Surrounded by huge twisted rocks, sagebrush and West Texas wilderness the cherry red helicopter lifted off the ground, tilted its rotors forward and struggled to rise into the air. The weight of Jeff and his four companions along with a full tank of fuel dragged it back toward earth. Then the tail section struck a scrubby tree and the helicopter staggered, caught one of its big toes in a mound of earth and lurched toward a creek. What final thoughts flashed through the founder of Amazon.com Jeff Bezos’ mind as the sounds of ripping metal filled his ears and flying dirt and rushing water filled his vision?
Few people have Jeff’s long-range vision, tenacity and relentless drive. In 1994 the Princeton graduate came across a shocking statistic: Users of the Internet were growing at a rate of 2300% a year. Working as a financial analyst with a healthy wage, Jeff spotted a unique opportunity. While traveling cross-country with his wife, he schemed up a way to turn the exploding new information pipeline into a tool to transform retailing operations worldwide. He’d start with selling books, since they were easy to store and ship, and then he’d grow from there into worldwide retail domination. Bezos worked on a “regret minimization” framework to guide his thoughts. He knew that if he stayed with his relatively comfortable career, he’d forever regret not taking this huge chance to win the future of retailing.
SIGHTS SET ON THE FUTURE
Moving cross-country to be near a major book distribution warehouse, working out of the garage in his house, using a desk made from an old door and with a website domain name of Relentless.com, Bezos set his sights on the future. In 1999, only five years removed from dragging books up the basement stairs and running them to the post office in his Chevy Blazer, Bezos’ company was already worth $1,000,000,000 but faced a difficult decision. They already planned on spending $240,000,000 to build four massive fulfillment warehouses, but what about an extra $60,000,000 for one more that all the critics and many top executives deemed unnecessary? But long-range thinkers don’t timidly bank on only the present, do they? Not only did they build 5 that year, but Amazon.com now has nearly 100 such centers and is steadily building more. One of the latest of these, opened in Maryland in September 2014, has 2.4 million square feet. That would house more than 1,500 identical replicas of my house — Jeff certainly doesn’t think small.
Not only does he not think small, but he also doesn’t think slowly. Amazon has a patent on technology that ships a product toward you before you know you want it. Their computers are busy watching what you’re shopping for, what you’ve already bought and how you’re likely to behave in the future. Armed with that knowledge, Amazon now can ship something you want to the nearest warehouse to your home even before you click the Buy button. And when you order, there are even jokes about Amazon’s Yesterday Shipping where a package arrives on your doorstep the day before you actually order. While that may be a joke, if you live in Manhattan, you may now select 1-hour shipping for a modest fee of $8. If you’re willing to wait two hours, you can get your product without any extra delivery charge.
While waiting 2 or 3 days to have your order filled seems like yesterday’s thinking, so does having UPS or the Postal Service drop the order off at your door. Just before Thanksgiving in 2013, Amazon announced it was testing the delivery of its packages using remote control flying drones. Regulatory bodies like the FAA in the U.S. haven’t signed off on the concept yet, but that doesn’t mean Amazon hasn’t gotten up to the eighth generation of its designs. Jeff seems to be looking past the slow-moving government bodies to the day when the little whirring rotors will whizz around your neighborhood. After all, who wants to wait in a day when books, music and movies are in our hands minutes after being discovered on Amazon.com? That sounds like impressive future vision to me. But is all that exciting focus on instant gratification subtly hiding something far more critical from your sight and Jeff’s?
A LONG-RANGE VISION
Jeff Bezos is famous for putting customers first in every discussion of company plans. In fact, his strategy sessions often include an empty chair which represents the Amazon customer. No long-range plan can leave the room if it hasn’t passed the inspection of the mythical customer in the empty chair. Jeff has a clear idea of what that person wants. That makes me wonder whether you have an “empty chair” at your table and a long-range vision as well. Do you relentlessly pursue the interests of the person you can’t see whose interests are absolutely essential to your long-term future? What place does Jesus Christ have in your life? None? An occasional Sunday service or a bowed head at a friend’s funeral? A general acknowledgement as a good Man who lived a long time ago? An occasional passionate reference when you stub your toe? Only a willingly ignorant person would deny the need to pay close attention to what God has to say. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 53:11<<To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.>> The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. (Psalm 53:1)).
Bezos has been known to shred executives that came unprepared to defend that unseen customer. According to Jeff Bezos, all of Amazon’s decisions flow from these fundamentals. In order to build durable plans, Bezos says, “What’s not going to change over the next 10 years is incredibly important. Ten years from now, customers will still want vast selection, low prices and fast, accurate delivery. In fact, it is impossible to imagine a world 10 years from now where customers will say, I love Amazon, but I wish your prices would be higher.” Jeff’s company turns 21 This year. If it were a male human, it wouldn’t even be able to get reasonable car insurance yet. His long term vision hasn’t yet built a fully mature adult. In fact, Jeff Bezos still refers to this as Day One of the Internet era. But he needs to see past the exciting changes in retailing, past his human customers and deeper into the future.
WHAT DOES GOD WANT?
So what does that unseen person you’re supposed to serve — God — want? Amazon paws through mountains of data to figure out what its unseen customer wants, but you don’t need to let it get that complicated. God’s given us a book, the Bible, with answers that even a small child could understand to the most fundamental long-range questions that can be asked. There may be a mountain of questions tumbling around in your head, but some of the deepest ones have simple answers that aren’t going to change in 10 years, a lifetime or an eternity. There’s a loving God who has a personal interest in you. Your relationship with Him has been ruptured by your sin. There’s a way back to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ’s suffering for sin on a cross. If you fail to deal with that fundamental reality due to shortsighted focus, your long-term prospects are incredibly sad. Open God’s Word and see what He has to say. You’ll be amazed to see what He sees in you. You’ll also be amazed to discover what it does to your long-term vision. “The word of God is [living], and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:12-1312For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:12‑13)).
“LIFE ETERNAL”
When Jeff Bezos’ cherry red helicopter spun out of control and rolled into the wilderness creek, did his life flash before him? Were there grand thoughts about what he was about to miss out on in life? With his signature monstrous laugh, Jeff answers that no, “I thought, what a dumb way to die!” Did he learn anything from his near-death moment? At least now he avoids riding in helicopters. But what about opening up his eyes to look past his very short-term life and into the unimaginably long eternity? I can find no indication that Jeff Bezos now views God as the important One he must serve. What about you? What lies after your death? If you allow the fog of daily life to block your vision about eternity, I could only agree with Jeff, “What a dumb way to die!” But if you open your heart to Jesus, the Son of God, you’ll discover “this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)). Will you regret taking the short-term view and turning down “eternal life”?
Read about how to have your long-term vision restored in Staring Down Blindness.