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What Jeff Bezos knows

It's already old news that Amazon.com offered to buy Zappos for $850M today but what I think is more interesting is what Jeff Bezos says in the video below. He gets around to discussing the rationale for the deal near the end but spends more time talking about what he's learned running Amazon the past 15 years. I'll summarize for you so you can learn in 1 minute what will take 8 minutes in the video:

1. Obsess over customers

- Pay attention to competitors but start with customers and work backward - it will cover up lots of mistakes

2. Invent

- Customers won't tell you everything - invent on their behalf

- Never accept "either/or" thinking - you can accomplish both

- You can invent yourself out of any box if you believe you can

3. Think long term

- It is much rarer than you think

- Most initiatives take 5-7 years to pay off for a company

- Thinking long term not only requires, but allows a willingness to be misunderstood

4. It's always day #1

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The art of selling cars

Selling a car nowadays isn't as easy as it used to be. I recently posted one for sale and instead of receiving interest from sincere, would-be buyers I've been contacted exclusively by hacks and scam artists. 

One email I received was from someone named Shameka and seemed relatively sincere. She's a bit concerned about my listing price and would like me to check my car's value at a site called new-car-value.com. I almost did so until I checked a second email. This person didn't even bother to include his name and told me I am "crazy" to sell at my listed price, which is "way off." I pushed back a bit to see if this person would quantify what "way off" means but instead he told me to check trade-in-value.com. Is it just me or do those site names resemble each other?

I visited the sites (by typing the addresses into my browser myself) and both require lots of personal information in order for you to be able to get to pricing information on your vehicle. But clearly there is more to these sites than providing a price - someone wants to sell you something else. 

But that is beside the point. Wouldn't one think I've done a bit of my own research already? Such as scanning the listings on eBay Motors or AutoTrader (more on AutoTrader below) and checking Edmunds and Kelly Blue Book which are both legitimate and free?

Last year I posted the same vehicle I'm trying to sell now (I pulled it off the market for a variety of reasons) and used AutoTrader. No sooner had I posted my listing (which requires phone information) than I began receiving calls from third parties offering to help me sell my car. They didn't know a thing about me or the car - they just knew I had one for sale and wanted to sign me up for their service. They were so clueless, in fact, that they kept calling me months after the car was off the market and the listing taken down, and did this despite my requests to stop calling. This may not have been AutoTrader's fault but I don't care. I don't plan to use it again.

Selling a car online isn't cut-and-dried. It's no longer about posting facts about your vehicle and waiting for buyers to show up for a test drive. It requires some marketing savvy and instinct so you don't get ripped off and don't get caught in a scam. You have to sift through the crap to get to the good stuff.

Lead-generation sites are all over the web (mainly in places like insurance and financial products) and if this is the emerging version of lead-gen on the web it's a shame. But my guess is that there are just enough people out there selling cars who fall victim to the scams to make these particular endeavors worthwhile. I guess it goes without saying that if you're selling a car, seller beware.

UPDATE: An email from another spammer and, wouldn't you know it, the site is just like the two mentioned above. Someone named Chantelle Moore would like me to go to get-trade-value.com. Chantelle: perhaps you should consult with your spammer friends so that your approach isn't so obvious?

Square peg, round hole

I have sat down to write lots of posts lately, only to delete them halfway through. In fact I have deleted various versions of the same post several times today already. Why? Lack of flow. Low inspiration. Just not feeling it. Lately it has felt like forcing a square peg through a round hole.

That goes for this blog, mind you. Generally it's easy to write on 2 and a half - my household of girls are always inspiring and generate an endless number of the things to write about. But here I'm a bit lost.

It's a good thing though. Filling up pages with crappy content would just detract from the quality of the site. Content for the sake of content isn't going to give me the creative outlet I need, nor is it going to give readers what they need.

So here I sit, writing this. And the point is to tell you to do the same thing. If what you're writing isn't good enough, don't publish it. It's not worth it. Only put your best stuff out there. Your readers will thank you and you'll thank yourself.

Make the bed

The other day someone shared with me his story about addiction. Six years ago he would wake up each morning thinking one thing: where will I be drinking today? Once a bottle of wine was gone it was on to vodka. Once the vodka was gone it was on to whatever else was available.

Today he is a recovering alcoholic. He hasn't had a drink in six years. He has a set of mental and physical tools he uses to avoid falling back into the cycle of addiction. He mentioned one of those tools to me which I think is simple but powerful. 

He makes the bed every morning. Doesn't miss a day. Whether he's at home or at a hotel or elsewhere he makes the bed. It's the first decision he makes every day, and that's just it. It's him making a decision. Choosing between not making the bed and making the bed empowers him because he has made a choice. And that power lets him know that he's capable of making choices all day long and that he is the one in control, not his addiction.

It was interesting that of all the advice and support has undoubtedly been given to cure his addiction that this is one thing he called out. Clearly it's an important technique for him.

Everyone has addictions, shortcomings, habits we want to get out of, behaviors we want to change. What is that issue for you? Think about why you're stuck in that rut. Maybe you're stuck in it because you're ignorant of its existence in the first place. Maybe you're afraid to try to change because you figure you'll fail. Or maybe you just don't want to deal with it and you're oblivious to the effect it's having on you or others.

Try empowering yourself by making a conscious decision that you know you can make each day. Making the bed is obvious and practically universal but if that isn't your thing then find something else. Make it something that you alone can control and then you'll know that the outcome cannot be something or someone else's fault. You'll start to become more aware of all the other decisions you're making and realize that you alone are the one responsible for each outcome. More important, that you alone can affect the better outcome.

I once read that plane crashes are rarely the result of one bad decision, but instead are the result of a series of many bad decisions that compound the effect of each individual one. Conversely, then, good decisions must add up to great outcomes. It's all you.