Think you can work at @amazon?📦

This mental model would make you stand out

#54

Remember how I said at one point, we’d talk about flywheels? And half of you were like “what’s a flywheel?” Well, today is the day. Thank goodness for that article from #53 titled “Is Amazon Unstoppable?” from the New Yorker. For those who didn’t get the chance to read it, we can do a quick deep dive on this important topic. Flywheels are quite tricky and people who do it well have a good understanding of strategy and pattern recognition and long-term thinking. 

The author does a good job of explaining what a flywheel is:

“The notion of the flywheel—the heavy disk within a machine that, once spinning, pushes gears and production relentlessly forward—is venerated within Amazon, as Ian Freed learned on his first day of work, in 2004.”

This is how Jim Collins describes it:

“move deliberately, not pronounce grand strategies, find what is working and push hard to attain consistent momentum.”

Others might consider it a virtuous circle, in which one thing feeds off another, over and over again, leading to success.

Basically, think of the way a car propels itself forward, which all the different parts working in unison. When your thinking works like that, you’re operating like a flywheel. 

Author goes on to state: 

“Identifying and building flywheels became second nature to Freed. When a junior executive came by his desk with an idea—“What if we made a streaming device that you could plug into a television?”—Freed invited him to lunch, coached him through writing a mock press release, and took him to pitch the idea to Bezos. They reminded Bezos that, with existing streaming devices, searching for content was difficult. “It’s really hard to type ‘Gene Hackman movies from the nineteen-seventies’ when you’re using a remote control,” Freed explained. Amazon’s product, he said, would allow customers to simply say what they wanted to watch. The flywheel began spinning. If Amazon sold a streaming device, it could collect more data on popular shows; if Amazon had that data, it could begin profitably producing its own premium movies and television series; if Amazon made that content free for Prime members—customers who already paid ninety-nine dollars per year for two-day delivery—then more people would sign up for Prime; if more people signed up for Prime, the company would have greater leverage in negotiating with UPS and FedEx; lower shipping costs would mean bigger profits every time Amazon sold anything on its site. The Amazon Fire TV, as the device was named, soon became one of the most popular streaming devices on the planet. Amazon Studios began producing premium shows, and before long it had won two Oscars for “Manchester by the Sea” and eight Emmys for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” In 2017, the number of Amazon Prime subscribers surpassed a hundred million.” 

You see how Freed makes connections this easily? Note that he’s not getting distracted with this thinking. It’s all deliberately focused on attaining Amazon’s greater vision to be earth's most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online. 

Remember I mentioned synergies before? And Jeph called it “spiderweb thinking?” Very related. This mental model is not easy to replicate, but like anything, practice makes perfect. 

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Article List— What I’m reading (10 articles a day x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 3360 articles a year). 

No articles for today. You can go back and finish the ones you didn’t read from #53.

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 Podcast— What I’m listening to (1 podcast episode a day x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 336 podcast episodes). Broadening my experiences through others’ stories. 

Downloaded the series on Hare Krishna Murders again on American Scandal. Very interesting to understand how human psychology works and how cults operate. To the outsider, it might seem crazy, but check your lifestyle; you might be in a cult yourself 🤔 

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Book— 1 Chapter a day  x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 336 chapters. Most books have 10-12 chapters, so 1 year = 28 to 33 books. And my book list is nearing 1000 books. Send help 🌚

Yesterday’s pieces on Jeff Bezos led me back to my notes from The Everything Store by Brad Stone. Check it out if you haven’t. 

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📱📱Quote of the day 

“Also in dire need of change is The We Co., aka WeWork, aka the Trojan Unicorn that sneaks into investor camps and sets all their money on fire.”- Saw this on Bloomberg and it sent me 😂😂😂😂. 

 

Remember folks: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”