For Jeff Bezos, a New Frontier 杰夫·贝索斯:不按常理出牌的亚马逊总裁

One summer day as a kid riding in the back seat of his grandparents’ car， the young Jeff Bezos， a natural at math， made a morbid1） calculation. How much was his grandmother’s life expectancy diminished by her cigarette smoking？ As he had heard it， every puff took two minutes or so off your life. Multiply that by the number of puffs per cigarette. Multiply that by the number of cigarettes per day. Divide the minutes to get hours， and then days， and then years. He tapped her on the shoulder. “At two minutes per puff， you’ve taken nine years off your life！” He expected appreciation for his arithmetic. But his grandmother burst into tears and an excruciating2） silence followed. His grandfather pulled the car off the highway. “Jeff， one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever，” he said.

The inquisitive child has since become the creator of ， a virtual retail empire built of that same determination and cleverness. He is now a billionaire. Others had thought of selling things online； Bezos perfected the business with attention to low prices， Web site design， a technologically advanced warehouse operation and devoted customer service.

In one sense， because of his success， he is a well-known figure. His face has peered out from the cover of national magazines. He has sat for interviews on Charlie Rose3） at least four times. The Harvard Business Review4） has listed him as the best living chief executive. But on August 5th， 2013， the announcement that he was acquiring The Washington Post5） for $250 million invited another level of scrutiny， one that goes well beyond what attends being a business titan.

But exactly why he is acquiring The Post—and what he plans to do with it once he owns it—remains mostly a mystery. For now， the best anyone can do to divine his motives is to look at his past.

Controversy behind Success

What emerges from dozens of interviews with friends and colleagues from every stage of his life is a portrait of a curious mind attracted to grand schemes. He is a tenacious6） businessman， too， tough on employees who don’t measure up， ruthless with competitors and willing to take risks.

“One thing that makes him different is he does have his mind in the future，” said Danny Hillis， a California inventor and futurist. “Jeff has some vision about how he’d like the world to be different， how he’d like the world to be better.” But the daring， drive and single-mindedness that have defined these ventures have also spawned rounds of criticism.

While the company has attracted legions of grateful customers， some publishers view him as a bully who has unfairly used Amazon’s scale to deprive them of profits. Competing retailers say he has used tax advantages to decimate7） their businesses. Within Amazon， moreover， some former employees say his intensity could at times escalate into tirades8） that humiliated colleagues. Workers at some of his warehouses have complained of relentless demands for efficiency.

Even some of his fans paint a complex picture. “Bezos could be a royal …” said Ellen Ratajak， one of the company’s early employees. She was referring primarily to the way he could chew out9） subordinates at a meeting. “But I do see a heart in Jeff，” said Ratajak. “Jeff didn’t want to just please customers or build loyalty. He wanted to delight customers.”

Life of a Young Genius

Even from childhood， people could tell there was something different about Jeffrey P. Bezos. His mother said that one day she found her toddler son trying to take apart his crib with a screwdriver. He was a garage tinkerer， inventing a solar cooker using tinfoil and an umbrella. He was a Trekkie10）， too.

After one summer toiling at McDonald’s during high school， he and his girlfriend at the time decided to start a summer camp for science-inclined children. They called the camp the Dream Institute. The children read selections from books such as Gulliver’s Travels， Dune11） and Watership Down12）. They studied black holes. They wrote simple programs on an Apple computer that made their names scroll down the screen.

Camp was “inspiring for a lifetime，” said James Schockett， 41， who attended when he was 9. “Imagine spending virtually all day with， Jeff Bezos—an incredibly brilliant， incredibly knowledgeable person， and talking about anything.” Now an assistant treasurer at a company in North Carolina， Schockett has a line about it on his résumé：“Introduced to computers by Jeff Bezos.”

Bezos was also determined to be the best in high school academics. “He wasn’t a nerd—he moved easily from some group to some group—but he was very focused on being number one in our class，” said Joshua Weinstein， a close friend from high school. There were a few other people in the running， “but Jeff was certainly the most competitive，” Weinstein said.

