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@ O.M
2025-04-17 06:16:21In business, investing, and personal goals, it’s easy to obsess over outcomes: - How many sales did I make? - How high is my stock price? - How much money did I earn this month?
But if you focus too much on outputs, you risk chasing results without improving the process that actually creates success.
The best leaders — like Jeff Bezos — follow a simple but powerful principle:
Focus daily on controllable inputs. The outputs will follow naturally over time.
Let’s break down what this means, why it works, and how you can apply it to build long-term success.
🧠 What Does "Focus on Inputs" Mean?
Inputs = Actions you control directly: - Customer service quality - Product development speed - Operational efficiency - Attention to detail in execution
Outputs = Results you want but can’t control directly: - Revenue - Profits - Stock price - Market share
Key idea:
👉 When you relentlessly improve the inputs, you set the stage for outstanding outputs over time.
🚀 How Jeff Bezos Used Input Focus to Build Amazon
At Amazon, Bezos hardwired this mindset into the company:
- Teams weren’t told to "increase revenue."
- They were told to improve customer satisfaction, reduce delivery times, and expand product selection.
- Amazon focused on input metrics like:
- Time from customer click to shipment
- Product availability rates
- Number of customer complaints
By perfecting these controllable actions every day, sales and stock price naturally exploded over time.
💬 As Bezos put it:
"We can’t guarantee the stock price will go up, but we can guarantee that customers will love us if we execute on the right inputs."
📈 Why Focusing on Inputs Wins Over Time
✅ Inputs are under your direct control.
You can’t control customer behavior or market swings — but you can control how you perform daily tasks.✅ Good inputs compound over time.
Small daily improvements (like better service or faster shipping) build massive trust and long-term loyalty.✅ Outputs are lagging indicators.
If you chase outputs alone, you’re reacting to the past. Input focus keeps you proactive.✅ Stress and emotional swings decrease.
Instead of riding the highs and lows of every result, you stay calm and centered on today’s actions.
📚 Resources to Learn More
- 📄 Jeff Bezos on Input Metrics – Harvard Business Review
- 📚 How Focusing on Inputs Drives Success – Motley Fool
- 📘 James Clear on Goals vs Systems
🛠 How to Apply "Input Focus" in Your Own Work
✅ 1. Define Your Key Inputs
Ask yourself:
"What daily actions, if consistently improved, would lead to my goals?"
Examples: - Salesperson: Focus on number of quality client calls, not sales closed. - Writer: Focus on daily word count, not bestseller lists. - Startup founder: Focus on product iterations, not initial user growth.
✅ 2. Track Inputs, Not Just Outputs
Build habits around measuring what you control:
"Did I deliver 5 demos today?" "Did I ship a new feature this week?" "Did I respond to every customer ticket within 2 hours?"
✅ 3. Trust the Process
Results don’t show up instantly.
Stay consistent.
Refine your inputs.
Good outputs are a lagging reward for great daily actions.
📣 Final Thought
Outputs are loud.
They grab headlines.
They create FOMO.But inputs are where real power lies.
"Be obsessed with the process, and the results will take care of themselves."
Follow the principle that helped Amazon become a trillion-dollar company:
🎯 Control your inputs. Trust the compounding. Let success chase you. 🚀