The Everything Store - Book Review

[James Paine]

The Everything Store by Brad Stone - Takeaways from the book!

James’s Intro

9th book of the year out of my goal of 52 this year. For me this book had a lot of little takeaways so I’ll just list them out in no order. Feel free to research them more as you’d like. The one thing this book left me feeling like was that I don’t have the desire to be a leader like Jeff Bezos. He is totally compartmentalized and makes decisions which are sometimes very cold with zero emotion. At times he says things that are really cruel attacking people personally when they didn’t turn in good work. I do like that he doesn’t accept anything but people's best. DO BETTER! (Our company's core value).

As always if you have a friend that you would like me to add to this list just send me their email.

Recommended Apps!! Sometimes I recommend a technology or system that I really like. My last big recommendation was www.Grammarly.com (I wish it worked on google docs!) This time I am recommending PanicButton which immediately hides all of your windows on your computer. This is good if you are looking at something you are not supposed to be but also if someone comes up and talks to you and you want to be fully present with them you don’t have to spend 20-30 seconds closing or minimizing your windows. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/panicbutton/faminaibgiklngmfpfbhmokfmnglamcm?hl=en

Book Summary:

The definitive story of Amazon.com, one of the most successful companies in the world, and of its driven, brilliant founder, Jeff Bezos. Amazon.com started off delivering books through the mail. But its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn't content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the everything store, offering limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To do so, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition and secrecy that's never been cracked. Until now. Brad Stone enjoyed unprecedented access to current and former Amazon employees and Bezos family members, giving readers the first in-depth, fly-on-the-wall account of life at Amazon. Compared to tech's other elite innovators--Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg--Bezos is a private man. But he stands out for his restless pursuit of new markets, leading Amazon into risky new ventures like the Kindle and cloud computing, and transforming retail in the same way Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing.

James’s Interesting Facts and Takeaways from the book:

- Jeff Bezos (JB) doesn't allow power point decks in meetings rather 5-6 page narratives. He believes presenting this way fosters critical thinking. In almost all meetings where most people would bring an outline or pitch deck he makes people turn in a 5-6 page narrative that everyone spends the first 15 minutes reading quietly then they all discuss it. Very similarly when you are pitching a new product or service that Amazon should start to anyone on the leadership team you have to write your pitch exactly as it would be a press release. I REALLY like both parts of this. Because my time isn’t as scarce as JB’s I don’t know if I would cut out power points or pitch decks but if someone wants to use a pitch deck I think having them write out a formal press release as if we were announcing the idea to the public is an amazing idea.

- JB gives you full and present attention and isn't hurried in conversation. In another book I read this year called the Charisma Myth it reveals that when you are fully present with people it is one of the strongest ways to draw someone close to you. If you think about how busy JB must be, for him to give full and present attention to people is a powerful gesture. That is probably also why when someone isn’t 100% prepared he won’t meet with them.

-JB started Amazon as a book store because he wanted to start a store that was the middle man for everything. Books are a pure commodity and no brick and mortar store could ever hold the 3MM books in print in the US. Today there are so many books that are telling entrepreneurs to follow their passion and start businesses with meanings or The Big Why. I like that JB’s decision was purely pragmatic. Early on when he started the business he estimated that his business had a 70% chance to fail. I’ve seen a lot of people make negative predictions about their business or prospects but usually it has to do with a low self esteem. JB just ran the numbers and came up with 70%. It is interesting because a lot of other very successful leaders and CEOs had blind faith that their business was 100% going to win from the beginning.

- JB started his career at the quant hedge fund DE Shaw. He was very gifted in science as a child. DE Shaw is famous for hiring the brightest kids from the best schools. They don’t put you through the ringer like the big banks (Goldman, Merrill,etc) with an exhausting intern or two year analyst program. They fly you out and tell you they want you to work there and there is no fluff.

- Amazon was started in Washington because JB was thinking big early on. In those days you only had to collect sales tax from those people who lived in the state where you were headquartered. Again JB using 100% reason and very little emotion.

- Amazon as a company started the affiliate marketing business model. Specifically the CPA (Cost Per Action) in this case a book sale. They were pretty forward thinking because they noticed a lot of sites that had a ton of traffic and no real monetization practice. In turn Amazon offered them commissions for driving people to their site if the people bought books. So you can thank them for muscle pills. 😃

- JB doesn't believe in work life balance. He hated that term. Someone asked in an all company meeting how people were supposed to have a family at Amazon and he said, "We are here to get things done. If that doesn't work for you then this might not be the place for you." Cold but there is something very noble about his honesty and relentless pursuit. You don’t see professional athletes asking their coaches about work life balance. Great sports teams and great companies are there to win championships.

- JB during the dot com boom made like a dozen be purchases of companies. Most all of them failed. Early on the bought companies hoping to grow new business lines or companies and get the top talent from those companies. Later their successful purchases were all made to accelerate the company's flywheel. (Good to Great reference.)

- Amazon always tried to highest IQ and level of talent they could find.

- Start with the customer and work backward. JB and the company’s attitude at all times.

- The founder of Costco told JB that every good idea Costco ever had was stolen. So he didn’t mind that JB was borrowing a few of Costco’s ideas even if he was a competitor. Just reading that makes me want to read about Costco’s CEO now.

- Costco standard mark up is 14% across the board was also shared with Jeff in that meeting. I feel like Costco should really advertise that more. They should say we negotiate the heck out of our suppliers then market up their products 14%. It give the consumer a feeling that things are fair.

- JB, very similar to Musk, believed from a young age their life's mission was to colonize space. JB wanted to turn the earth into a nature preserve. He once said the reason he wanted to get rich was so that he could go to space. Weird but maybe there is a connection here I am not seeing? Maybe they aren’t even human and are just trying to get home? (Creepy music playing in the background.)

- In order to fix their distribution problems Amazon hired scientists and engineers to help in their fulfillment centers not retail distribution veterans. I think this is huge, they wanted to hire people who would think about the problem from outside the industry bubble. JB and I both hate when you ask people why they are doing something a certain way and they respond, “because this is how we’ve always done it” or “Because this is how it’s done” or “this is the way this industry works” F*CK I HATE THAT.

- They applied 6 sigma and Toyota's Lean in the fulfillment centers. If you read any Jack Welch then you just love this! I don’t know enough about Lean and need to buy a few books related to this business management system. I know that a lot of the Rockefeller Habits coaches are starting to push Lean so it is probably worthwhile.

- JB won't take 1 on 1 meetings with his team. He believes those meetings don't focus enough around problem solving.

- The two things JB obsesses most about are the customer and low prices. Amazon will not be beat not matter what on prices, they don’t care how much money it costs them. During Amazon’s negotiation to buyer Dipers.com. Dipers.com CEO calculated the wholesale price of dipers from proctor and gamble + the shipping costs (Amazon free shipping) and determined that over the next quarter Amazon would lose $100MM on dipers alone.

As always if you have a friend that you would like me to add to this list just send me their email.

Also I am looking for suggestions to make my format better!

Best,

James Charles Paine

West Realty Advisors, LLC.