4 ms·

>It's not like he was a rags to riches story, they virtually never are. >Bezos got hundreds of thousands of dollars in money from his parents still, going fro

>It's not like he was a rags to riches story, they virtually never are. >Bezos got hundreds of thousands of dollars in money from his parents still, going from e.g 600k (300k in 94) to trillion dollar company is impressive as hell how many startups do receive way, way more than that and fail?

marricks 4y ago
I didn't say it wasn't impressive but it's as impressive as... watching someone win the Squid Games by backstabbing everyone else? I don't think it deserves any applause or proves anything.
nwienert 4y ago
We don’t really know how impressive it is, a lot of founders made it huge in that golden time period even for terrible ideas that died shortly after, and network effects always crown one or two as massively disproportionate winners in each area. If you acknowledge that timing, connections, background and network effects dominate the equation (if Bezos was 2 years late, is there any doubt there’d be a “different” one?), you realize there’s something gross about how wealth is distributed.
- sahila 4y ago
  There’s definitely doubt about another Amazon appearing! Sure we might get a dominating e-store that sells goods, that’s easy to imagine. But that same company also creating the largest cloud provider, being the largest distributor, going international, creating the kindle, now property acquisition, and so on. Yeah I do doubt there’d be another Amazon.
  - nwienert 4y ago
    AWS wasn't Bezos, it was a whole squad of Amazon execs and employees and an idea that formed over a long time period through many people, if anything it proves the opposite point that he deserves outsize rewards. The rest of the success makes a ton of sense in context (Kindle and distribution from becoming the network-effect winning e-commerce store/bookstore).
- AussieWog93 4y ago
  >if Bezos was 2 years late, is there any doubt there’d be a “different” one? Bezos was 25 years late to Australia, and still nobody put together a business like his during that 2-decade gap. Kogan had some of the successful elements, but it's nothing like Amazon US.
  - MichaelZuo 4y ago
    This is a very good point. And Australia is not some tiny market and has what appears to be competent businessmen
beepbooptheory 4y ago
Sure, but the impressiveness scales logarithmically here.
coliveira 4y ago
> how many startups do receive way, way more than that and fail? There is always the assumption that people failed because they're stupid, and some people succeed because they're genius. This is nonsense. Of course Dr Evil, I mean, Bezos, has a strong work ethic, intelligence, and business drive, but this is not guarantee of anything. He was doing the right thing at the right time, period. He got billions of dollars to apply a business strategy that worked well for the market conditions, but this is not because he is so different from other business people.
- tester756 4y ago
  >but this is not because he is so different from other business people. What makes you think so?
  - nitwit005 4y ago
    It's possible he's special, but you often see the pattern that someone starts a highly successful company, but then go on to start other companies that don't do well. That they can't replicate their success suggests luck or circumstance was involved. And there is always the possibility that the CEO wasn't the one to make the company successful. A company isn't one person.
  - TapWaterBandit 4y ago
    Mainly because some people loathe the idea that they aren't entitled to a share of what Bezos created so they prefer to view his success as something anyone could have done if only for xyz.
- criley2 4y ago
  Honestly, I don't know if I buy it. Even today, when I buy online from a small business, it's normal to wait 3-5 business days for the order to be processed and a shipping label to be created, 1-2 days for the product to enter shipping system, and 3-5 more days for delivery. I routinely wait 2-3 weeks for popular stuff from decently big websites that are clearly 10000000X smaller than Amazon. Meanwhile, Amazon hits same day and next day shipping all the time zero issue. Amazon wasn't the right thing at the right time. It imagined a different type of delivery that no one else today gets anywhere near. Amazon is to delivery what Apple is to hardware. It's different and not repeatable no matter who tries. I try to support smaller shops all the time, but it's definitely frustrating to wait 2-3 weeks on a delivery that know Amazon will next day to me. Shout out to local pet foodstore hollywood feed which puts a branded car at each location and does physical deliveries. Y'all beat Amazon with a 30 minute delivery. Can't argue with results.
selcuka 4y ago
> how many startups do receive way, way more than that and fail? This is not the right way to look at it. In a competitive market obviously only a few, or one will survive. The point is, how many "rags to riches" startup can you think of? The ones with founders who did not have a safety net. The 600k (or 300k in 94) is immaterial, he could have also done it with zero capital. What matters is he was able to take risks because of his family's safety net. He would never be homeless if he failed. The risks he could take were very different than one who refinanced their home to fund their startup.
- SnowHill9902 4y ago
  So let him thank his parents. What’s the problem? Are you suggesting that everyone should average down to being poor? Children are an extension of their parents. Genetically and socially.
  - selcuka 4y ago
    I'm suggesting that ignoring the role of their parents is hypocrisy.

