>It didn't take long for Jeff Bezos to get his parents on board. According to Stone, the couple invested $100,000 in Amazon in 1995 — even though Jeff Bezos had warned them there was a 70% chance they'd never see that money again.
>Mike Bezos told Stone that, even though they'd seen the business plan, they didn't exactly understand it. "As corny as it sounds, we were betting on Jeff," Mike Bezos said.
That line so great. They were just betting on their son even though they didn't understand the business at the time. I wonder what percentage he gave them? Having believe in you even if its just your parents probably was a big reason he was so successful.
Jeff Bezos' cushy job was at D. E. Shaw Group and according to the book The Everything Store, he worked with D. E. Shaw directly, the man who was part of the quant trading wall street innovation. When the internet was starting, they worked together to see what kind of business opportunities might come about due to this new technological innovation, and that's where they came up with the idea for the everything store. Shaw wanted Bezos to build the everything store within the company but Bezos decided to leave and build it on his own in Washington (picked because of their small population and thus less need to collect sales tax and proximity to Silicon Valley). Bezos then proceeded to hire people from his old team at D. E. Shaw after their non-compete of 2 years passed. After their IPO, he let many of his people go to restructure. I could be totally wrong or the book might be lies, but I found that history scary.
Main point though is that Bezos was literally a genius, he was part of an experimental educational program for gifted children, and he was one of the most gifted in that program. He was also ruthless. I want to say, how could you not bet on someone like that? He was working with geniuses, had a vision, and the ability to lead them.
>Mike Bezos told Stone that, even though they'd seen the business plan, they didn't exactly understand it. "As corny as it sounds, we were betting on Jeff," Mike Bezos said.
That line so great. They were just betting on their son even though they didn't understand the business at the time. I wonder what percentage he gave them? Having believe in you even if its just your parents probably was a big reason he was so successful.