“Big Things Start Small”

Jeff Bezos has a number of brilliantly simple sayings that speak a thousand words. “Big Things Start Small” seemed most appropriate for my first post on SharkOnTheStreet.

I still remember when ordering off the internet was a novel experience. The wait for a new LEGO® set seemed endless as the race to check the mail after school met more endings of disappointment than satisfaction. As a kid, the anticipation that resulted from online ordering with 3-5 day ship times was truly unbearable. It introduced a new psychological effect where waiting became a part of the buying process, a part of the fun. When packages did finally arrive, I distinctly remember Amazon’s “a to z” smile logo, printed on their boxes, greeting me.

Today a significant proportion of e-commerce sales run through Amazon.com, as it is one of the dominant centralized marketplaces of the internet. They have reduced their shipping times and revamped their delivery fleet. They built a collection of warehouses and filled them with an army of autonomous package sorting robots. They have a subscription service and a cloud computing business. They developed the Kindle and acquired MGM Studios. They have grown and grown. The company is so large and so omnipresent, that it is more akin to a utility than the speculative dot com tech company it once was.

As of writing, Amazon’s (AMZN) current market capitalization is $2,367 Billion and Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates Jeff Bezos’ net worth at approximately $245 Billion. Which, as Jeff would point out, means that he and Amazon have created $2,122 Billion in wealth for others. (Technically you should also add on the part of his wealth not held in stock to that which has been created for others). 

A great deal of people today see the ability to order packages on Amazon.com as their god given right. Such people order markers with 2 hour delivery to their front door, make a witty and wacky poster, then bring it to a political rally to protest Jeff Bezos for the simple fact that he is wealthier than they are. The reason they can do this, that they have this privilege, is because Jeff Bezos packed packages on his hands and knees, in his garage, to sell books, on the internet, in the 1990s.

Would they still be protesting if they had the capability to fully comprehend the journey that Amazon has gone through across the decades? If they possessed the empathy to understand Jeff’s role as the shepherd/founder of the company throughout this period? If they knew what it meant to build something?

Who knows? But my hope is that this blog helps further their appreciation of wealth, for they have a fundamental misunderstanding as to that which they are protesting. 

Today Amazon is a part of the American infrastructure, but it did not start that way. It started out small. It was ugly, stupid, and had a long journey ahead of it. This is the case for all great projects. An extended period of growth is necessary for greatness. Without a beginning, a small and inconsequential start, you will never get the snowball rolling. 

Image credit: “Jeff Bezos” by Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0