Jeff Bezos

"I was always a heavy reader. When I learned about the internet, I immediately understood that it would be transformational."

"Advertising is the price you pay for having a mediocre product."

"When you look at a problem, try to see how it's connected to something else that you already understand."

"Entrepreneurs must be willing to be misunderstood for long periods."

"The harder you work, the luckier you get."

"I think the ideal company culture is one where people trust and respect one another."

"One decision can transform everything."

"The vision is important. But it is your responsibility as a leader to define the reality for people."

"I'm going to attempt to convert my transient celebrity into permanent value for shareholders."

"If you're not willing to fail, it's very hard to innovate."

"We don't focus on profit. We focus on revenue, costs, and assets."

"Consistency is the best form of discipline in building a successful enterprise."

"The internet is a playground and a business tool at the same time."

"If you decide to spend 30 years building a company, that's a very different kind of decision."

"Obsess over customers, not competitors."

"The only constant in technology is change, and we must embrace it."

"You cannot be misunderstood if you're just following along with convention."

"When you give someone a power that they didn't have before, interesting things can happen."

"Every single day, we have an opportunity to help a customer in some way."

"If you want to be an innovator, you have to be willing to accept a lot of criticism."

"One of the huge advantages of long-term thinking is that you get to make decisions that are unconventional."

"Your employees have many choices if they're talented. You have to make sure you're creating an environment where they want to work."

"The harder the problem, the more important it is to work on it."

"We want to be known for something special. We don't want to be known as a retailer or a technology company."

"Building a business is like farming: you have to plant seeds long before you harvest."

"I don't think that you can just make people happy by sending them a check."

"The metric for success is not whether you have money, it's whether you're fulfilling your mission."

"Learning to fail fast is an essential skill in today's world."

"You are going to fail many times in your life. The key is whether you're resilient enough to recover."

"Success takes time. There are no shortcuts to building a great company."