But in college， the young Bezos must have come to a disheartening realization： He no longer could consider himself the smartest kid in the class， at least in his chosen field. He had gone to Princeton for physics， but when the classes turned to quantum mechanics13） he noticed he was being outdone. “One of the great things Princeton taught me is that I’m not smart enough to be a physicist，” he later recalled， clearly in awe of his betters. “There were three or four people in the class whose brains were so clearly wired differently to process these highly abstract concepts.” He graduated instead with a BS in electrical engineering and computer science.

His first years after Princeton marked a somewhat restless time. Bezos worked for a start-up and then a financial firm in New York. He got married， too. He had a good job. He could have become comfortable. But the emerging possibilities of the Internet and its rapid growth tantalized14） the entrepreneurial garage inventor. He wanted in on the revolution.

Founding the Amazon Empire

The origins of the empire he began in Bellevue， Wash. are part of the company’s well-known lore. What’s less known are the differences in the visions that Bezos and some of the earliest employees had for the company. They encapsulate15） the ambition that distinguishes Bezos.

Some of the early Amazonians have said they thought they were creating the virtual equivalent of a quirky independent bookstore—not crushing existing bookstores. “To this day， whenever I walk into a bookstore I like I hang my head in secret shame，” said one of the earliest employees. Another early employee， Nicholas Lovejoy， has questioned the company’s mission to become the “Wal-Mart of the Internet.”

But Bezos had always aimed for a vast retail empire， pursuing that vision relentlessly. Once， when an employee wanted to plan a barbecue to celebrate the company’s first $5，000 day， Bezos’ response was， “We don’t do that. We needed to be bigger and better. We needed to deliver more.”

Even those early Amazonians who had not held vast ambitions for the company said they eventually had to concede that the empire had its social virtues. “We started getting these e-mails from people thanking us—the woman in the Midwest who was 200 miles from the nearest bookstore， the military people stationed overseas—who could suddenly get any book they wanted，” one recalled. “We all—Bezos included—celebrated this. People being able to get books they want to read is great.”

The fledgling16） Amazon would soon prosper， carried aloft in part by the Internet boom as much as its own efficiency. Just a few years after its founding， the company earned millions in revenue， though not yet profits. But then the Internet bubble popped and companies that had been lifted up by the tech enthusiasm were suddenly in free fall. In one day， the company lost $3 billion in stock value. Analysts derided the company as “Amazon. toast.”

Inside the company， employees were growing worried. Some wanted to head for the exits. “When we were declared ‘Amazon.toast，’ I think we had 150 employees and Barnes & Noble17） had 30，000 employees，” Bezos recalled during one of his Charlie Rose appearances. “And someone wrote an article that said Amazon has had a great two-year run but now the big boys have shown up and they’re going to steamroll18） them.”

Bezos called an employee meeting. “I said： ‘Look， you should wake up worried， terrified every morning. But don’t be worried about our competitors because they’re never going to send us any money anyway. Let’s be worried about our customers and stay heads-down focused.’ ”

He projected a similar sang-froid19） to the outside world. When a BusinessWeek20） reporter asked a question about Amazon’s lack of profits and doubts about its business model， Bezos was succinct. “Can I give you a one-word answer？” Bezos said， “Baloney21）.” Indeed， since then Bezos has outdistanced the naysayers and the company has grown to become a colossus22）， with more than 90，000 employees and $61 billion in revenue last year.

Beyond Amazon

Bezos is now 49， and the life of the once-curious child seems remarkably full. His wife， MacKenzie， is a novelist whose books have earned admiring reviews. They have four children. As one of the world’s wealthiest men， moreover， Bezos can indulge his rampant curiosity in a number of ways.

With Blue Origin23）， his spaceflight company， Bezos is seeking to advance human exploration of the solar system. He also has invested tens of millions in the “Clock of the Long Now，” a piece of machinery supposed to work for 10，000 years.

This spring， Bezos’ curiosity led him into the rapidly changing world of journalism. Since his deal to purchase The Washington Post was announced， newspaper readers who have found Bezos’ e-mail address have started to pepper him with questions， and Bezos， true to his reputation for customer service， has been responding. A number of customers have e-mailed him this past week and “he has responded to everyone，” said Post publisher Katharine Weymouth.

