The Boy Who Loved to Read

 

From a young age, Jeff Bezos had an insatiable appetite for reading. His mother Jackie would often find him in his room, surrounded by piles of books, lost in faraway worlds. She encouraged his love of reading, taking him on frequent trips to the library. 

Books were Jeff's portal to knowledge and ideas. He devoured science fiction novels like "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien, which sparked his imagination about technology and the future . Biographies of visionary leaders like Thomas Edison showed him the power of invention and perseverance.

Books Shape a Future Billionaire

As Jeff grew up, books continued to profoundly influence his thinking. After graduating from Princeton, he took a lucrative job on Wall Street. But he couldn't shake the entrepreneurial itch. Fascinated by the potential of the nascent internet, he made a bold decision in 1994 to quit his job and start an online bookstore called Amazon.

Why books? Jeff saw untapped opportunity in making the world's biggest selection of books easily available to anyone with an internet connection. More than that, books represented access to knowledge - and he wanted to spread knowledge far and wide.

Sharing His Love of Books 

As Amazon grew from a tiny startup operating out of Jeff's garage into a global behemoth, one thing remained constant: Jeff's passion for books. He shared his love of reading with his employees, even compiling a list of his favorite books that became known as "Jeff's Reading List" around the company . 

Titles like business classic "Built to Last" by Jim Collins and character-driven novel "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro were required reading for Amazon executives . By studying a wide range of books, Jeff believed his leadership team would shape more expansive mental models of the world.

Today, Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people on the planet. But he never lost the sense of wonder for books he had as that curious young boy. In a very real sense, books made Jeff Bezos - and Jeff Bezos helped make books more accessible than ever before.