Getting to the Top of your Industry is difficult – Staying There is Really, Really Difficult

Just a quick observation:

So, I was reading the Annual Letter to Shareholders by Jeff Bezos, Amazon.  On Business Insider, Jeff Bezos: This Is Why I’m Hot by Joshua Brown, described it this way:

Jeff’s letter to shareholders – in which he reaffirms the company’s focus on it’s customer and not them – is a fantastic piece of mission statement-craft. It will educate you as to how the company is and always has been oriented, it may even inspire you to think about some of these ideas for your own business or daily practices.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (Reuters)

Mr. Bezos attached, “as always,” his 1997 letter.  Here’s a line from this 1997 letter:

We established long-term relationships with many important strategic partners, including America Online, Yahoo!, Excite, Netscape, GeoCities, AltaVista, @Home, and Prodigy.

In 1997 I was not an Amazon customer.  I was using Netscape, and I remember GeoCities, and Prodigy…  Today, I am using Amazon, pretty much more than once a day, and the others…  well, distant memories…

So, my simple observation, which we all already knew:

It is really hard to get to the top in your industry. Staying there is even more challenging..