A man who had paid several hundred dollars to place a marriage announcement did not like how the paper treated him. He wrote to Bezos saying， “Thank god you’re getting involved. You understand customer service！” Weymouth wrote back to the man， but within “two seconds，” so did Bezos. “Thank you for your input，” Bezos told him. “Keep your ideas coming！”

杰夫·贝索斯从小就是个数学天才。在一个夏日里，年幼的他坐在祖父母的汽车后座上，进行了一次病态的计算：吸烟会让他祖母的预期寿命减少多少年？他曾听说过，每吸一口烟，人的生命会减少大约两分钟。将这个数字乘以每支烟所需要吸的次数，再乘以每天吸烟的支数，然后将分钟数换算成小时数，再换算成天数，最终换算出了年数。他拍了拍祖母的肩膀说：“按照每吸一口烟会减少两分钟寿命的算法，吸烟已经夺走您九年的生命！”他原本期望自己的演算技巧能得到赞赏，不料祖母却突然失声痛哭，一阵令人难以忍受的沉默接踵而至。贝索斯的祖父将车停在公路旁，他说：“杰夫，有一天你会明白，做一个善良的人要比做一个聪明的人难。”

这个生性好奇的孩子后来创办了亚马逊网上商城，一个凭借着同样的坚定和聪慧打造而成的虚拟零售帝国。如今贝索斯已成为一名亿万富翁。线上销售是别人想出来的，而他则通过专注于低价、网站设计、高科技仓储运营以及热忱的客户服务来完善这种交易方式。

从某种意义上说，他是凭借自己的成就成了家喻户晓的人物。他曾多次登上全国性杂志的封面，至少参加过四次《查理·罗斯访谈录》节目，还被《哈佛商业评论》杂志评为最佳现任首席执行官。然而，当他在2013年8月5日宣布以2.5亿美元收购《华盛顿邮报》时，他又一次成为公众瞩目的焦点。而这一次，在人们看来，他已不仅仅是一位商业巨头。

不过，他到底为何要收购《华盛顿邮报》，拥有这份报纸后他的计划又是什么，这几乎都还是个谜。就目前而言，我们要揣测他的动机，最好的办法就是回顾一下他的过去。

成功背后的争议

在对贝索斯人生各个时期的朋友和同事进行多次采访后，我们脑海中会浮现出一个充满好奇心、钟情于宏伟计划的人的形象。他也是一个强硬的商人，对不合格的员工要求严格，对竞争对手冷酷无情，而且乐于冒险。

“他最与众不同的地方在于他总是一心想着未来，”加利福尼亚州的发明家和未来学家丹尼·希利斯说，“对于如何让世界变得不同，如何让世界变得更美好，杰夫有自己的某种看法。”然而，他在这些冒险行为中体现出的胆识、干劲和专心致志也引发了诸多批评。

尽管亚马逊公司招徕了大批忠实用户，但一些出版商仍将贝索斯视为恶霸，认为他凭借亚马逊的规模，以不公平的手段剥夺了他们的利润。而那些与亚马逊竞争的零售商则称，他凭借税率优势毁了他们的生意。此外，在亚马逊内部，一些以前的员工说，贝索斯的强硬有时会演变成喋喋不休的指责，让同事们颜面扫地。他的某些仓库的员工也抱怨说，他总是没完没了地要求提高效率。

就连一些支持他的人对他的描述也十分复杂。埃伦·拉塔沙克是亚马逊公司早期的一名员工，她说：“贝索斯可能是有些高高在上……”她主要是指贝索斯在会议上严厉责骂下属的方式。“但我看得出杰夫有副热心肠，”拉塔沙克说，“他想要的不仅仅是让客户满意或是让他们建立忠诚度，他是想让客户感到愉悦。”

天才少年成长记

甚至从童年时代开始，人们就知道杰弗里·P·贝索斯身上有某些与众不同的地方。他的母亲说，有一天她发现她那蹒跚学步的儿子正试着用一把螺丝刀拆掉自己的婴儿床。贝索斯喜欢在车库里鼓捣一些小发明，曾经用锡箔纸和一把伞造出了一个太阳能灶。他还是《星际迷航》的粉丝。

上高中时，在麦当劳辛苦打工了一个夏天之后，他和当时的女友决定为爱好科学的孩子们创办一个夏令营。他们给夏令营起名为“梦想协会”。在那里，孩子们可以读到《格列佛游记》、《沙丘》、《沃特希普荒原》等书的精选篇章。他们研究黑洞，还在苹果电脑上编写简单的程序，让自己的名字在屏幕上滚动。

