????沒人比杰夫?貝佐斯自己更明白亞馬遜這種文化可能具有的潛在破壞性。在這本書中，斯通首次重磅披露了一份貝佐斯寫給公司管理團隊的備忘錄，名字叫“亞馬遜—愛”。貝佐斯研究了為什么有些公司【比如蘋果、耐克（Nike）、迪士尼（Disney）和谷歌（Google）】受人喜愛，而令一些公司【比如沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart）、微軟（Microsoft）、高盛（Goldman Sachs）和埃克森美孚（Exxon Mobil）】就不那么招人喜歡。斯通還在書中貼出了貝佐斯制作的一張表，表上羅列了他認為導致人們的這種感知的一些特質，比如“打敗小蝦米沒什么了不起的”，“打敗更大的、不討人喜歡的家伙才了不起”等。這張表和貝佐斯的這種做法非常有意思，因為它展示了貝佐斯超理性的一面與他的分析能力。同時這份文件也明白無誤地暗示了貝佐斯的結論：亞馬遜要明白如何展現出那些“酷”的特質，好讓公司討人喜歡，而不是招人厭惡。最后他建議由一名“有想法的副總”去研究這個問題。

????其實，這本書對亞馬遜并不是只有負面的描述，只有這些爆料才是。書中的其余部分全面描述了貝佐斯是打造這家公司的歷程，以及他的商業戰略戰術，他的招聘方法，他搞定華爾街、開拓新市場的過程。從書中來看，貝佐斯就像一塊信息的海綿，一個不恥下問的人，甚至愿意接近經驗老道的競爭對手，從他們身上汲取知識。（這也是貝佐斯與喬布斯共有的特質之一，讀這本書的時候也不禁讓我們惆悵喬幫主的英年早逝，否則我們還能看到這兩位豪杰斗智斗勇的場面。）對于任何一個行業的企業家和管理人員來說，不管他們想不想模仿亞馬遜的文化，這本書對他們仍然很有吸引力。如果你不了解貝佐斯的故事，那么可以說你現在還沒有真正了解創立或運作一家企業所要付出的代價。

????對于一直非常關注亞馬遜的人來說，書中也有一些細節是他們之前就已經了解了的。我在2012年《財富》的一篇封面報道中就提到過貝佐斯要求亞馬遜的高管團隊在每次會議開始前要準備6頁紙的備忘錄，然后在會議剛開始時，整個管理團隊都在一片寂靜中默默地讀材料。另外彼得?艾爾金也曾在《財富》的一篇文章中寫過亞馬遜的避稅策略，他的描寫要比斯通更加詳細。斯通就職的《彭博商業周刊》（Businessweek）也從斯通的書中摘錄了一段關于貝佐斯生父的秘聞。

????從總體上，斯通的這本傳記對貝佐斯和亞馬遜公司的描寫比很多雜志文章都有過之而無不及。從斯通的筆觸中可以看出，貝佐斯可能有冷酷的一面，但他同時也是個魅力十足的人，而且心地也非常善良。在亞馬遜工作雖然要吃不少苦頭，但是在斯通的書中，很多員工也把在亞馬遜工作的經歷稱作職業生涯最有收獲的日子——這一點也和喬布斯的蘋果公司給人的感覺很像。

????亞馬遜已經成了這個時代最出色的公司之一，貝佐斯也是當代最杰出的商人之一。無論這家公司，還是這個男人，兩者現在都正值盛年，未來還有多年的廣闊作為。現在他們也有一本能夠配得上他們份量的傳記了。（財富中文網）

????譯者：樸成奎???

????No one is more aware of the potentially damaging aspects of Amazon's culture than Jeff Bezos himself. In the most shocking revelation in his meticulously reported book, Stone gets hold of a memo Bezos wrote for his management team titled "Amazon.love." Bezos sought to analyze why some companies, like Apple, Nike, Disney, and Google, are loved and others, including Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and Exxon Mobil are not. Stone publishes an entire spreadsheet in which Bezos listed some of the qualities that drive these perceptions, such as "Defeating tiny guys is not cool," and "Defeating bigger, unsympathetic guys is cool." The list and the entire exercise are fascinating because they show Bezos's ultra-rational and analytical mind in action. The document also lays bare Bezos's implied conclusion: Amazon needs to figure out how toappear to embrace the cool qualities that will allow it to be loved and not hated. He ends by suggesting that a "thoughtful VP" study the matter.

????Not everything in this book paints Amazon in a negative light -- just the juiciest stuff. The rest of the book is a thorough explication of how Bezos built the company, his strategic and tactical methods, his approach to hiring, how Amazon navigated Wall Street, and how it approaches new markets. It shows Bezos to be a sponge for information, and a fearless inquisitor, approaching even seasoned competitors to soak up knowledge from them. (This is one of the many qualities Bezos shares with Jobs, and reading this book is another opportunity to lament that Jobs isn't still around so that we could watch these two gladiators go after each other.) Whether or not they want their companies to emulate Amazon's culture, entrepreneurs and managers from any industry will want to read this book. If you aren't up to speed on the Bezos playbook, then you aren't current with what it takes to start or run or a business.

????Not everything in this book will be new to the careful student of Amazon. In a Fortune cover story in 2012, I wrote about the six-page narratives that Bezos requires Amazon executives to prepare for meetings and that are then read, in study-hall-like silence, at the meeting's outset.Peter Elkind's exhaustive article about Amazon's tax-collection dodging, also in Fortune, is more detailed than Stone's. And Stone's own employer, Bloomberg Businessweek, scooped some of the choicest revelations about Bezos's biological father in a long excerpt from his book.

????In its totality, however, Stone's book delivers so much more on the man and the company than can fit in even many magazine articles. Bezos may be ruthless, but he also is charming and genuinely kind-hearted, according to Stone's telling. Amazon is a tough place to work, yet Stone describes many employees calling their time there the most rewarding of their careers -- another echo of the Steve Jobs/Apple experience.

????Amazon has become one of the leading companies of our day and Bezos one of the most outstanding business leaders. The company and man -- each of which have years of productivity ahead of them -- now have a book that equals their achievements.