Bezos and His Curious Advice

In his last letter to the Amazon shareholders Bezos gave some parting advice

Jeff Bezos penned his final letter to the shareholders and everyone started picking it apart, dissecting it and analyzing every comma and period. What I found particularly interesting to me was the mantra “create more than you consume”.

If we were to consider consumerism within the context of our obsession with acquiring material things, we can see that Amazon would not have become as wildly successful without it. In fact, it may have contributed to it with its global reach and influence.

I take Bezos’ advice to heart and believe in it. But I also think it’s a bit odd to suggest this, while needing others to consume more than they create.. in order for you to create more than you consume. We can’t all be creating more than we consume is what I’m trying to say.

If, like me, you believe that life is ultimately a zero-sum game, then Bezos is also saying that you must make sure your customers consume what you create more than they create anything for anyone. It’s obvious to me that Jeff Bezos believes so too.

The only other time I’ve found a reference of Bezos talking about something being zero-sum was on the issue of search. In it, the author confuses winner-takes-all for zero-sum. They’re not the same thing.