现年41岁的詹姆斯·肖克特在九岁时参加过那个夏令营，他说夏令营“激励了他的一生”。“想象一下，你几乎整天都和杰夫·贝索斯待在一起啊。他是一个极其睿智、极其博学的人，你可以和他谈论任何话题。”肖克特现在是北卡罗来纳州一家公司的助理财务总监，在他的简历上有这样一句话：“在杰夫·贝索斯的引领下认识计算机。”

贝索斯还曾立志成为中学时代学习方面的佼佼者。“他不是书呆子，对各种社团活动都能应付自如。但他非常专注于成为班里的第一名。”他中学时的好友乔舒亚·温斯坦说。还有好几个人也在竞争之列，“但杰夫肯定是最有竞争力的”，温斯坦说。

但是，上了大学后，年轻的贝索斯不得不渐渐认识到一个令人沮丧的事实：他再也不能自认为是班里最聪明的学生了，至少在他所选的专业领域是这样。他去普林斯顿大学时选的是物理学，但在学量子力学时，他意识到自己开始落后于他人。“普林斯顿大学教给我的最重要的一点是，我还没聪明到能成为一名物理学家，”他后来回忆道，言语之间流露出对比他更优秀的人的敬畏，“班上有那么三四个人，他们的头脑显然天生与众不同，就是用来处理这些高度抽象的概念的。”毕业时，他拿到的是电子工程和计算机科学专业的理学学士学位，而非物理学专业的学位。

在从普林斯顿大学毕业后的头几年里，贝索斯的生活多少有些躁动不安。他先是供职于一家初创企业，后来又加入纽约一家金融公司。他结了婚，有一份好工作。他本可以过上舒适自在的生活。然而，互联网不断展露的可能性及其飞速发展让这位有着创业天赋的车库发明家心痒难耐。他要投身于这场革命。

开创亚马逊帝国

贝索斯在华盛顿州贝尔维尤市开创的亚马逊帝国有着广为人知的传奇故事，该公司的起源便是其中之一。但鲜为人知的是，贝索斯和一些最早期的员工在关于公司的诸多理念上存在分歧。而这些分歧概括性地显示出了贝索斯那特征鲜明的勃勃雄心。

一些亚马逊早期的员工曾说，他们认为自己要打造的是新奇、独立的虚拟书店，而不是去冲击现有的实体书店。“直到今天，我无论何时走进自己喜欢的书店，都暗暗觉得不好意思，抬不起头。”一位最早期的员工说道。另一位早期员工尼古拉斯·洛夫乔伊则质疑公司要成为“互联网上的沃尔玛”这一使命。

然而，贝索斯的目标始终是要建立一个庞大的零售帝国，并为实现这一梦想付出了不懈的努力。有一次，当一名员工打算安排一次烧烤野餐来庆祝公司日交易额第一次达到5000美元时，贝索斯回应说：“这不是我们要做的。我们需要变得更强、更好。我们需要提供更多的服务。”

就连那些对公司不抱有太大野心的早期员工也说，他们最终不得不承认，亚马逊帝国确实为社会做出了有益的贡献。“我们开始收到人们用电子邮件发来的感谢信，发信人中有住在中西部、距离最近的书店也要200英里的女士，还有驻海外的军人。他们忽然之间可以买到任何想要的书籍，”一名员工回忆说，“我们所有人，包括贝索斯在内，都为此庆祝了一番。人们能买到他们想看的书——这是一件很棒的事。”

羽翼未丰的亚马逊公司很快就得以繁荣发展，位居业界前茅，这既得益于互联网的蓬勃发展，也离不开它自身的高效率。该公司在创立短短几年后就有了数百万美元的营收，尽管尚未实现赢利。然而，后来随着互联网泡沫破裂，很多受技术热情推动的企业转瞬之间跌落谷底。亚马逊公司的股票市值在一天之内就减少了30亿美元。许多分析人士都以“烤焦了的亚马逊”揶揄该公司。

在公司内部，员工们纷纷焦虑起来，有的还萌生了退意。“当我们被称作‘烤焦了的亚马逊’时，我意识到我们有150名员工，而巴诺书店有三万名员工，”贝索斯在一次参加《查理·罗斯访谈录》节目时回忆说，“还有人写文章称，亚马逊虽然出了两年风头，但如今巨擘们纷纷登场，他们将击垮亚马逊。”

