"In the very earliest days, I'm taking you back to 1995, when we started posting customer reviews, a customer might trash a book, and the publisher wouldn't like it. I would get letters from publishers saying, "Why do you allow negative reviews on your website? Why don't you just show the positive reviews?" One letter, in particular, said, "Maybe you don't understand your business. You make money when you sell things.

I thought to myself, we don't make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions." -Jeff Bezos

This is a wonderful example of reframing. Amazon is successful because Bezos reframed their purpose using a customer-centric lens. Great leaders are excellent at reframing.

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being a force of nature, instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch, which I've got held up for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." - George Bernard Shaw

That is a beautiful quote. I like how it follows the quote on reframing. Shaw provides an excellent lens to view our lives. Are you living a life of mighty purpose? Will what you do today impact future generations?

"Dips buy on dips. "-David Gardner

Quote later amended to "Dips wait for dips."

This is perhaps the most controversial David Gardner quote. It is often taken out of context, so David recently replaced "buy on" with "wait for."

Similar to Bezos, David is reframing how we invest. If you are obsessing over the stock price, you are focusing on the wrong thing. Focus on owning great businesses for a long time.

"Make a commitment to the companies that you want to own. Not the stocks that you're going to buy on dips. Be an investor, not a share price guesser." -DG

"There goes many a ship to sea, with many a hundred souls in one ship. A true picture of a commonwealth, or a human combination, or society. Papists and Protestants, Jews and Turks, may be embarked into one ship. All the liberty of conscience that ever I pleaded for turns upon these two hinges: that none of the Papists, Protestants, Jews, or Turks be forced to come to the ship's prayers or worship; nor, secondly, compelled from their own particular prayers or worship. I never denied that, notwithstanding this liberty, the commander of this ship ought to command the ship's course, yea, and also, if any seamen refused to perform their service, or passengers to pay their freight, if any refused to obey the common laws and orders of the ship, concerning their common peace and preservation, if any shall preach or write that there ought to be no commanders nor officers because all are equal in Christ, therefore no masters nor officers, no laws nor orders, no corrections nor punishments, I say I never denied. But in such cases, the commander or commanders may judge, resist, compel, and punish such transgressors." - Roger Williams

"… that sentiment that Williams had and possessed, and in some ways died for, dedicated his life to -- it's really at the heart of the founding of our country. It's about what are your rights versus mine, and it's a conversation that'll continue … Just think about that big ship that we're all on together as we go out to sea, and what are our responsibilities and what are not." -DG

"Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." -Unknown (often attributed to Lincoln or Churchill)

David never hides from his losing stock picks. He often highlights the number of picks that have lost to the market.

Why does he do this? Because his ability to fail enables him to win and win big. One big winner can wipe away several losers. Resilience in stock picking and life will serve you well.

"The secret here, as Rule Breakers, is that we lose to win." - DG

Reference: Great Quotes, Vol. 10: Don't be a Dip