I recently rediscovered this great video from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In less than 8 minutes he reminisces about his launch out of his kitchen, and their first big mistake that actually let customers order a negative quantity of books to get credits to their account (ouch!), and offers to advice to startups and entrepreneurs everwhere. The video is worth the watch but to boil it down:

1. Obsess about the customer
2. Invent (they don’t just ship books…think Kindle, cloud computing, and more)
3. Think (and plan) for the long term

And perhaps his most important piece of advice offered at the very end, “It’s always day 1.”  Don’t lose that startup passion, excitement, or desire to think up new, big things.

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Kevin Kruse is a NY Times bestselling author and keynote speaker. Get more success and tips from his newsletter at kevinkruse.com and check out keynote video clips. His new book, Employee Engagement 2.0, teaches managers how to turn apathetic groups into emotionally committed teams.