Jeff Bezos' Biggest Fear: "Day 2"

Jeff Bezos on Fighting off "Day 2" and Avoiding Stagnation

As the founder of Amazon.com, Bezos has spent decades reminding his employees that "it's always Day 1" at Amazon.

"What does Day 2 look like?" This was a question posed to Jeff Bezos at a recent all-hands meeting that inspired his 2016 shareholder Letter.

According to Bezos, "Day 2" is synonymous with stasis, leading to irrelevance, painful decline, and ultimately, the death of a company. To stave off this fate, Bezos states that companies must retain the dynamism and customer obsession that characterizes Day 1, even as they expand.

Bezos addresses this question head-on, sharing his philosophy on how to maintain the "vitality of Day 1."

I share an analysis of Bezos's Day 1 Masterclass in maintaining a relentless focus on the customer.