Jeff Bezos explains why Thomas Edison and Walt Disney were heroes for him

In this interview from 2001, Bezos is asked who his role models growing up were. In addition to family role models, he also had historical role models:

“Two people I always would read about were Thomas Edison and Walt Disney. Those were my two biographical heroes.”

Bezos had always been interested in invention and Edison:

“Edison is not only the symbol of that but the actual fact of that. I’ve always felt that there’s a certain kind of important pioneering that goes on from an inventor like Thomas Edison.”

With respect to Disney:

“He was also a real pioneer and inventor of doing new things, but it seemed to me that he had this incredible capability to create a vision that he could get a large number of people to share… The things Disney invented, like Disneyland, were such big visions that no single individual—unlike a lot of the things Edison worked on—could ever pull off. Walt Disney really was able to get a big team of people working in a concerted direction.”

Full video: Manufacturing Intellect “Jeff Bezos interview on Starting Amazon (2001)“ (Oct 2001)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Jeff Bezos insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Jeff Bezos"