“The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.”

Obsess about customers, not competitors.

Everything you are comes from your choices.

I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.

My view is there’s no bad time to innovate.

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.

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.

Minding your business is how you call your power back.

Not everybody is comfortable with my ethnicity. When I first came along in the business, they didnt really like the idea of my name being Raquel.

The things that are important to me – being a mother, a businesswoman, an activist – are all things that were borne out of great passion.

An entrepreneur isn’t someone who owns a business, it’s someone who makes things happen.

Never react emotionally to criticism. Analyze yourself to determine whether it is justified. If it is, correct yourself. Otherwise, go on about your business.

I think it’s really important to have a life outside of this [movie] business and just be the best person you can be.

The business of business is relationships; the business of life is human connection.

The people and opportunities your business needs are out there, but the only way to uncover them is to take an active role in bringing your social network to life.