Jeff Bezos – First Thing to Do Before Starting a Startup

“The blank sheet of paper stage is one of the hardest stages. One of the reasons it’s so difficult is because, at that point, there’s nobody counting on you but yourself. It’s really just you. You can quit at any time, and nobody’s going to care. So, you start by doing the simple things first. You want to start a company? Well, the first thing you should do is write a business plan.”

Before founding Amazon, Jeff wrote a 30-page business plan. He explains why:

“The business plan won’t survive its first encounters with reality… Reality will never align with the plan. But the discipline of writing the plan forces you to think through some of the issues and get mentally comfortable in the space. You begin to realize that if you push on one part, something else will shift. So, that’s the first step.”