From Books to Riches Fri, Jun 23, 2017

Quick announcement from Courtney:

Self Assessments: You guys should find your self assessments in your inboxes this morning. They are coming to you from SurveyMonkey, so check your spam or SaneLater if you don't see them. They are due a week from today so that we can start the review process in July. Thanks!

As most of us probably know by now, last week Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.4 billion. This is clearly a monumental deal and shows just how big of a company Amazon is. What I think is even more impressive than this immense buyout, is where Amazon started. Today we know Amazon as the enormous worldwide retailer that sells just about everything under the sun, but back in 1994 when Amazon started they sold one thing: books. Initially Amazon was simply an online book retailer that competed with local book stores. Slowly but surely Amazon started carrying more product lines such as DVDs, electronics, toys, jewelry, and shoes. In 2005 Amazon Prime was first introduced, followed by the Amazon Kindle in 2007. In the last 10 years Amazon has gone from releasing their first Kindle, to now being the king of shipping and owning one of the largest supermarket chains in the world.

What I take away from what Amazon has done is that success does not come overnight. It took 23 years for Amazon to get to where they are today. So go out and work hard, because a small success today could lead to a huge success down the line. Have a great weekend guys!