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Invent and Wander

By: Jeff Bezos, Walter Isaacson - introduction
Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
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Summary

In Jeff Bezos' own words, the core principles and philosophy that have guided him in creating, building, and leading Amazon and Blue Origin.

In this collection of Jeff Bezos' writings - his unique and strikingly original annual shareholder letters, plus numerous speeches and interviews that provide insight into his background, his work, and the evolution of his ideas - you'll gain an insider's view of the why and how of his success. Spanning a range of topics across business and public policy, from innovation and customer obsession to climate change and outer space, this book provides a rare glimpse into how Bezos thinks about the world and where the future might take us.

Written in a direct, down-to-earth style, Invent and Wander offers listeners a master class in business values, strategy, and execution.

Each insight offers new ways of thinking through today's challenges - and more importantly, tomorrow's - and the never-ending urgency of striving ahead, never resting on one's laurels. Everyone from CEOs of the Fortune 100 to entrepreneurs just setting up shop to the millions who use Amazon's products and services in their homes or businesses will come to understand the principles that have driven the success of one of the most important innovators of our time.

©2021 Jeffrey P. Bezos; introduction copyright 2021 by Walter Isaacson (P)2020 Gildan Media
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What listeners say about Invent and Wander

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Repetitive

Lots of great insights and background about Amazon but lots of chapters repeat a large amount of content from previous chapters.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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A Great Listen

So many great nuggets and insights. Some repetition in the second half of the audio but overall a great listen.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very insightful

A collection of speeches and writings from the formidable entrepreneur, that gives great insight into his business and personal philosophies. Enjoyed listening to this as it's the closest thing I could find to an autobiography.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Incredible stories...but repeated a dozen times

As great as some of these writings are, it's really hard to give the audiobook a 4 or 5 star rating overall.

The opening by Walter Isaacson was my favourite part. This is because it's unique and reveals new information, specifically the detail about how Isaacson went to bat to get Bezo's "Time Person of the Year" and it also explains why he did not write Jeff Bezo's biography. It was cool Audible had his voice narrate his section too.
The audio performance is also quite good, so it scores well there.

I should also make clear though that Jeff Bezo's writings teachings and learnings are truly amazing, he is a masterful process creator who knows how to excel in the long term with fundamental ground up thinking. The learnings and what any ambitious person in business will learn in this book is truly 5*.

However, I can't give a 5* review for one large and frustrating reason...the repetition honestly became quite unbearable. It's okay to read the same maxim a dozen times such as "Always Day One", "customer obsession" or "long term thinking" but I found myself reading the same story a dozen times, where I could read a few words then almost recite the entire next 3 paragraphs from memory.

Reinforced learning is usually a good thing and with how great the teachings are this might be a good thing. But in terms of enjoyment it was more of a frustrating bore. Usually you'd be able to "skip ahead" but in the structure of this book that wouldn't work.

I suppose it is clear this is the collected writings of Jeff Bezo's, but it is just the publically facing annual shareholder letters and some transcribed speeches, immense repetition was inevitable. However, I feel like this book was a missed opportunity. Not only is it overpriced for what it is (all these writings/lectures are free on the open internet) but it missed a great chance to condense and simplify the core lessons into a real structure for the reader. It's like Jeff Bezos didn't take his own advice here and be customer-obsessed.

I feel like a good Gen AI chatbot could likely digest this book and spit it back out much better, because there is a lot of pure gold in here for business, it's just presented badly!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good book - very insightful

Enjoyed this read. Was quite repetitive at times but gained valuable insights into the mind of Jeff Bezos.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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So many little golden nuggets

Such a brilliant listen for anyone with an interest in how the successful business owners did their thing. But also for those looking for inspiration

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interesting

Visionary entrepreneur makes good, becomes global domineer. How to build an empire in not so easy steps.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting but a lot of repeatition

Jeff Bezos is a visionary leader and what has been achieved with Amazon is amazingly impressive.

This is his writings from shareholder letters and other speeches. They are all uniquely interesting, but when listened too in this format there is a lot of repetition in what is said, the stories told and the information presented.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Not A Convincing Book!

The entire book is on a narrative that Amazon has done and accomplished great things and they're obsessed with customers, but anyone who ever ordered or tried to sell something with them knows that Amazon lacks customer centric approach, my personal experience with them is that most of my orders had never reached me, and selling anything on it is a miracle, but those guys who wish to learn about secrets and success strategies of amazon will learn nothing at all, as the entire book is about their success, achievements and accomplishments stories, a little radical overview or tip of an iceberg perspective on their vision, mission and leadership, and a childish Star Wars fantasy world approach of founder Jeff Bezos. I do think that you should get, read and listen this book for getting rid of the amazon itch for your entrepreneurial journey, you may realize that fantasizing, dreaming or big talk may also work for you and aid in success, especially in ever growing e-commerce world, if it worked for Jeff Bezos or Amazon Brand. Good Luck

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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Invent and bore - on repeat!Monotonous and boring

A thoroughly monotonous delivery of writings that are incredibly repetitive. This could have been edited better, but was full of repetition and boring information about how amazons products are amazing and how they've done so well. Not really much information other than if you were to do a case study nfor the Amazon business.

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