The biography of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is published in the UK tomorrow. His wife MacKenzie has already attacked it (in an Amazon review, of course), citing "way too many inaccuracies" and "techniques which stretch the boundaries of non-fiction". The author, Brad Stone, has responded by offering to correct any specific mistakes, but has defended his emphasis on the more interesting aspects of Bezos' story. And indeed it does contain some juicy details …
His biological father was one of Albuquerque's leading unicyclists
Bezos only found out later in life that his father Miguel had adopted him on marrying his mother. In fact, Jeff was the biological son of Ted Jorgenson, and had been conceived when both his parents were still at school. In those years, Jorgenson was part of a local troupe called the Unicycle Wranglers, who gave displays of acrobatics and unicycle polo at county fairs and circuses when Jeff was a baby. Being adopted, Stone mentions in passing, is something that Bezos shares with two other great internet entrepreneurs, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison.
His laugh has shaped his life
"It's a startling, pulse-pounding bray that he leans into while craning his neck back, closing his eyes, and letting loose with a guttural roar that sounds like a cross between a mating elephant seal and a power tool," says Stone. Time and again it is this famous laugh that makes the first impression on people. Mackenzie told Vogue she fell in love by hearing it through the wall of her office all day. Bezos's little brother and sister used to complain that they couldn't hear the movies he took them to as children. A possible investment in eBay by Amazon, or even a purchase, was prevented partly because the eBay execs were "put off" by the Bezos laugh. Some former staff even say he uses the sound as an instrument of punishment. Towards the end of the book, Stone reveals that Darin Fala, a close friend of Jorgenson's, looked up video footage of Bezos and exclaimed, "He has Ted's laugh! It's almost exact."
He suffers fools ferociously
Hyper-intelligent, ultra-driven, and obsessed with detail, Bezos expects everyone around him to be the same. Amazon staff are said to live in fear of his outbursts Stone relays a record of his finest putdowns. These include, "Why are you wasting my life?", "I'm sorry, did I take my stupid pills today?" and "Are you lazy or just incompetent?"
Amazon had some truly terrible names at first
To evoke the magic and novelty of being able to buy things online, Bezos first called the company "Cadabra". This ran into problems because people didn't understand the word when it was spoken, often thinking it was "Cadaver". Among alternative suggestions, he was keen on "MakeItSo.com", partly because it was Captain Picard's catchphrase in his beloved Star Trek. At one time he liked Aard.com, which would push the company to the front of the website listings, and he and Mackenzie also registered Awake.com, Browse.com, Bookmall.com, and the rather creepy Relentless.com (which still takes you to Amazon). In the end, Bezos found "Amazon" by looking through the As in a dictionary, in October 1994, and was struck by the resonance between planet's largest river and its largest bookstore.
He might be the most ambitious man in the world
Conquering the internet, reinventing the book trade and becoming one of the world's richest men would be enough for most, but his longterm plan has always been something even grander: to establish a permanent human colony in space. His mother still has a copy of a speech he made at school declaring his ambition to build a fleet of habitable orbiting space stations and turn the planet into a vast nature reserve. Thus far, he has established Blue Origin, a company that plans to make private space travel more widely available.
