My own view is that every company requires a long-term view.

What we want to be is something completely new. There is no physical analog for what Amazon.com is becoming.

But there's so much kludge, so much terrible stuff, we are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet. That's where we are. We don't get our hair caught in it, but that's the level of primitiveness of where we are. We're in 1908.

It’s very important for entrepreneurs to be realistic. So if you believe on that first day while you’re writing the business plan that there’s a 70 percent chance that the whole thing will fail, then that kind of relieves the pressure of self-doubt.

If you're truly obsessed over customers, it'll cover a lot of errors.

Your brand is formed primarily, not by what your company says about itself, but what the company does.

If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.