Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship and small business. The hottest trend. If you take a look, you see colleges and universities offering classes on entrepreneurship, just to name a few.  Note the growth of starting a business and entrepreneurship in bookstores.

This is my one of my favorite examples of entrepreneurship.  I enjoy good books.  My preferences are biographies, current events and political history. In the past I had trouble finding books I would read about but not at the library. This is an example (see end of post).  Unless you lived in Vermont for any length of time or are interested in Congress, you likely have no idea who he is. Do not be concerned, I do.

Jeff Bezos and I share a common love, at least I think we do.  We are both readers.  And I love my Amazon Kindle.  That is another post.

When you have a unique interest, sometimes you think you are alone. I would go to used book stores seeking my unique genre. Most of the time, my searches were fruitless. Several books I am interested in are out of print, a real challenge.  Oh occasionally I would get lucky. Like when I found Gary Hart's books at the Tattered Cover in Denver. Yes, it makes sense. Sen. Hart represented Colorado for two terms.  If you are in Denver, this bookstore is worth a stop.  Link to store.  http://www.tatteredcover.com/

Back to Mr. Bezos and me. Most people forget this. Amazon started as a way to connect book lovers with independent book stores. Or to put it another way, it was an online book store. Now, I can search for books I have always wanted to read and get them shipped to me quickly and likely at a greatly reduced price. And I can find out of print books.

So why is Mr. Bezos an entrepreneur? He saw a need, he figured out how to fill it, created numerous new markets, and changed the way some people did business. His model was disrupting.

This is where Mr. Bezos proved to be a real entrepreneur. He did not stop with the online book store, he branched out.  Over the past 21 years, Mr. Bezos grew Amazon into many logical markets.  Consider this, if you said Amazon 20 years ago, most people would think about a jungle. If you said it today, most people would think "great shopping alternative."

Yes, Mr. Bezos is a true entrepreneur.  However, I will always be grateful to Mr. Bezos for connecting me to the world of independent book stores.  I continue reading books in my unique genre and continue enjoying out of print books.