Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos believes young entrepreneurs should spend years learning from established companies before launching their own ventures. He says early career experience builds critical skills.
Speaking at Italian Tech Week in Turin earlier this month, Bezos said his decade-long corporate career before founding Amazon gave him a “much better shot” at success. “I always advise young people: go work at a best-practices company where you can learn basic fundamentals—how to hire, how to interview,” CNBC Make It quoted him as saying. “There’s still lots of time to start a company after you’ve absorbed it.”
Bezos launched Amazon at age 30, after working at three firms: Fitel, Banker’s Trust, and hedge fund DE Shaw. He credited Shaw with helping him identify early internet opportunities, including a statistic showing web usage growing at 2,300 percent annually. That insight led him to start an online retail business.
College dropouts are exceptions, not the rule
While some entrepreneurs have built billion-dollar startups without formal education or work experience, Bezos called them “the exception".
“I think that extra 10 years of experience actually improved the odds that Amazon would succeed,” Bezos said. He also said he has no regrets about earning his degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton. “I enjoyed college and I think it’s been helpful to me.”
Bezos urges patience and preparation
The billionaire entrepreneur emphasised that gaining hands-on experience at high-performing companies helps build the skills and judgment needed to lead a business. “There’s a lot of stuff you would learn in a great company that will help you,” he said.
Read more: CEO reveals how Jeff Bezos convinced him to quit Microsoft for 'tiny' Amazon in the 90s
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