Rocco Tarasi
5.0 out of 5 stars Fast read, easy way to learn how big bets and clarity of vision fueled Amazon’s growth
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2020
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Who this book is for: Entrepreneurs, Business and Team Leaders, Passionate Innovators
Ease of reading: Very high. Short chapters, fast narrative.

After the excellent intro by Walter Isaacson (and who wouldn’t want to read that), Part 1 includes every Amazon shareholder letter from 1997 through 2020. Reading all 24 letters, one after the other, is remarkable for two reasons. First, this isn’t revisionist history. Every word of these letters was written and published in that year. No spin by Bezos or anyone else. Second, it is striking both how clear and how consistent the vision for Amazon was. Unlike other companies that meander through different missions or focus areas over 24 years, Amazon’s customer focus never changed, and its big bets around AWS, Marketplace, Fulfillment, Kindle, Prime, and others all tie to each other. You read the progress on these initiatives over the years, and the repetition of these topics across many years of letters reinforces the importance of doing a few big things really well to make your company successful.

I liked his views on decision-making: Executives are paid to make a small number of high quality decisions; not all decisions can be made in a “math-based” way and require judgement; most decisions should be made with 70% of the information you wish you had - if you wait for more, you’re being too slow; and most decisions are “two-way doors”, meaning if they are wrong they can be corrected without significant consequences.

I found the shareholder letters in Part 1 more interesting than the speech summaries in Part 2, but overall this is an easy, information-rich read that gets you close to the mind of one of the most successful businesspeople of our generation.
28 people found this helpful
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Steve Androulakis
4.0 out of 5 stars Essential for understanding Amazon and where it came from
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2021
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Walter's introduction provided a succinct summary on what makes Jeff Bezos and his success special. I'm subtracting one star because Jeff's later shareholder letters read more like marketing spiel. The 2010+ letters lose the essence of greatness. But this is still worth getting for seeing how confident Jeff was about aspects of Amazon (customer obsession, low fixed costs, operational efficiency) that would later be his reasons for success.
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eclectic reader
5.0 out of 5 stars I got a new and great appreciation for Jeff and Amazon
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2023
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I got a new and great appreciation for Jeff and Amazon. The most important point I got is that Jeff is totally committed to customer satisfaction and that he believe that is a never ending challenge.He is both smart and incredibly focused - both characteristics he has had his entire life. Perhaps Walter Isaacson is right and Bezos is our Da Vinci.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Ofernandez
5.0 out of 5 stars About the modest wealthy Jeff may I say
Reviewed in Mexico on December 11, 2021
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Never have read anything more richer than this book in terms of not the definition of making money but as a circumstance of fulfilling a dream and share with others always backing up this humbleness and gratitude for what his parents embrace on him and so for the world today by this one man .

I’m always catching for W Isaacson next reading but this one compilation of letters and writings by Jeff sure makes it easier to William to make a must of this reading and let me say as the entrepreneurs basis for making this world and the others the best place to leave .

Congrats on every piece of enterprise you have given and share with us all and long live the king of modesty , speed up Blue Origin projects .
One person found this helpful
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David Pullara
5.0 out of 5 stars Read this to 10X your Business Thinking
Reviewed in Canada on January 17, 2021
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Jeff Bezos is, without question, one of the most successful entrepreneurs that has ever lived. This book is a collection of his thoughts and ideas over the past 20+ years, and provides a fascinating inside look into his mind.

Reading this book will help you understand how Amazon went from start-up to behemoth in just 26 years -- and how its founder became the world's richest person in the process process -- by being customer-obsessed and making decisions in the right way.
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Consumer
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book
Reviewed in Germany on November 18, 2021
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A deep analysis of Jeff's thoughts and newsletters. I'll recommend book to anyone who wants to learn about the history of Amazon and its visionary leader.
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Samidha
5.0 out of 5 stars Most inspiring story of a Great institution.
Reviewed in India on June 14, 2021
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Very inspiring book. Can read again and get more insight. You get life lessons in an easy ways.
One thing is sure leader's are born. Jeff is a down to earth person. Admire him.respect him.for what magic he has created with AMAZON.
10 people found this helpful
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Corrado
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational
Reviewed in Italy on May 17, 2021
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