The first book I ordered on Amazon made Amazon lose money.

In 2001, I had come from Pune to our San Jose office on Zanker Road.

That is where I placed my first internet order: an Oracle-branded ball pen from Amazon. Excited by the experience, the next day, I tried to order a book—Neither Here nor There by Bill Bryson—to send to my ex-boss in Mumbai. BPL would have loved that book.

Shipping to India wasn’t possible then, so I gave up.
The next day, the book appeared on my desk. I checked my bank account—Amazon had charged me. I was furious. I hadn’t placed that order.

I lodged a complaint. That same evening, a person called—a Category/Product Manager (title aside, someone showing real concern). 
I explained I hadn’t ordered the book. He checked my activity and said I must have clicked “Easy Order,” a one-click path to my default address and card.

After a few seconds of silence, he said: “No worries. I’m reversing the transaction. You’ll see the amount credited by tomorrow morning. Sometimes our customers make a genuine mistake. And we understand that.”

I asked how to return the book. He said: “No need. Treat it like a small gift from Amazon.” The refund hit my account the next morning.
That "Obsess over Customers" was not just a slogan.

In 2024 I had a chance to walk around downtown Seattle looking at Amazon offices. All their office buildings are tall towers: Day1, Doppler, Re-Invent, etc.
And then I came across the LowFlyingHawk tower.
LowFlyingHawk was Amazon’s early AWS customer. Early, vocal, demanding, at times nagging. But at the same time, an extremely valuable customer.

Which company calls its office tower after an early customer?

Later, much later, I worked for an Indian conglomerate that entered the telecom sector late and rose to the top.
At this company also, empowerment wasn’t a slogan on the wall; it was the DNA.