That dichotomy originated with now former board member John Doerr, who formulated it after reading his partner Randy Komisar’s 2001 business-philosophy book The Monk and the Riddle. Missionaries have righteous goals and are trying to make the world a better place. Mercenaries are out for money and power and will run over anyone who gets in the way. To Bezos, at least, there was no doubt where Amazon fell. “I would take a missionary over a mercenary any day,” he liked to say. “One of those great paradoxes is that it’s usually the missionaries who end up making more money anyway.”2
I found this interesting since I would consider Amazon the mercenary.
