All of us have used Amazon.com at some point or the other.
Here is a vey interesting story divided into two parts:
Not to make the article too long i am only posting the first part today ...the story of the man who created Amazon.The second part which is about innovative practices of Amazon will be posted tomorrow.
Please read to find the VISION, THE CREATIVE EYE, THE EYE TO SEE THE GROWTH IN AN INCONCEIVABLE IDEA..AN IDEA WHICH SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE...AND THEN A DARING HEART TO INVEST IN IT WHEN ONE IS NOT EVEN 30 .
Try and read the last paragraph again over and over ..it is just so inspiring.
1. About the man who created Amazon.
Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born in New Mexico when his mother was just 17. Jeff never met his biological father. When Jeff was four, his mother married Miguel Bezos, an Exxon engineer from Cuba. The family moved to Miami, Florida, where Jeff attended high school.
From the beginning Bezos was something of a wizkid. He transformed the family garage into a makeshift laboratory where he conducted many experiments including a solar microwave, burglar alarm, infinity cube and countless others. In high school, Bezos fell in love with computers and was valedictorian of his class.
Bezos entered Princeton University to study physics, but soon returned to his first love, computers, and graduated with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering.
He was quickly recruited by several companies after his graduation, and eventually settled on Fitel, a start-up financial telecommunications firm. Bezos rose rapidly to the top, becoming an associate director just nine months after he was hired.
After two years Bezos left Fitel for Bankers Trust Company, where he oversaw the development of a program BTWorld – a software program that allowed the company's customers to check the performance of their pension plans.
It came as no surprise to anyone when Bezos became vice-president at 26, the youngest individual to do so. Soon after, Bezos joined D. E. Shaw & Co. as a hedge fund manager. Again, he quickly rose to the position of senior vice-president, and again at 28 Bezos became the youngest person in the company's history to attain such a high post.
In 1994, Internet commerce (e-commerce) was miniscule. One day in the spring of 1994, Bezos who was already crazy about computers observed that Internet usage was increasing geometrically and more and more people were getting excited about its astounding commercial possibilities. A few inventors were already trying to make use of the new technology. Bezos saw an opportunity for a new sphere of commerce, and immediately began considering the possibilities. The thought foremost in his mind: "What is it that users cannot get easily offline that will sell online?"
There were several congruent factors at play now. Internet usage was growing fast. PCs and laptops were exploding. People were hungry for information online. Payment mechanisms (albeit still with security problems) were falling into place. The government was supportive and wanted the Internet to be a driver of America's new economy as the smokestacks of Detroit declined. The technology was there: Intel, Microsoft and others were creating faster and more user-friendly computers. Everything was falling into place at the same time.
Bezos now started researching the Internet systematically. He asked himself: which business could be conducted more efficiently over the Internet than by traditional means? He drew a list of about 20 products which could be effectively serviced by the Internet, but the one that stayed with him was % books.
At the time no comprehensive online catalogue of books existed. The list would be just too big to post. It dawned on Bezos that
1.The situation was perfect for the Internet which could share a vast database with a virtually limitless number of people.
2.Bezos found that although major book wholesalers already had compiled an electronic list of their inventory they had no single location where users could browse the complete collection and place orders directly.
3.He further discovered that as there was no single bookstore large enough to stock all the titles available in print, the market wasn't dominated by any one player.
That was the eureka moment for Bezos. He realized that unlike traditional retailers, a virtual book retailer would have limited overhead by cutting down on storage and book store cost . This would also enable it to offer a much larger catalog of books in print and the customer could order them online which would save them time, money and energy.
D. E. Shaw & Co. where 29-year-old Bezos then worked weren't prepared to proceed with the venture so Bezos decided to leave the company and open the virtual store himself. Leaving a comfortable, high-salary job before you hit 30 isn't easy. Bezos had quite a few moments of self-doubt; nevertheless with the support of his wife, Mackenzie, decided to take the leap.
Reasons Bezos: "The framework I found which made the decision incredibly easy was what I called – which only a nerd would call a regret minimization framework. So I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, Okay, now I'm looking back on my life. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have. I knew that when I was 80 I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried."
