Barron’s magazine ran a cover story headlined “Amazon. bomb,” in 1999, and the magazine predicted Amazon’s failure, and that Amazon’s stock price would drop at a faster pace. It also said that the real winners of the Internet boom would be the “firms that sell their products directly.”
The article about him and Amazon begins with “The idea that Amazon Ceo Jeff Bezos has pioneered a new business paradigm is silly,” as it also featured a caricature of Jeff Bezos inside a bomb. Dismissing him further as “just another middleman”, the article goes on to call the sellers who sell their products directly, the “real winners” of the internet boom. “Net will be firms that sell their products directly to consumers”. But it has to be said that the magazine’s prediction did not come true, since Amazon is one of the most successful companies, fulfilling everyone’s wishes, and in addition to this, Amazon now has a market capitalization of $1.6 trillion, thus, Jeff Bezos becomes one of the world’s wealthiest individuals.
Bezos took to Twitter and shared the magazine’s cover on his official Twitter account, and he penned down an inspirational message. He wrote, “Listen and be open, but don’t let anybody tell you who you are,” wrote Bezos. He went on to say that this is simply one of many stories that anticipated Amazon’s troubles. Today, Amazon is one of the world’s most successful companies and has revolutionized two entirely different industries.”
As soon as Jeff Bezos’ posted this, it grabbed many people’s attention and it went viral almost instantly, gaining more than 71K likes and more than 10 k retweets. People are commending Jeff Bezos for his motivational speech, and for the great success, he received.
One user commented, “A good reminder we’ve all been there at one point or another in our lives. I wasn’t a big fan until I looked into Amazon’s humble beginnings: it’s shame perseverance and innovation are now considered shameful. Envy is a truly destructive force.”
While another wrote, “Futurism is hard but pessimism is easy. People become defenders of the status quo often not even bc of incentives but bc they hate a philosophy of wealth creation“
Yet another one wrote, Inspiring advice on how to handle criticism with a touch of emotional intelligence & nuanced perspective! Thanks, Jeff! Confuse them with your silence, shock them with your results. -Someone”
Even though everyone commended him, all the focus was on his long-time business competitor, Elon Musk.
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk replied with a silver medal emoji to the tweet. Elon Musk jokingly said last month that he would give Amazon founder Jeff Bezos a “huge statue of the digit ‘2’ together with a silver medal” after he surpassed him as the world’s richest person.
Jeff Bezos’ net worth surpassed $200 billion last year and all thanks go to a perfect spike in Amazon stock. While on the other hand, Tesla shares have been rising since the pandemic began. And according to the reports of Forbes, Musk’s net worth has soared.
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have become adversaries along with SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin vying against one another in space exploration. Well, it can be seen that Elon Musk has been slamming Amazon on Twitter several times. After Amazon objected to Starlink’s expansion, the Tesla CEO reportedly said that Bezos had “retired to seek a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX.”
After Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH Mot Hennessy, Elon Musk has become the third individual to reach the $200 billion mark.
