Most biographies start with an opening chapter which describes a defining moment in the life of the subject. I was rather surprised to discover that the opening chapter of Richard Brandt’s book One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com seems to be a rambling litany of complaints that have been raised over the years against Bezos and Amazon. It is not until the second chapter that the biography actually starts.
Work on his grandfather’s ranch when Jeff Bezos was a child, learning to become self-sufficient in fixing things, sowed the seeds of his entrepreneurial drive. He discovered a talent for computing at elementary school, and studied computer science and electrical engineering at Princeton before working as a software engineer in the finance industry. After studying the potential of the Internet he identified selling books as an ideal Internet business idea, and set about starting the company we now know as Amazon.com. The book traces the Amazon story from early start-up to the present day.
When buying the book I was misled by the Amazon arrow trademark appearing on the cover into thinking that the biography was authorised by Amazon; from the contents this appears not to be the case. The author seems to have written the book without obtaining the co-operation of Bezos or of many people who are close to him. The result feels more like a compilation of second-hand sources than an intimate view inside the mind of the subject. The shortage of first-hand material may help to explain why such prominence is given to voices critical of Bezos and his management style.
Like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos has managed to leverage his entrepreneurial strengths to create an extraordinarily successful company. Like Steve Jobs, Bezos has had a very focused vision and an idiosyncratic management style which resonated with some and repulsed others. There is much to learn from his successes and failures. In my view this book tells some of the story, but there is much that remains untold.