As Jeff Bezos looks back upon the history of the formation of Amazon, he does not start with the dreams of world-conquering, cloud technology, or next-day delivery. He returns to something much more primitive and much more vulnerable, a period when the greatest obstacle was to convince the people that the internet itself was not imaginary, but useful and worthy of gambling on. Way before the Amazon became a household name, Bezos was just a founder with an idea that the majority of people did not grasp and many even publicly rejected.

In an interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit, Bezos said that raising first round of seed capital in 1995 to start Amazon was the toughest endeavor he has undertaken. This is a powerful quote to say the least, as it was made by the person who went on to create one of the most powerful companies globally. Amazon was merely an idea at the time of just being an online bookstore with its headquarters in a garage in Seattle. The goal was big, the atmosphere was very doubtful.

Bezos used close to 60 meetings with potential investors to raise about one million dollars which he knew was the required amount to get the company moving. Among such conversations, approximately 40 proved to be rejected. The figures themselves indicate how big a fight one should have, yet the situation makes the fight even more obvious. This did not simply concern making investors believe that selling books online was a good idea. It was the need to explain a completely novel approach of conducting business in the world that was yet to undergo the era of physical shops, printed catalogues and telephone calls.

Bezos remembered that the meetings used to start with a relatively simple question: What is the internet? The World Wide Web was something new to investors who were used to the traditional industries. The fact that people would part with their money by using the internet, expect their books to be delivered via mail, and that they would feel comfortable using a computer screen instead of shelves, appeared implausible. Bezos had to train his audience on the medium before he could discuss margins or growth.

The difficulty here points to a common fact concerning revolutionary concepts. The more disruptive a concept is, the more difficult it would be to explain within the current frameworks. The internet is not something that was implemented in everyday life in 1995. No iPhone, no social networking sites, no history of massive online trade. Requesting investors to finance Amazon was not merely requesting them to support an organization. It was requesting them to carve a future that was very different compared to the current state of affairs.

One of the most impressive elements of the early fundraising strategy of Bezos concerns his honesty regarding risk. Instead of exaggerating the confidence, he opted to tell the truth. He informed the potential investors that he thought that they stood a 70 percent chance of losing their money. Reflectively, I believe that could have been a naive thing to do but later on Bezos said, I believe it was true. In startup pitches, this degree of candor is uncommon and optimism tends to cross into exaggeration.

Probably, that frankness was one of the reasons behind some of the rejections. To a large number of investors, it would have been the founders admitting of such a high risk, therefore confirming their suspicions. However, this strategy also showed a very fundamental aspect of the mindset of Bezos. He did not want fast profits and hyped-up promises. He was operating on long-term basis even at the expense of being rejected every time in the short run.

It is the culture of hearing no over and over that shaped the first culture of Amazon. Perseverance was not a tenet of an ideal; it was a need of everyday. Every rejection made Bezos perfect his explanation, explain his vision, and increase his conviction. In the long run, even those few investors who replied yes were not just investing in a start-up. They were investing in a world in which they viewed the internet as an area of unlimited growth.

In retrospect, one is tempted to consider such initial suspicions shortsighted. In retrospect, the cynicism of the 1990s can appear to be akin to idiocy in light of the success of Amazon. The response to that would, however, be missing a key point. It was prudent to be careful at the time. The internet was yet to establish itself as a business driver. True risk, vague policies and lack of profitability map were in place. Not to rush was only natural to many investors; they just did not want to jump into the realm of the unknown.

The story of Bezos is familiar since it has an essential truth of innovation. New ideas are usually unbelievable initially and more so those ones that are revolutionary like those that oppose habitual practices. Patience, endurance and readiness to tolerate a lack of understanding is needed to explain such ideas. It involves also believing in a future which other people cannot yet envision.

Over thirty years later Amazon is the testament that persistence can have its way and vision can be manifested. The memory by Bezos, however, is a wake-up call that nothing is always an even ride. In front of the headlines and milestones there are silent rooms, disbelieving faces and refusals repeated. It is easy to lose sight of the sweat that goes before the glory.

It also has a more general implication to entrepreneurs and investors. To founders, it does not always mean that the idea is rejectable. It can be the timing, lack of familiarity or fear of change. To investors, the case is a warning on the price of being too fast in rejecting new ideas. Not all dangerous ideas will work, but some of the most radical ones appear unreasonable without a second look.

Bezos does not present those 40 rejections bitterly. Rather, he talks of them in a matter-of-fact sort of way, nearer to a rite of passage. Such an attitude indicates being mature and being self-conscious. It recognizes the fact that innovation needs both believers and skeptics and that the development is usually born out of the conflict between the two.

Nowadays, when internet-based businesses and digital startups are the new normal and where these platforms form the core of the global economy, it is simple to lose track of how alien these concepts used to appear. The initial experience with raising funds by Bezos brings us to that point of uncertainty, when even the definition of the internet was in the pitch. It makes one think of the pace at which the world is evolving, and how sluggish human confidence is at times.