Here is a vey interesting story divided into two parts:
Not to make the article too long i am only posting the first part today ...the story of the man who created Amazon.The second part which is about innovative practices of Amazon will be posted tomorrow.
Please read to find the VISION, THE CREATIVE EYE, THE EYE TO SEE THE GROWTH IN AN INCONCEIVABLE IDEA..AN IDEA WHICH SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE...AND THEN A DARING HEART TO INVEST IN IT WHEN ONE IS NOT EVEN 30 .
Try and read the last paragraph again over and over ..it is just so inspiring.
1. About the man who created Amazon.
Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born in New Mexico when his mother was just 17. Jeff never met his biological father. When Jeff was four, his mother married Miguel Bezos, an Exxon engineer from Cuba. The family moved to Miami, Florida, where Jeff attended high school.
From the beginning Bezos was something of a wizkid. He transformed the family garage into a makeshift laboratory where he conducted many experiments including a solar microwave, burglar alarm, infinity cube and countless others. In high school, Bezos fell in love with computers and was valedictorian of his class.
Bezos entered Princeton University to study physics, but soon returned to his first love, computers, and graduated with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering.
He was quickly recruited by several companies after his graduation, and eventually settled on Fitel, a start-up financial telecommunications firm. Bezos rose rapidly to the top, becoming an associate director just nine months after he was hired.
After two years Bezos left Fitel for Bankers Trust Company, where he oversaw the development of a program BTWorld – a software program that allowed the company's customers to check the performance of their pension plans.
It came as no surprise to anyone when Bezos became vice-president at 26, the youngest individual to do so. Soon after, Bezos joined D. E. Shaw & Co. as a hedge fund manager. Again, he quickly rose to the position of senior vice-president, and again at 28 Bezos became the youngest person in the company's history to attain such a high post.
In 1994, Internet commerce (e-commerce) was miniscule. One day in the spring of 1994, Bezos who was already crazy about computers observed that Internet usage was increasing geometrically and more and more people were getting excited about its astounding commercial possibilities. A few inventors were already trying to make use of the new technology. Bezos saw an opportunity for a new sphere of commerce, and immediately began considering the possibilities. The thought foremost in his mind: "What is it that users cannot get easily offline that will sell online?"
There were several congruent factors at play now. Internet usage was growing fast. PCs and laptops were exploding. People were hungry for information online. Payment mechanisms (albeit still with security problems) were falling into place. The government was supportive and wanted the Internet to be a driver of America's new economy as the smokestacks of Detroit declined. The technology was there: Intel, Microsoft and others were creating faster and more user-friendly computers. Everything was falling into place at the same time.
Bezos now started researching the Internet systematically. He asked himself: which business could be conducted more efficiently over the Internet than by traditional means? He drew a list of about 20 products which could be effectively serviced by the Internet, but the one that stayed with him was % books.
At the time no comprehensive online catalogue of books existed. The list would be just too big to post. It dawned on Bezos that
1.The situation was perfect for the Internet which could share a vast database with a virtually limitless number of people.
2.Bezos found that although major book wholesalers already had compiled an electronic list of their inventory they had no single location where users could browse the complete collection and place orders directly.
3.He further discovered that as there was no single bookstore large enough to stock all the titles available in print, the market wasn't dominated by any one player.
That was the eureka moment for Bezos. He realized that unlike traditional retailers, a virtual book retailer would have limited overhead by cutting down on storage and book store cost . This would also enable it to offer a much larger catalog of books in print and the customer could order them online which would save them time, money and energy.
D. E. Shaw & Co. where 29-year-old Bezos then worked weren't prepared to proceed with the venture so Bezos decided to leave the company and open the virtual store himself. Leaving a comfortable, high-salary job before you hit 30 isn't easy. Bezos had quite a few moments of self-doubt; nevertheless with the support of his wife, Mackenzie, decided to take the leap.
Reasons Bezos: "The framework I found which made the decision incredibly easy was what I called – which only a nerd would call a regret minimization framework. So I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, Okay, now I'm looking back on my life. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have. I knew that when I was 80 I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried."