Jeff Bezos’s two pieces of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

“The advice that I would give entrepreneurs is don't chase the hot new thing. It's so hard to catch something that everybody already knows is hot. Instead, position yourself and wait for the wave to come to you.”

The best way to position yourself, Jeff argues, is to pursue something that captures your curiosity. When Amazon startup, Jeff always asks himself if the founder is a “missionary” or a “mercenary.”

“I don't like mercenaries, and I don't like mercenary cultures. The missionary is building the product, building the service, because they love the customer, because they love the product, because they love the service. The mercenary is building the product or the service so that they can flip the company and make money.”

One of the great paradoxes of entrepreneurship is that the missionaries usually end up making more money than the mercenaries anyways.

After you’ve picked something you’re passionate about, Jeff’s second piece of advice is:

“Start with the customer and work backwards… Those two things will take you an awfully long way.”

Full video: Utah Technology Council “UTC 2012 Hall of Fame - Jeff Bezos Keynote“ (Nov 2012)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Jeff Bezos insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Jeff Bezos"