Stories
Aesop
BN's own
Modern parables
Zen
"A delicious stone soup. All it lacks is some carrots."
The young man went away and fetched some carrots. After that, another young man came along and was told that all the soup lacked was potatoes so he brought those. More people came and in turn brought different vegetables. In the end, after many vegetables were added, the result was that the soup really was delicious.
Amazon Books evolved in a similar way.
A man called Jeff Bezos wanted to start a business on the Internet. First, he got a computer. Then he set up a website offering to sell books cheaper than bookstores. Customers order the book by email and the book is sent by post. Following this, Mr Bezos added service: reviews of the books by famous critics. In addition to this, readers also send in feedback of books by email. One thing led to another and now Amazon Books offers millions of titles and sell millions of dollars of books each year.
Like stone soup, Amazon Books, whose Internet address is amazon.com, started out with virtually nothing and has ended up as a giant bookseller through the contributions of many passers-by.