Amazon.com - 20 years of Advance

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) has an impressive stock price history - perhaps one of the greatest over the past two decades. After accounting for three stock splits, Amazon's shares have advanced from $1.50 in May 1997 to near $1,000 today - a 66,600%.

Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they may want to buy online. The company lists unique items in categories such as books, music, DVDs, videos, consumer electronics, toys, camera and photo items, software, computer and video games, tools and hardware, lawn and patio items, kitchen products, and wireless products.

Amazon’s team remains heads-down and focused on customers. In the last few months, the online retail giant launched Echo Show, introduced calling and messaging via Alexa on all Echo devices, debuted Inside Edge on Prime Video (the first of 18 Indian Original Series), introduced Amazon Channels in both the U.K. and Germany, launched four new Fire tablets, expanded Amazon Fresh to Germany, launched Prime Now in Singapore, launched its 25th airplane with Prime Air, hired more than 30,000 new employees, opened three new Amazon Books stores, launched more than 400 significant Amazon Web Services (AWS) features and services, migrated more than 7,000 databases using AWS Database Migration Service, and held its third annual Prime Day, signing up more Prime members than ever before.

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.

As you can see, the company seems unstoppable, therefore you can learn an important lesson: Invest in the business, not stocks; keep holding it so long as the business, not the stock, continues performing in accordance to what you're comfortable with; be patient and steady. If Amazon ever becomes a trillion-dollar company, you'll be reading about an accomplishment that you might only see once or twice during your life. But you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who has been able to hold onto their shares for the entire ride.