In a far-away mountain in the American Texas, some people are building a huge, individual clock.

In the 2011, in a distant mountain in Texas, USA, some people are building an individual huge clock that can be timed for 10,000 years. Once completed, people who are willing to make a pilgrimage to the island will be able to visit the halls that hold the giant clock.

"This impressive feat of engineering is" a symbol of long-term thought, "said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder Steve Besos, who invested 42 million of billions of dollars in tracking the construction progress of the clock. For Bezos himself, the term "long-term thinking" also applies, and he has long argued that for Amazon to make a big bet on new technology, at the expense of short-term profits, it will create more lucrative returns for its shareholders in the future.

In 1997, Bezos sent the first open letter to Amazon shareholders, which described his philosophy. The title of this letter is "everything is related to the long term" (it's all about the long term).

Today, some of the bets made by Bezos have already brought considerable rewards, turning Amazon from an online book retailer into a technology giant that has a strong place in many areas, from cloud computing to tablet devices. At the same time, these bets raise Bezos's reputation as a tech dreamer.

"The pace of technological change has been accelerating over the past few years. "Bezos said. Technological change brings disruptive innovation, and Bezos the ability to identify and profit from it, and is widely regarded as the best successor to the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the lead dreamer in the tech industry.

The belief in and insistence on a long-term perspective can explain why Bezos is so obsessed with space travel and why he decides to build a secret company called Blue Origin. Now, several startups are using private money to make spaceships, and "Blue Origins" are one of them.

This may be a risky bet, but it is the same with many of Amazon's previous unconventional initiatives. Successful companies have always tended to be companies that are willing to explore uncharted territory, Bezos said. "Over time, companies that only know how to imitate will not behave well," he said. "he said.

Garage inventor

Amazon's corporate culture is largely influenced by Bezos's own life experience. Bezos, a graduate of computer science at Princeton University, went back to his alma mater last year to give a speech to his younger brother's school sisters, revealing some of the most insightful insights that he had as a successful entrepreneur. He explained that he had been a "garage inventor" since his youth, including a solar cooker made with an umbrella and foil paper, and an automatic closing device made from a tire filled with cement.

Although tooth is growing, the nature of love for invention does not leave Bezos. He has filed a patent application that involves a system of small airbags that can be integrated into smartphones so they don't get damaged when they hit the ground.

Bezos that as the company grows, there is a risk that the new ideas will be suppressed by the conservative management of the company and the attitude of security. "As you gain social cohesion, the price is at the expense of truth." "he said.

The best way to break this situation, Bezos, is for the company's leaders to encourage their employees to keep creating new ideas. "It's like muscle workout," he said. "he added. "Either you keep using your muscles or you become muscle-free." ”

For this, Amazon's unexpected foray into cloud computing is a testament to this. To deal with the huge amount of data created by the retail business, Amazon has devised ways to flexibly deploy its computing power, and the idea is that the same approach can be used to solve similar problems in other companies, with the result that Amazon Web Services was born.

The Amazon Network Service has been adopted by hundreds of thousands of companies, ranging from startups like the music streaming service Spotify to the well-known companies that have established themselves in their respective industries, such as the Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson.

Simple is perfect

Like Steve Jobs, Bezos has come to understand the importance of a consumer's position to consider how to develop High-tech products in the future.

For example, when designing the first Kindle E-book reader, Bezos insists that the device must be used without connecting to the computer, which means it must have a wireless connection. But at the same time, he wants the device to run anywhere, not just WiFi hotspots, and he hopes the E-book reader doesn't need a monthly contract.

The end result of Bezos's idea is that the Kindle team, at his urging, has devised a new business model, which is to sign an agreement with a mobile operator to allow Kindle users to download e-books without paying internet fees. For users, downloading e-books anywhere can make life easier for them and encourage them to buy more books. The Kindle is really an e-book reader yes, but it is also a portable "bookstore".

Similarly, when developing the Kindle Fire, Bezos realized that a tablet that was designed primarily for consumer entertainment content was not in itself, unless it had rich content. For other tablet makers, the question of how to get content may only be cryoff to think about what needs to be done, but not Amazon.

Like Apple, Amazon has integrated an ecosystem of books, apps, videos and music before launching its tablet products. In addition, Amazon can use the cross-subsidization from the sale of digital content to keep the Kindle fire at a lower price, compared to those who do not sell their content in the tablet manufacturers are not able to do this. For Bezos, this is another example of a "long-term perspective" that aims to turn the Kindle Fire into the ipad's main competitor.

Of course, both jobs and Bezos, the way forward is not always smooth, occasionally there will be a mistake. For example, who remembers "Amazon Auction"? Amazon auction, also known as the "Amapedia", is an attempt by the Amazons to build a user-created catalogue similar to Wikipedia's. In addition, there are a number of similar failure examples, Bezos has made bets on many new projects, but the final result is that these projects do not prove their value.

In a rapidly evolving and changing world, it is also very difficult to always stand on top. Amazon is making significant investments in a number of new business areas that have led to the company's earnings pressures that will inevitably make Bezos a target. Bezos's next attempt to subvert may be the smartphone industry, which may also enter the video streaming market and compete with Netflix, but it is also likely that he will open up an area that no one can anticipate.

Bezos has the patience of a different person, and he wants to create a business that makes it harder for rivals to launch a "reverse attack". As the "Blue Origin" and "Years Clock" investment show, "Go Far" is the real challenge for the Amazon boss.