Transcription
It's hard to have conviction about whether something will work. And the only thing that I can offer is every once in a while you get this crisp moment of clarity where you just know some things are going to work if you are persistent enough.
I think you can only do that if you start with the customer and work backwards. I don't think you can build that kind of clarity on what your competitors are doing or what kinds of technologies are available in the marketplace. That kind of clarity can only come from a deep understanding of customer needs.
And the good thing about customer needs is they change slowly in time. So you can count on them. I know for a fact that 10 years from now, Amazon's customers will still want low prices, fast delivery, vast selection. There's no chance that 10 years from now, somebody will come to me and say, "Jeff, I love Amazon. I just wish you delivered a little more slowly because those customer needs are so foundational."
Sometimes around those things you can get real clarity and then you can invest and you can know that your investments will pay dividends for customers over time.