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Top 5 Skills used by Jeff Bezos to build Amazon into a global superpower? 1. Self-Reliance In his early years, Bezos spent all his summers at his grandfather’s ranch. Over time, he learned how to fix and build things from scratch. His grandfather was very self-reliant and taught a young Jeff Bezos how to fix things by himself. The ranch was in a remote location, which meant the family had to be self-sufficient and resourceful with repairs, food, construction work, and even some basic medical procedures. 2. Deep Research & Analysis During a research assignment at work, Bezos found a staggering statistic. He discovered that the internet was growing at a rate of 2,300% per year. He knew immediately that anything with such an unprecedented growth rate was going to be HUGE. At the time many internet companies were starting and receiving significant interest both from investors and the public. Bezos didn’t want to later experience the regret of missing out on the internet boom, so he started Amazon. 3. Clear and Concise Communication Bezos preferred to write things down in structured memos that were not more than a page long. He figured in this way, he could simplify things and explain them clearly. When he started Amazon.com, Bezos banned all PowerPoint slides during meetings. Instead, he introduced the structured memo. Meeting participants had to go through the memos during the meeting so everyone would have clarity before the actual discussion began. Each answer had to be answered with a “Yes”, “No”, “I don’t know” or “backed up with data”. 4. Effective Risk Management Entrepreneurship is about taking risks Yes, but taking risks blindly can lead to disaster. These sentiments are shared by Bezos who believes you should take risks after taking the downside into consideration so at least you are familiar with the potential consequences if something doesn’t work. For example, In 1995, Bezos's parents poured some of their life savings into Amazon and he told them that there was a high likelihood that they would lose all their money since most startups don’t succeed. Bezos calculated the downside and made his parents aware of what they were getting themselves into. 5. Data-Driven Decision Making Earlier in his career, Bezos was responsible for driving high-quality investment decisions. If he made the wrong investment recommendations, clients would lose money, so he had to collect enough data to back up his decisions. Bezos admits that most of his important decisions were made with intuition after gathering and studying vast amounts of data.  Why is this important? A while ago Bezos realized intuition alone couldn’t be trusted as it is often based on faulty information. He discovered that concrete evidence plus intuition was the right mix for a high-quality decision. This approach allowed Bezos to introduce innovations such as Amazon Prime, Kindle & the transition from a bookstore to an e-commerce giant.

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