What Jeff Bezos knows and what challenger brands can learn from it.

Today, as you most certainly know, Amazon bought online shoe powerhouse Zappos for over $900 million. Pretty cool.

Despite being the largest online retailer in the universe, Amazon has always kept an underdog mindset. This is demonstrated well by the video Jeff Bezos made for the employees of Zappos (and the rest of us). In it, he lays out "everything he knows."  It's a short list:

1. Obsess over customers.
2. Invent.
3. Think long term.
4. It's always day one.

The complete video is below and worth watching. But before we get to that, I want to make three thoughts of my own:

1) These  truisms are guideposts for every underdog brand, whether you're Zappos, rizen, or Joe's plumbing.

2) Isn't it amazing how simple and easy-to-understand "everything" Jeff Bezos know is? Life ain't that complicated. Business is even less so. Keep it simple and you'll be amazed how far it takes you.

3) Jeff's point #4 is like a self-help book in just four words. You are only trapped by the inertia of the status quo if you to choose to be. As Seth point's out, there are dozens of ways you can change everything. But it is up to you.

Here's Jeff's video. It's worth watching.