Back in the 1990s, Jeff Bezos publicly stated that he wanted his employees to wake up on the wrong side of the bed—for the greater good, or at least for the sake of customers.
Today marks the anniversary of the former online bookstore’s 1997 IPO price, which almost instantly made Bezos a millionaire. Now, with Amazon stock trading at $185.99 per share at close of trading, Bezos is worth more than $200 billion, and the company sells just about everything (including but not limited to books).
A quarter-century ago, in 1999, when Bezos was CEO, he revealed his fledgling hard-line leadership tactics with CNET’s Wendy Walsh. Two years after Amazon first went public, Bezos has become a billionaire and has shared his thoughts on the booming e-commerce business. Bezos praised his employees as “the hardest-working, most talented, most passionate, most customer-focused” group of people, and he really emphasized that when it comes to customer service.
Going one step further than guaranteeing satisfaction, he seemed to suggest that if employees didn’t wake up desperately worried about disturbing their customer base, they were doing something wrong. “I ask everyone here to wake up every morning with fear and their sheets soaked with sweat,” he said. Its stated goal is not to dehydrate Silicon Valley office workers but to ensure that no one settles for the status quo.
Of course, he implored employees to “understand very precisely what they’re afraid of” and not wake up in wet sheets just to be afraid.
“They shouldn’t be afraid of our competitors; they should be afraid of our customers, because they’re the ones we have a relationship with,” Bezos said. “These people send us money,” he added.
Bezos pointed out in the interview that for Amazon, things can always change in an instant. Recognizing that the company hasn’t been around long enough, if they don’t “focus fully on their customers,” it may “still lose the entire opportunity to make this history.”
Bezos’ dedication to a client is not unlike an unrequited crush because he knows the other person is unapproachable or moody. “I believe our customers will remain loyal to us until someone else provides them with better service,” he said. Even current Amazon CEO Andy Jassy talked about Bezos’ demands on employees.
“In Jeff, I’ve never seen anyone with higher standards,” Jassy said in of wealth This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.
This respect for customers appears to come at a price, or at least some controversy. Some workers are calling for Bezos and Amazon to quit over poor working conditions. As his company and net worth have grown, Bezos’s mentality has been criticized. 2015, New York Times published an explosive feature about Amazon’s high standards, which include sometimes working until midnight, a tense company culture, and a lack of work-life balance for good pay and belief in the mission.
Years later, in 2023, three Amazon drivers filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, claiming they experienced “inhumane conditions” and were unable to stop work to use the bathroom. Problems inside the warehouse continued, and the U.S. Department of Labor announced that same year that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found workers were exposed to hazardous conditions.
“They care more about profits,” former Amazon warehouse worker Michael Verrastro told us protector Regarding employee safety.
In Bezos’ words, they care about their customers.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
