Investir em e-commerce Jeffrey P. Bezos nasceu em Albuquerque, Novo Mxico.

Sua me ainda estava em sua adolescncia, e seu casamento com seu pai durou pouco mais de um ano. Ela se casou novamente quando Jeffrey tinha quatro. Padrasto de Jeffrey, Mike Bezos, nasceu em Cuba; ele fugiu para os Estados Unidos sozinho aos 15 anos e trabalhou seu caminho atravs da Universidade de Albuquerque. Quando ele se casou com a me de Jeffrey, a famlia mudou-se para Houston, onde Mike Bezos tornou-se um engenheiro para Exxon. Ancestrais maternos de Jeffrey foram os primeiros colonizadores no Texas e sobre as geraes tinham adquirido uma fazenda de 25.000 acres em Cotulla. Av de Jeffrey foi diretor regional da Comisso de energia atmica em Albuquerque. Aposentou-se cedo para a fazenda da famlia, onde Jeffrey passou os veres de sua juventude, trabalhando com seu av em enormemente variadas tarefas essenciais para a operao. Desde tenra idade, Jeffrey exibido uma aptido mecnica impressionante. Mesmo como uma criana, afirmou-se desmontando seu prespio com uma chave de fenda. Ele tambm desenvolveu intensos e variados interesses cientficos, aparelhamento de um alarme eltrico para manter seus irmos mais novos para fora de seu quarto e convertendo a garagem de seus pais em um laboratrio para seus projetos de cincia. Quando ele era adolescente, a famlia se mudou para Miami, Florida. Em high school, em Miami, Jeffrey caiu no amor com computadores. Um estudante excepcional, ele foi o orador oficial de sua classe. Entrou Universidade Princeton planejando estudar fsica, mas logo retornou ao seu amor de computadores e se formou em cincia da computao e engenharia eltrica. Aps a formatura, Jeff Bezos encontrou emprego em Wall Street, onde a cincia da computao foi cada vez mais procura estudar as tendncias do mercado. Seu comeou a trabalhar na Fitel, uma companhia que estava construindo uma rede para conduzir o comrcio internacional. Permaneceu no Reino das Finanas com Bankers Trust, subindo para um vice presidncia. Em D. E. Shaw, foi contratada uma empresa especializada na aplicao da informtica para o mercado de aes, Bezos, tanto por seu talento global quanto qualquer atribuio especfica. Enquanto trabalhava na Shaw, Jeff conheceu sua esposa, Mackenzie, tambm um graduado de Princeton. Levantou-se rapidamente em Shaw, tornando-se vice-presidente snior, e olhou para a frente uma carreira brilhante na rea de Finanas, quando fez uma descoberta que mudou sua vida-- e o curso da histria do negcio. A Internet foi criado originalmente pelo departamento de defesa para manter suas redes de computadores conectados durante uma emergncia, como catstrofe natural ou ataque inimigo. Ao longo dos anos, foi adotado pelo governo e pesquisadores acadmicos para troca de dados e mensagens, mas ainda em 1994, no havia ainda nenhum comrcio na Internet para falar. Um dia que brotam, Jeffrey Bezos observou que o uso da Internet foi aumentando por 2.300% ao ano. Ele viu uma oportunidade para uma nova esfera de negcios e imediatamente comeou a considerar as possibilidades. Forma tipicamente metdica, Bezos revisto as top 20 empresas de correspondncia e perguntou a mesmo que poderia ser realizado mais eficientemente atravs da Internet do que por meios tradicionais. Os livros so o producto para que nenhum catlogo global mail ordem existiu, porque qualquer tal catlogo seria muito grande para o mail - perfeito para a Internet, que poderia compartilhar um vasto banco de dados com um nmero praticamente ilimitado de pessoas. Ele voou para Los Angeles no dia seguinte para atender Conveno a American Booksellers' e aprender tudo o que podia sobre o negcio do livro. Ele descobriu que os atacadistas de grande livro j haviam compilado listas eletrnicas de seus estoques. Tudo que era necessrio era um local nico na Internet, onde o livro de compra pblico poderia Pesquisar as ordens de estoque e lugar

disponveis diretamente. Empregadores na Bezos no estavam dispostos a prosseguir com tal empreendimento e Bezos sabia que a nica maneira de aproveitar a oportunidade foi para entrar no negcio por si mesmo. Isso significaria sacrificar uma posio segura em Nova York, mas ele e sua esposa, Mackenzie, decidiu dar o salto. Jeff e Mackenzie voaram para o Texas no fim de semana do dia da independncia e pegou um 1988 Chevy Blazer (um presente de Mike Bezos) para fazer o drive para Seattle, onde eles teriam acesso pronto para o atacadista de livro Ingram e ao pool de talentos de computador que Jeff seria necessrio para sua empresa. Mackenzie dirigiu enquanto Jeff digitado um plano de negcios. A empresa seria chamada Amaznia, para o aparentemente interminvel Rio Sul-americano com seus inmeros ramos. Ajustaram-se acima da loja em uma casa de dois quartos, com cabos de extenso, correndo para a garagem. Jeff criou trs sol microstations em tabelas que fizera fora das portas da Home Depot por menos de US $60 cada. Quando o local de teste foi instalado e funcionando, Jeff pediu 300 amigos e conhecidos para test-lo. O cdigo funcionou perfeitamente em todas as plataformas de computador diferente. Em 16 de julho de 1995, Bezos abriu seu site para o mundo e disse a seus 300 de beta testers para espalhar a palavra. Em 30 dias, sem presso, Amazon vendeu livros em todos os 50 Estados.

