In late, late 1999, I was sitting in a barber’s chair getting a haircut (hey, a lot can happen in a barber’s chair…), reading Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” issue.
I recall vividly that the cover page had Jeff Bezos’ head in a shipping box. Symbolically, he was sitting on top of the world as Time’s man of the year for 1999. Amazon.com was the shiznit and everyone was saying that Amazon.com - please, sit down for this - would acquire Wal Mart at any moment.
I was still working in financial services. The ink on my finance degree was as fresh as could be.
I was sending my resume to every investment bank in the world, no one wold bite. Sitting there and reading the story on Amazon.com, it became clear that if you wanted to make things happen, the Web was the only place to turn to. Christmas came and went and frustration of the investment world turned to excitement and hope of what the Web had to offer.
Two weeks later, on January 13th 2000, I got offered a job at a dot com startup: “we’re going to file for an IPO later this year,” I was told. I started my new job January 31st, 2000.
The IPO never happened and Amazon.com never bought Wal Mart either. But the dream came true (wow, that was deep… I had to throw it in there).
In the meantime, a lot changed. Nasdaq 5,000 became Nasdaq 2,000. Amazon.com gave way to Google, Jeff Bezos replaced by Sergey Brin/Larry Page first, then Tom Anderson/Chris DeWolfe next, then someone else I am sure.
But not once did I consider going back to the finance world. The Web was the only place to be and I knew that the best was yet to come.
Apparently, so did/does Jeff Bezos who is once again aiming for the fences with his new brainchild.
Will it work? Who cares?
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