“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

One of the things that gets me up in the morning is knowing that customer expectations are always rising, and I find that very exciting.

Percentage margins don’t matter. What matters always is dollar margins: the actual dollar amount. Companies are valued not on their percentage margins, but on how many dollars they actually make, and a multiple of that.

We can’t be in survival mode. We have to be in growth mode.

Our biggest cost is not power, or servers, or people. It’s lack of utilization. It dominates all other costs.

To get something new done you have to be stubborn and focused, to the point that others might find unreasonable.

Market leadership can translate directly to higher revenue, higher profitability, greater capital velocity and correspondingly stronger returns on invested capital.

We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and thy’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.

If you want to be inventive, you have to be willing to fail.

I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.

You know, we love stories and we love narrative; we love to get lost in an author’s world.

You know, we love stories and we love narrative; we love to get lost in an author’s world.

There’ll always be serendipity involved in discovery.

Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice.

Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient.

If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes-then learn how to do it later!

No business can continue to shrink. That can only go on for so long before irrelevancy sets in.

I always want to create and do things, or draw.

Hearing is listening to what is said. Listening is hearing what isn’t said.

If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.

Effort: You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Every year I make a plan. I do it. It will be done.

Tesla is here to stay and keep fighting for the electric car revolution.