To the Relentless One

Dear Mr. Jeffrey Preston Bezos,

You are not a doctor. You are not a nurse. You are not a first responder. Yet, without you and other captains of industry, there would be none of the aforementioned roles to speak of at all. Your greed and selfishness have empowered hundreds of thousands of employees, engaged millions of other businesses to negotiate, and entertained, enlightened and enthralled billions of people around the world with your work through Amazon or as I like to call it,“Jeff Bezos’ Everything Store,” and other firms.

You, sir, have revolutionized the way that people read exciting books, ship and receive packages, and enjoy movies, TV, and other forms of entertainment. Since you have created the most value in the world today, your spiritual and physical sense has often been targeted. Factions believe that you should pay higher taxes and give away your fortune to the needy. This should never be the case. You have your riches because you created something that everyone wants but didn’t realize that they needed at first. Why would I need to use a digital streaming service when there’s already other companies on the market with similar offerings? Why would I need to have my packages at my doorstep in two days with free shipping? Why are there stations around town for me to pick up such deliveries? Mr. Bezos, you’ve answered these questions and more with your sage business skills and eye for detail.

With the COVID-19 pandemic seeking to wreck economies, households and above all the individual, you have kept busy, to say the least. Like a scientist in a lab seeking out a new vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus, you have kept your Blue Origin company going, despite workers stricken with the illness. It has been declared that you donated $100 million to Feeding America. While this is a benevolent gesture of goodwill and a capacity to show compassion for people who deserve it, this act is not what makes you ethical. Your morality lies in the fact that you have generated an immense fortune through the power of your mind.

Your donation signals that you have a brain and that the heart is just a glorified (and glorious) pump. People often confuse the word altruistic with being kind or good-natured. But that is not the case. Egoism is the bedrock for any act of kindness or goodness in the world. It is the individual who prizes selfishness who seeks to see happiness, cooperation, and unity among people.

Your benevolence is a result of your ability to be a businessman of the highest order. With all of your business acumen, you have demonstrated that putting the dollar first is of prime importance. It goes against that cliché which has become quite a staple during these times: “we’re all in this together.” This false and utterly malicious statement would have to mean that the lowest thug should access your bank account because we’re “all in the same boat.” Philosopher and author Ayn Rand once termed these circumstances as regarding living in a “life boat.” But we don’t. This current crisis is important because it opens up the dialogue about what to do in emergencies. Medical staff are tasked with providing administrative orders, securing the right amount of doctors and nurses to send to patients, and to cover the electricians, construction workers, and janitors and other workers who make up an ecosystem of a hospital setting. Your Amazon Web Services (AWS) Healthcare and Life Sciences cloud computing component permits wellness providers the tools that they need for executing clinical needs.

The source of all this, of course is again, your mind. It is the human ability to choose to reason that makes life on earth special. And when times like these occur, it is people like you who show the rest of us that whatever their scale of talent or ability, anyone can show that they have the thing that thinks.

As some have panicked in the face of the dire situation in which we currently find ourselves, you have stood unwavering in your quest to mitigate unreason throughout your companies. By putting out into the world a strong tower of reason, you have been able to guide folks of all stripes to places of thought and rationality. Those are qualities that the world needs right now.

With numbers of infected and deaths continuing to rise and our way of life turned completely upside-down, you have marched on like a five-star general in the field. Your capacity to think logically has become an inspiration for billions around the world. Your products like Prime Video provide much needed entertainment to get through these hard times. Whole Foods provides grocery delivery services. The chance to purchase virtually anything in your online store provides tremendous joy and satisfaction. The value that you have created and continue to create motivates young entrepreneurs to risk, fail, reconfigure, and gain huge wins in their lives and in the lives of their families.

The self-interest that is required to run a business is immense. There are times when you have been tried and yet you have risen from those depths. You, sir, are the essential worker. You make all of the other jobs under you possible. Without a management strategy to guide those medical teams that use the technology that you fostered, there would literally be a world of hurt. Instead, your extraordinary capability to recognize problems and allow individuals to solve them further shines a light on your fantastic work.

Your willingness to see good in humanity ought to serve as a guiding light for all travelers on this journey called life. It is because of you that so many people have life and have it more abundantly. You have taken a modest book company and transformed it into one of the most illustrious companies in human history. In the process, you’ve made quite a coin for yourself. And that is what should be championed rather than the fact that you gave a percentage of your fortune to charity. Where does it stop? Why shouldn’t you give all of your money away? The truth is that you’ve earned each dime and shouldn’t be punished for it.

For your unforgiving business skills, you’ve been a friend to all people and should be congratulated for it. I salute you, sir.

S.S.