While the history and patterns of the stock market can certainly serve as a guide, and the market is known for its cyclicality, investing requires patience, consistency, and the fortitude to keep adding money to great companies in all types of environments. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) investors likely breathed a sigh of relief when its results for the first quarter of 2023 came out. Fast-forward to the first three months of this year, and Amazon's aggressive cost-cutting efforts -- which have included a series of major layoffs following supercharged hiring initiatives earlier in the pandemic -- look to be paying off.