Investing e-commerce Jeffrey P. Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His mother was still in her teens, and her marriage to his father lasted little more than a year. She remarried when Jeffrey was four. Jeffrey's stepfather, Mike Bezos, was born in Cuba; he escaped to the United States alone at age 15, and worked his way through the University of Albuquerque. When he married Jeffrey's mother, the family moved to Houston, where Mike Bezos became an engineer for Exxon. Jeffrey's maternal ancestors were early settlers in Texas, and over the generations had acquired a 25,000-acre ranch at Cotulla. Jeffrey's grandfather was a regional director of the Atomic Energy Commission in Albuquerque. He retired early to the family ranch, where Jeffrey spent most of the summers of his youth, working with his grandfather at the enormously varied tasks essential to the operation. From an early age, Jeffrey displayed a striking mechanical aptitude. Even as a toddler, he asserted himself by dismantling his crib with a screwdriver. He also developed intense and varied scientific interests, rigging an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room and converting his parents' garage into a laboratory for his science projects. When he was a teenager, the family moved to Miami, Florida. In high school in Miami, Jeffrey first fell in love with computers. An outstanding student, he was valedictorian of his class. He entered Princeton University planning to study physics, but soon returned to his love of computers, and graduated with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering. After graduation, Jeff Bezos found employment on Wall Street, where computer science was increasingly in demand to study market trends. His went to work at Fitel, a start-up company that was building a network to conduct international trade. He stayed in the finance realm with Bankers Trust, rising to a vice presidency. At D. E. Shaw, a firm specializing in the application of computer science to the stock market, Bezos was hired as much for his overall talent as for any particular assignment. While working at Shaw, Jeff met his wife, Mackenzie, also a

Princeton graduate. He rose quickly at Shaw, becoming a senior vice president, and looked forward to a bright career in finance, when he made a discovery that changed his life -- and the course of business history. The Internet was originally created by the Defense Department to keep its computer networks connected during an emergency, such as natural catastrophe or enemy attack. Over the years, it was adopted by government and academic researchers to exchange data and messages, but as late as 1994, there was still no Internet commerce to speak of. One day that spring, Jeffrey Bezos observed that Internet usage was increasing by 2,300 percent a year. He saw an opportunity for a new sphere of business, and immediately began considering the possibilities. In typically methodical fashion, Bezos reviewed the top 20 mail order businesses, and asked himself which could be conducted more efficiently over the Internet than by traditional means. Books were the commodity for which no comprehensive mail order catalogue existed, because any such catalogue would be too big to mail -- perfect for the Internet, which could share a vast database with a virtually limitless number of people. He flew to Los Angeles the very next day to attend the American Booksellers' Convention and learn everything he could about the book business. He found that the major book wholesalers had already compiled electronic lists of their inventory. All that was needed was a single location on the Internet, where the book-buying public could search the available stock and place orders directly. Bezos's employers weren't prepared to proceed with such a venture, and Bezos knew the only way to seize the opportunity was to go into business for himself. It would mean sacrificing a secure position in New York, but he and his wife, Mackenzie, decided to make the leap. Jeff and Mackenzie flew to Texas on Independence Day weekend and picked up a 1988 Chevy Blazer (a gift from Mike Bezos) to make the drive to Seattle, where they would have ready access to the book wholesaler Ingram, and to the pool of computer talent Jeff would need for his enterprise. Mackenzie drove while Jeff typed a business plan. The company would be called Amazon, for the seemingly endless South American river with its numberless branches. They set up shop in a two-bedroom house, with extension cords running to the garage. Jeff set up three Sun microstations on tables he'd made out of doors from Home Depot for less than $60 each. When the test site was up and running, Jeff asked 300 friends and acquaintances to test it. The code worked seamlessly across different computer platforms. On July 16, 1995, Bezos opened his site to the world, and told his 300 beta testers to spread the word. In 30 days, with no press, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries. By September, it had sales of $20,000 a week. Bezos and his team continued improving the site, introducing such unheard-of features as one-click shopping, customer reviews, and e-mail order verification. The business grew faster than Bezos or anyone else had ever imagined. When the company went public in 1997, skeptics wondered if an Internet-based start-up bookseller could maintain its position once traditional retail heavyweights like Barnes and Noble or Borders entered the Internet picture. Two years later, the market value of shares in Amazon was greater than that of its two biggest retail competitors combined, and Borders was striking a deal for Amazon to handle its Internet traffic. Jeff had told his original investors there was a 70 percent chance they would lose their entire investment, but his parents signed on for $300,000, a substantial portion of their life savings. "We weren't betting on the Internet," his mother has said. "We

were betting on Jeff." By the end of the decade, as six per cent owners of Amazon, they were billionaires. For several years, as much as a third of the shares in the company were held by members of the Bezos family.

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