marricks 4y ago

I didn't say it wasn't impressive but it's as impressive as... watching someone win the Squid Games by backstabbing everyone else? I don't think it deserves any applause or proves anything.

nwienert 4y ago

We don’t really know how impressive it is, a lot of founders made it huge in that golden time period even for terrible ideas that died shortly after, and network effects always crown one or two as massively disproportionate winners in each area. If you acknowledge that timing, connections, background and network effects dominate the equation (if Bezos was 2 years late, is there any doubt there’d be a “different” one?), you realize there’s something gross about how wealth is distributed.

sahila 4y ago
There’s definitely doubt about another Amazon appearing! Sure we might get a dominating e-store that sells goods, that’s easy to imagine. But that same company also creating the largest cloud provider, being the largest distributor, going international, creating the kindle, now property acquisition, and so on. Yeah I do doubt there’d be another Amazon.
- nwienert 4y ago
  AWS wasn't Bezos, it was a whole squad of Amazon execs and employees and an idea that formed over a long time period through many people, if anything it proves the opposite point that he deserves outsize rewards. The rest of the success makes a ton of sense in context (Kindle and distribution from becoming the network-effect winning e-commerce store/bookstore).
AussieWog93 4y ago
>if Bezos was 2 years late, is there any doubt there’d be a “different” one? Bezos was 25 years late to Australia, and still nobody put together a business like his during that 2-decade gap. Kogan had some of the successful elements, but it's nothing like Amazon US.
- MichaelZuo 4y ago
  This is a very good point. And Australia is not some tiny market and has what appears to be competent businessmen

beepbooptheory 4y ago

Sure, but the impressiveness scales logarithmically here.

coliveira 4y ago

> how many startups do receive way, way more than that and fail? There is always the assumption that people failed because they're stupid, and some people succeed because they're genius. This is nonsense. Of course Dr Evil, I mean, Bezos, has a strong work ethic, intelligence, and business drive, but this is not guarantee of anything. He was doing the right thing at the right time, period. He got billions of dollars to apply a business strategy that worked well for the market conditions, but this is not because he is so different from other business people.

tester756 4y ago
>but this is not because he is so different from other business people. What makes you think so?
- nitwit005 4y ago
  It's possible he's special, but you often see the pattern that someone starts a highly successful company, but then go on to start other companies that don't do well. That they can't replicate their success suggests luck or circumstance was involved. And there is always the possibility that the CEO wasn't the one to make the company successful. A company isn't one person.
- TapWaterBandit 4y ago
  Mainly because some people loathe the idea that they aren't entitled to a share of what Bezos created so they prefer to view his success as something anyone could have done if only for xyz.
criley2 4y ago
Honestly, I don't know if I buy it. Even today, when I buy online from a small business, it's normal to wait 3-5 business days for the order to be processed and a shipping label to be created, 1-2 days for the product to enter shipping system, and 3-5 more days for delivery. I routinely wait 2-3 weeks for popular stuff from decently big websites that are clearly 10000000X smaller than Amazon. Meanwhile, Amazon hits same day and next day shipping all the time zero issue. Amazon wasn't the right thing at the right time. It imagined a different type of delivery that no one else today gets anywhere near. Amazon is to delivery what Apple is to hardware. It's different and not repeatable no matter who tries. I try to support smaller shops all the time, but it's definitely frustrating to wait 2-3 weeks on a delivery that know Amazon will next day to me. Shout out to local pet foodstore hollywood feed which puts a branded car at each location and does physical deliveries. Y'all beat Amazon with a 30 minute delivery. Can't argue with results.

selcuka 4y ago

> how many startups do receive way, way more than that and fail? This is not the right way to look at it. In a competitive market obviously only a few, or one will survive. The point is, how many "rags to riches" startup can you think of? The ones with founders who did not have a safety net. The 600k (or 300k in 94) is immaterial, he could have also done it with zero capital. What matters is he was able to take risks because of his family's safety net. He would never be homeless if he failed. The risks he could take were very different than one who refinanced their home to fund their startup.

SnowHill9902 4y ago
So let him thank his parents. What’s the problem? Are you suggesting that everyone should average down to being poor? Children are an extension of their parents. Genetically and socially.
- selcuka 4y ago
  I'm suggesting that ignoring the role of their parents is hypocrisy.