5 ms·

Love him or hate him, Jeff Bezos has been a legendary figure in the world of business for over 25 years now. His focus on the long term has led to the tremendo

Love him or hate him, Jeff Bezos has been a legendary figure in the world of business for over 25 years now. His focus on the long term has led to the tremendous success Amazon has undergone. When he started selling just books, he was laughed at by some people; but he had a why behind starting off with books. One thing is certain, Bezos has stayed consistent on his principles. His annual letters to his shareholders contain a lot of business wisdom. I wrote about him covering the theme: Thinking as a means of leverage in https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/jeff-bezos-amazon-and-thinking-as https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/jeff-bezos-amazon-an...

tomcam 6y ago
I was there as a developer and a consumer. I don’t remember anyone laughing at him for selling books. It was an obvious play to most of us.
- mr_toad 6y ago
  Back before the .com crash Amazon was one of the few .coms with an actual business plan.
- maverickJ 6y ago
  There were those who saw his play. However there was another group of people that wondered the Amazon approach at that time.
- bhupy 6y ago
  Obviously Amazon employees would be bought in. It was people on the outside that laughed at him: https://twitter.com/jimpethokoukis/status/1231245913764638720 https://twitter.com/jimpethokoukis/status/123124591376463872...
chrshawkes 6y ago
BS dude. He wasn't laughed at. The man went to Princeton. Right next to other billionaires like Andy Florence. His family was rich etc... He was already a millionaire. It's not a rags-to-riches story by any stretch.
- maverickJ 6y ago
  Some did. It's quite easy using hindsight bias to see how everything worked out.
- paxys 6y ago
  He went to Princeton because he was smart, not because his family was rich. It isn't a school of billionaires or something. The majority of Ivy League enrollment is regular kids from working class families. They all have the best need-based scholarship programs in the country. His dad was a Cuban immigrant who worked as an engineer at Exxon.
  - barry-cotter 6y ago
    > The median family income of a student from Princeton is $186,100, and 72% come from the top 20 percent. About 1.3% of students at Princeton came from a poor family but became a rich adult. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/princeton-university https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobilit...
    - paxys 6y ago
      $180K is like 1-1.5x the median family income in a high CoL area in the US, so that's actually about what in line with what I would expect. You're not poor, sure, but it's not close to the kind of rich the original comment is implying when clubbing him with billionaires. A kid whose family earns $186K/yr isn't exactly on the fast track to becoming the next Jeff Bezos.
      - ineedasername 6y ago
        About the fast track portion sure, but otherwise, really, no. The median household income in NYC is about $100,000. San Francisco is about $90,000. Even at the high end of your estimate that's falling up to 25% short of $180k. Also it's really not proper to take the highest cost of living areas in this situation and say "it's okay they're kind of close to $180,000!" Taking the outliers as examples to support the idea that the average family meets it is close to the median is really a bad comparison. Most of the country doesn't live in those areas. It would only be an appropriate comparison if Princeton received most if their students from those areas, and they don't.
milchek 6y ago
I'm curious, what was the reason for starting with books?
- willhslade 6y ago
  There are a million titles, so no physical store will be able to compete with a warehouse. There are no refrigeration or unusual logistics with books. They are fungible: generally speaking, one book is as good as another, identical book.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  Profit margin and ability to ship/store easily.
- iamacyborg 6y ago
  Something other folks haven’t mentioned yet but it also means direct access to middle class households which are more likely to be buying books.
- hehehaha 6y ago
  It’s quite simple: generally standardized product sizes and media mail. Don’t think it’s farfetched to say Amazon benefited greatly from USPS in its early days.

tomcam 6y ago

I was there as a developer and a consumer. I don’t remember anyone laughing at him for selling books. It was an obvious play to most of us.

mr_toad 6y ago
Back before the .com crash Amazon was one of the few .coms with an actual business plan.
maverickJ 6y ago
There were those who saw his play. However there was another group of people that wondered the Amazon approach at that time.
bhupy 6y ago
Obviously Amazon employees would be bought in. It was people on the outside that laughed at him: https://twitter.com/jimpethokoukis/status/1231245913764638720 https://twitter.com/jimpethokoukis/status/123124591376463872...

chrshawkes 6y ago

BS dude. He wasn't laughed at. The man went to Princeton. Right next to other billionaires like Andy Florence. His family was rich etc... He was already a millionaire. It's not a rags-to-riches story by any stretch.

maverickJ 6y ago
Some did. It's quite easy using hindsight bias to see how everything worked out.
paxys 6y ago
He went to Princeton because he was smart, not because his family was rich. It isn't a school of billionaires or something. The majority of Ivy League enrollment is regular kids from working class families. They all have the best need-based scholarship programs in the country. His dad was a Cuban immigrant who worked as an engineer at Exxon.
- barry-cotter 6y ago
  > The median family income of a student from Princeton is $186,100, and 72% come from the top 20 percent. About 1.3% of students at Princeton came from a poor family but became a rich adult. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/princeton-university https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobilit...
  - paxys 6y ago
    $180K is like 1-1.5x the median family income in a high CoL area in the US, so that's actually about what in line with what I would expect. You're not poor, sure, but it's not close to the kind of rich the original comment is implying when clubbing him with billionaires. A kid whose family earns $186K/yr isn't exactly on the fast track to becoming the next Jeff Bezos.
    - ineedasername 6y ago
      About the fast track portion sure, but otherwise, really, no. The median household income in NYC is about $100,000. San Francisco is about $90,000. Even at the high end of your estimate that's falling up to 25% short of $180k. Also it's really not proper to take the highest cost of living areas in this situation and say "it's okay they're kind of close to $180,000!" Taking the outliers as examples to support the idea that the average family meets it is close to the median is really a bad comparison. Most of the country doesn't live in those areas. It would only be an appropriate comparison if Princeton received most if their students from those areas, and they don't.

milchek 6y ago

I'm curious, what was the reason for starting with books?

willhslade 6y ago
There are a million titles, so no physical store will be able to compete with a warehouse. There are no refrigeration or unusual logistics with books. They are fungible: generally speaking, one book is as good as another, identical book.
searchableguy 6y ago
Profit margin and ability to ship/store easily.
iamacyborg 6y ago
Something other folks haven’t mentioned yet but it also means direct access to middle class households which are more likely to be buying books.
hehehaha 6y ago
It’s quite simple: generally standardized product sizes and media mail. Don’t think it’s farfetched to say Amazon benefited greatly from USPS in its early days.