The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams into Profits

CHAPTER 10

BUILD YOUR BUSINESS LIKE A GO-CART

Jeff Bezos graduated from Princeton in 1986, with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. He knew he wanted to run his own company … someday. And he had a couple of business ideas in the back of his head. But he also knew that, at age 22, he didn’t know enough to do anything with those ideas. So he put his ambitions on hold and went to work for someone else.

In the early 1990s, while doing online research for the company he was working for, he came across the startling statistic that commercial use of the Internet was growing by a phenomenal 2,300 percent a year. His entrepreneurial juices started flowing. He recognized the possibilities, and did some research of his own to see if he could come up with a business idea that would make sense in the context of that growth. What he came up with was the idea of selling books.

He learned that all the major publishers already had electronic lists of their inventory. And he figured that if he could compile those lists—and make it possible for people to buy the books online—he would have the beginning of a business with huge potential.

Excited, Bezos knew that the time had come for him to make the leap. But he did it in classic reluctant entrepreneur fashion. He started slowly and proceeded cautiously, investing very little money until he proved his idea would work. He set up shop in his garage, with extension cords running from the house. His primitive computer stations were ...