贝索斯召开了一次员工会议。“我说：‘瞧，你们每天早晨都会带着忧虑和恐惧醒来。不过，别为我们的竞争对手操心，因为他们永远不会送给我们一分钱。我们还是关心下我们的客户，专心致志，埋头苦干吧。’”

面对外界，他同样显得沉着冷静。当《商业周刊》的一名记者就亚马逊盈利不足的问题发问并质疑其商业模式时，贝索斯的回答很干脆。“我能用一个词来回答你吗？”他说，“扯淡！”确实，从那以后，贝索斯把那些唱反调的人远远抛在了后面——亚马逊公司发展成为业界巨人，拥有九万多名员工，去年的营收额达到了610亿美元。

亚马逊之外的精彩人生

贝索斯今年49岁，曾经的好奇男孩似乎已拥有非常完满的生活。他的妻子麦肯齐是一名小说家，其作品广受好评。他们育有四个孩子。此外，作为世界上最富有的人之一，贝索斯能以各种各样的方式来放纵他那狂野的好奇心。

贝索斯正力图通过他的航天公司——蓝色起源公司来推进人类对太阳系的探索。他还给一台据称能运转一万年的机械装置“今日永存时钟”投资了数千万美元。

今年春天，贝索斯在好奇心的驱使下又步入了瞬息万变的新闻业。自他收购《华盛顿邮报》一事公之于众以来，找到贝索斯邮箱地址的报纸读者便开始纷纷向他发问。而以客户服务赢得声誉的贝索斯也名副其实，对这些问题一一作答。在刚刚过去的一周里（编注：原文发表于2013年8月11日），有许多客户给贝索斯发来邮件，而“他回复了每一封邮件”，《华盛顿邮报》的发行人凯瑟琳·韦默思说。

有个花了几百美元刊登结婚启事的男士对该报的服务不太满意。他写信给贝索斯说：“谢天谢地你来了，只有你才知道什么叫客户服务！”韦默思给他回了信，但“两秒钟内”，贝索斯也回信了。“感谢你的来信，”贝索斯对他说，“请继续提出您的意见！”

1. morbid [?m??（r）b?d] adj. 病态的

2. excruciating [?k?skru??i?e?t??] adj. 极痛苦的；难忍受的

3. Charlie Rose：《查理·罗斯访谈录》，美国公共电视网的一档议题节目

4. Harvard Business Review：《哈佛商业评论》，哈佛商学院的标志性杂志

5. The Washington Post：《华盛顿邮报》，美国华盛顿哥伦比亚特区最有声望、历史最悠久的报纸

6. tenacious [t??ne???s] adj. 顽强的；固执的

7. decimate [?des?me?t] vt. 大量毁灭；大大削弱……的力量

8. tirade [ta??re?d] n. 长篇的指责性发言

9. chew out：〈美口〉严厉责骂

10. Trekkie [?treki] n.《星际迷航》迷；对星球旅行感兴趣者

11. Dune：《沙丘》，美国科幻文学巨匠弗兰克·赫伯特（Frank Herbert， 1920～1986）的代表作

12. Watership Down：《沃特希普荒原》，英国小说家理查德·亚当斯（Richard Adams， 1920～）的处女作

13. quantum mechanics：[物]量子力学

14. tantalize [?t?nt?la?z] vt. 逗弄，使……备尝可望而不可即之苦

15. encapsulate [?n?k?psj?le?t] vt. 概括；概述

16. fledgling [?fled?l??] adj. 羽翼未丰的，刚创办的

17. Barnes & Noble：巴诺书店，美国最大的实体连锁书店

18. steamroll [?sti?m?r??l] vt.〈口〉以势压倒，压垮

19. sang-froid [?s???frwɑ?] n. 冷静，镇定，沉着

20. BusinessWeek：美国《商业周刊》，全球最大的商业杂志

21. baloney [b??l??ni] n.〈美俚〉（尤指唬人的）胡扯，鬼话

22. colossus [k??l?s?s] n. 大企业

23. Blue Origin：蓝色起源公司，一家由贝索斯建立的私人航天企业