Introduction
Entrepreneurship is developing, organizing, and running a business enterprise. It is characterized by the ability to withstand business risks and uncertainties in order to generate a profit. The entrepreneur has the power and desires to establish, administer, and succeed in a startup venture.
According to Furgang (2019), entrepreneurs are often known as a source of new ideas or innovations applied in the market to develop new products or replace old inventions. Some ideas and businesses developed succeed while others fail, indicating that various critical success factors enable entrepreneurship. Many entrepreneurs worldwide have developed significant innovations that have revolutionized common ways of doing things. Jeff Bezos is renowned for creating Amazon from an online bookstore to a global web service provider and online retailer (Furgang, 2019). His success story is characterized by his willingness to take risks, make quick decisions, and his passion for innovation.
Willingness to Take Risks
Bezos emphasizes the importance of an entrepreneur by highlighting their willingness to take risks. When starting an online bookstore company came to mind, Bezos was a 30-year-old individual with a successful career. He worked for a hedge fund, D. E. Shaw, at Wall, which many held with high esteem, as he earned a good salary (Fernandez, 2018).
Therefore, leaving that job and reverting to an old garage in a backyard sounded highly awkward. Despite agreeing that his idea had great potential, his boss opposed it. He tried convincing Bezos to focus on his job, as it would be less risky than starting a new venture. However, the entrepreneurial character of Jeff Bezos stuck with the idea propelled by the promise of a better future in the internet economy.
In subsequent addresses to shareholders of his successful company, Jeff Bezos emphasizes the importance of taking risks. He argues that upon reflection, he considered risk-taking something a person may not regret once they age. Bezos argues that once a person reaches around 80 years of age, it is likely that they will regret not having done something they wanted to do earlier. It is less likely that a person will regret trying and failing.
Furgang (2019) states that he was inspired to launch Amazon because of this philosophy. He could not imagine reflecting and thinking back on life as an older adult, only to regret how successful his idea would have made him had he decided not to take the risk. He expresses his gratitude for not regretting a salary or bonus or walking away from good employment in the middle of the year.
Make Good Decisions Quickly
Jeff Bezos further indicates that an entrepreneur should be able to make good decisions quickly. Bezos advocates for quick decision-making to grow and maintain an innovative business. He considers this a critical success factor for an entrepreneur to arrive at “high-quality, high-velocity decisions” (Furgang, 2019).
Using the example of his company, Bezos states that speed and “nimbleness” were essential in making Amazon a multinational conglomerate and an innovation engine. He admits that success comes from recognizing that not all innovation decisions are “irreversible or nearly irreversible” (Fernandez, 2018). He realized that most aspects of a company could be reversed or changed; they are like a two-way door. Therefore, an entrepreneur should not fear making “sub-optimal” decisions because a person should not “have to live with the consequences for that long” (Furgang, 2019). The reality is that an entrepreneur can reconsider previous choices and make necessary corrections.
Bezos succeeded because he recognized the kind of business decisions he had to make promptly. If an entrepreneur cannot make quick decisions, people or companies will have to spend more time pondering over reversible choices. However, Bezos acknowledges that this is a risky business approach, which he considers a poor strategy for risk management since the individual fails to experiment with ideas (McNab, 2022). Ultimately, the business will suffer due to slowness and reduced innovation. Bezos indicates that the best business decisions he has ever made are a result of guts, intuition, and heart, rather than analysis.
Passion
Another critical success factor attributable to Jeff Bezos is having a passion for entrepreneurship. He suggests that identifying one’s passion is a crucial step for a young entrepreneur to take in order to succeed in both business and life. Bezos argues that people can discover their passion in a career, a job, or a calling. The most critical element is to figure out the specific calling since, by doing so, “you have hit the jackpot because that’s a big deal” (Furgang, 2019). Therefore, Bezos infers that true success is making an impact out of a passion that everybody has.
Furthermore, Bezos acknowledges that people do not choose their passion; passion is innate and chooses the person. Everybody has their gift, and luck meets those who follow their passions. Bezos developed Amazon out of following his passion as a “garage inventor” and was able to note that space mattered the most to him. His passion for space further pushed Bezos to explore space through the Blue Origin company.
The new invention involves developing rocket engines, rockets, and commercial space travel. After stepping down as Amazon CEO, he has invested billions of dollars to fund the new venture, driven by his passion for entrepreneurship (McNab, 2022). His passion was realized when he flew to space on July 20, 2021, alongside his brother Mark Bezos, Oliver Daemen, and Wally Funk (McNab, 2022). The flight was conducted using the spaceflight system in the New Shepard rocket, which successfully crossed the Kármán line.
Conclusion
In conclusion, entrepreneurship is characterized by a person’s ability to take calculated risks by developing new ventures that are expected to generate a profit. Both failures and successes characterize entrepreneurship, and everyone desires to succeed as an entrepreneur; however, several critical success factors contribute to success. Jeff Bezos is an example of an entrepreneur who developed, grew, and ran Amazon from a small backyard garage in Seattle to its current stature as a multinational conglomerate.
Bezos achieved success by demonstrating and utilizing several key attributes. His first step to success was taking a risk and leaving his job on Wall Street in the middle of the year to pursue a potentially uncertain adventure. Bezos further grew the company by acting on instincts rather than analysis, allowing him to make decisions quickly. In addition, he had a passion for space, so he used the first available space in a garage to develop Amazon. His passion for space led to the innovation of Blue Origin, a space exploration company that launched its first commercial flight in 2021.
References
Fernandez, I. (2018). The amazing Amazon: How Jeff Bezos built an insane e-commerce empire. Goodread.
Furgang, A. (2019). Jeff Bezos: Tech entrepreneur and businessman. Enslow Publishing.
McNab, C. (2022). Jeff Bezos. Arcturus Publishing.