> That's not Amazon's fault; that's the business' fault. This is no different than the Walmart's, Barnes and Nobles (remember when there were small bookstores?), etc. of the world.
One way in which Amazon is different is that they were able to loose boatloads of investor money to get to where they are today. That is not true for your father (who I empathize with) or even with Walmart or Barnes and Noble who have traditional investors who were not willing to allow the type of pie in the sky losses that Amazon got their investors to go along with. For one thing Amazon was a new (internet) business and those others were existing businesses. So this is not a case of simply 'work smarter and harder' or even close. Amazon is a special case. And despite what anyone thinks it was not assured in any way that they would get to the dominant position they are today. Honestly it defied many of the traditional rules of business. And only worked because Bezos (like Musk, Jobs) was able to be both a celebrity, visionary and have the type of control that they had. Not the same as what your Dad can do no matter how smart and driven he might be. [1]
[1] Back in the day there was a tv show about a blind man that made it through medical school. I believe it was based on a real situation (man became a psychiatrist). In any case an outlier like that does not prove 'it's possible' at least on any repeat basis.
One way in which Amazon is different is that they were able to loose boatloads of investor money to get to where they are today. That is not true for your father (who I empathize with) or even with Walmart or Barnes and Noble who have traditional investors who were not willing to allow the type of pie in the sky losses that Amazon got their investors to go along with. For one thing Amazon was a new (internet) business and those others were existing businesses. So this is not a case of simply 'work smarter and harder' or even close. Amazon is a special case. And despite what anyone thinks it was not assured in any way that they would get to the dominant position they are today. Honestly it defied many of the traditional rules of business. And only worked because Bezos (like Musk, Jobs) was able to be both a celebrity, visionary and have the type of control that they had. Not the same as what your Dad can do no matter how smart and driven he might be. [1]
[1] Back in the day there was a tv show about a blind man that made it through medical school. I believe it was based on a real situation (man became a psychiatrist). In any case an outlier like that does not prove 'it's possible' at least on any repeat basis.