Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire

by Brad Stone

“My life is based on a large series of mistakes,” he said, after an eloquent introduction from his oldest son, nineteen-year-old Preston. “I’m kind of famous for it in the business realm. How many people here have a Fire Phone?” The crowd guffawed and was silent—Amazon’s 2014 smartphone had infamously bombed. “Yeah, no, none of you do. Thanks,” he said to laughs. “Every interesting thing I’ve ever done, every important thing I’ve ever done, every beneficial thing I’ve ever done, has been through a cascade of experiments and mistakes and failures,” Bezos continued. “I’m covered in scar tissues as a result of this.” He recalled selecting McCurdy from binders of artists provided by the museum, and said he was looking for “someone who would paint me hyper-realistically, with every flaw, every imperfection, every piece of scar tissue that I have.”