Written in Aug, 2020 (Published with no updates)-

Billionaire-hating is on the rise and Jeff Bezos naturally gets a fair share of that: billionaires are evil and Bezos is their undisputed leader, Amazon is building a monopoly business, it doesn’t pay taxes, and the mom and pops and local businesses are getting wiped out due to unfair competition from Amazon. There are several other accusations. In addition, economic nationalism and domestic politics pour fuel on them. Bezos’s personal life is under scrutiny by tabloids and moral policemen. Somehow anything he does or says turns into ammo for the cynics. So was his recent 4000 words written statement to the US Congress.

For me however, Bezos’s congressional statement was nothing but a goldmine of inspiration and another testimony that only under capitalism anybody can create history. Bezos loves long-form write-ups. After reading his statement several times, I picked a few lines that intrigued me the most. Needless to say that you are better-off reading the original than my curated points below.

• He starts the letter by reminding of his mission of making Amazon earth’s most customer centric company. Later on he talks about Amazon’s ‘Day One’ culture- everyday is the first day of the company irrespective of its size and tenure.

• Jeff’s mother had him when she was 17; a pregnant teenager wasn’t the most popular figure in Albuquerque in 1964.

• His father is a Cuban immigrant who came to America alone at the age of 16. He didn’t speak any English.

• Bezos left his stable job in NYC and moved to a Seattle garage to start amazon.com.

• Quote unquote: “It was a decision I made with my heart and not my head. When I’m 80 and reflecting back, I want to have minimised the number of regrets that I have in my life. And most of our regrets are acts of omission—the things we didn’t try, the paths untraveled. Those are the things that haunt us.”

• Most of the initial capital was his parent’s life savings.

• Bezos was so ahead of his time that the most common question from the people he met for funding was: “What’s the internet?”

• In the early days, Bezos himself drove the packages to the post office.

• Amazon was ridiculed as ‘amazon.toast’ and ‘amazon.bomb.’ The latter was by Barnes & Noble.

• Amazon’s stock price tanked from $116 to 6$ during the dotcom boom and bust. The analysts and pundits projected Amazon’s demise.

• Quote unquote: “Failure inevitably comes along with invention and risk-taking, which is why we try to make Amazon the best place in the world to fail.”

• Amazon directly employs a million people around the world.

• More than 80% of Amazon shares are owned by outsiders including mom and pops, not by Bezos or any insider.

Bezos wasn’t born in the best of conditions. Wealth and prosperity didn’t come to him without struggle, big appetite for risks and failures. I would imagine that such stories from the lives of successful entrepreneurs would help build bridges.

Yet the moods are different. People are very angry at the rich as can be read in posts such as this on the Guardian and this on the WAPO. I think it would be a crime to not notice that the current state of capitalism has problems and that it requires cleansing. At the same time, I just fail to see a viable, tried and tested alternative that is superior and scalable. Rather on the other side I see only utopian ideology with false promises, large governments with excessive controls, and regressive outcomes. Actually much worse based on precedences.

About Bezos- we can debate on whether he has made the world a better place or not. I understand that it’s a complex discussion to begin with. However, at a very rudimentary level I think we can agree that he has helped grow choices, access and comfort in our lives as consumers. Such as, I had Amazon seamlessly deliver me essentials at my doorstep during peak lockdowns and those are just invaluable solutions to real-life problems. Although, people will find ways to complain about that too, including about Amazon creating around 175,000 new jobs during the pandemic.

Despite all the noise, Amazon remains one of the most admired companies in the world: judgement of the crowd.

Bezos is one of the greatest innovators and entrepreneurs alive. Until someone can show me better ways for ordinary men and women to dream big and change the world, self-made ultra successful entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos will continue to inspire ‘little risk-taking guys’ like me.

Written in Aug, 2020 (Published with no updates)