When we’re talking about the world’s richest men, Jeff Bezos obviously tops the rank. He, who is an American entrepreneur and e-commerce pioneer is the creator of so favored online store Amazon.com. To add, he is the owner of The Washington Post and also the founder of Blue Origin, a company that aims to make space travel affordable to ordinary people. What spiked his richness is obviously his vision of having his customers preferences at top priority, no matter what he’s working for.
A hyper-intelligent, ultra-driven individual, extraordinarily ambitious person, Jeff Bezos to this day seeks to push the possibilities of modern technology beyond the imaginable
Short Bio
| Name | Bezos |
| Birth Name | Jeffrey Preston Bezos |
| Birth Date | January 12, 1964 |
| Birth Place | Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| Mother | Jacklyn Gise Bezos |
| Father | Ted Jorgensen (biological father) Mike Bezos (adopted Jeff Bezos) |
| Sibling | Mark Bezos (stepbrother) |
| Nationality | American |
| Age | 56 years old |
| Education Qualifications | Degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University |
| Current residence | Medina, Washington |
| Profession | Businessperson, Entrepreneur, Investor, Industrialist |
| Net Worth | 145.2 billion USD (as of 2020) |
| Marital Status | Divorced to MacKenzie Bezos In a relationship with Lauren Sanchez |
| Children | Three sons and one adopted daughter together with MacKenzie Bezos |
Short about Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, originally named as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen, to a teenage mother, Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen, and his biological father, Ted Jorgensen. The marriage which lasted for around a year, his mother remarried Mike Bezos, a Cuban immigrant, when Jeff was 4 years old. After Mike adopted him, Jeff’s surname was changed to Bezos.
Ted Jorgensen was one of Albuquerque’s top uni-cyclists whereas Mike was an engineer for Exxon – American, an oil and gas company that flourished from the mid-1940’s to the 1970’s. Jeff thus, was prone to technologies since early days of his life. As an effect of which, he showed interest in scientific matters from an early age.
As a toddler, he had managed to dismantle his crib with a screwdriver and as a teen, he had developed an electric alarm to keep younger siblings out of his room. Jeff’s parents eventually asked him to move all his stuff to their garage which he converted into a laboratory for his science projects.
Education
Jeff Bezos went to River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade. When the family moved to Florida, Jeff was transferred to Miami Palmetto Senior High School. That was the time when Jeff realized his love for computers. He excelled in his studies and was even invited to participate in the Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida, where he won a Silver Knight Award in 1982 and was a National Merit Scholar.
Bezos graduated as the school’s valedictorian, and a National Merit Scholar, securing his spot at Princeton University. Bezos graduated with two Bachelor of Science degrees in computer science and electrical engineering from Princeton University as he studied physics along with computers as his love for computers. His grandfather, Lawrence Gise, was a huge role model in his life as he had wide-ranging knowledge of science. Initially, Bezos started his first business at school called The Dream Institute, and it was an educational summer camp for fourth, fifth and sixth graders.
Start of Career
When Bezos graduated, he was offered jobs by many renowned companies such as Intel, Bell Labs, and Andersen Consulting, Bezos turned those down to start at Fitel. In 1988 Bezos transitioned into the banking industry, becoming a product manager at Bankers Trust. In 1990, Bezos became D.E. Shaw’s youngest vice president. Bezos worked here until 1994, then moved to Seattle and targeted the untapped potential of the Internet market by opening an online bookstore.
A journey to billions
The idea for internet business came to Bezos on a road trip from New York to Seattle, the internet store where he could sell CDs, software, and hardware and of course books. And as per the then supreme court’s decision, he wouldn’t have to pay any tax for the items he sold via the internet, as it didn’t obtain the physical presence.
With $1 million raised from family and friends, Bezos rented a house in Seattle and set up his business in the garage. Bezos initially incorporated the company as “Cadabra” on July 5, 1994. But later, he decided on Amazon.com after looking through the words that start with A in the dictionary. Bezos liked the resonance between one of the planet’s longest rivers and largest bookstore. For nearly a year, Bezos and a crew of five employees worked out of the garage, learning how to source books and setting up a computer system that would make Amazon easy to navigate.
In July 1995, Amazon.com opened its virtual doors, calling itself “Earth’s Biggest Book Store,” with more than 1 million titles to choose from. The superior customer service and the user-friendly design of the site with an enormous selection of books, Amazon.com had grown into a company of 100 employees and had racked up more than $15.7 million in sales by September 1996. Three years later, amazon was employing more than 3,000 employees and having the sales of more than $610 million.
Barnes & Noble became the competing company for Jeff doing similar business whereas the forward-thinking Bezos had already expanded Amazon’s product line to include CDs and replaced “Earth’s Biggest Book Store” with the tagline “Books, Music and More,” leaving Barnes & Noble behind. In 1999 Bezos added auctions to the site and invested in other virtual stores. Jeff Bezos’s success of Amazon encouraged other retailers, including major book chains, to establish online stores. Bezos’s family had each invested $10 thousand dollars from the start as a backup plan and by the end of the decade they officially became multimillionaires, and Jeff was named Time’s Person of the Year in 1999.
Adding to business, later clothes, electronics, toys and more through major retail partnerships, the amazon kept extending broader. Amazon diversified even further in 2006 by introducing Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon launched the Kindle in November 2007. What not Jeff Bezos planned on a simple online store from food facilities to health facilities to tech facilities and much more. Until today, Jeff Bezos,s startup, Amazon.in has successfully made it’s web in most countries of the world. In short, his influence has globalized the Globe.
Starting from a garage and reaching a high-classed glassy office room, Jeff’s vision along with dedication, much hard work and of course willingness to ease people’s life with what he can is what hyped his success.
Jeff Bezos’s involvement aside from Amazon is a spaceflight company, Blue Origin, which he founded in 2000. Blue Origin bought a launch site in Texas soon thereafter and planned to introduce a crewed suborbital spacecraft, New Shepard, in 2018 and an orbital launch vehicle, New Glenn, in 2020. Bezos bought The Washington Post and affiliated publications in 2013.
On July 27, 2017, Bezos momentarily became the world’s wealthiest person over Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates when his estimated net worth increased to just over $90 billion. His wealth surpassed $100 billion for the first time on November 24, 2017, and he was formally designated the wealthiest person in the world by Forbes on March 6, 2018, with a net worth of $112 billion. As of August 2019, both Bloomberg and Forbes estimated Bezos’ net worth at $110 billion, or more than 1.9 million times the median American household income. Bezos topped Forbes’ list of wealthiest people in the world in both 2018 and 2019.
Jeff Bezos’s Personal Life
Jeff Bezos’s first meet with ex-wife, then MacKenzie Scott, was while working for D.E. Shaw in 1992. A year later the couple was married and then moved to Seattle, Washington in 1994. Jeff and MacKenzie have four children together, three sons and a daughter they adopted from China. However on January 9, 2019, Bezos and his wife announced their divorce on Twitter after 25 years of marriage.
MacKenzie is now the wealthiest woman of the world, whereas the 12th wealthiest person in the world, as of 2020.
After his divorce, it was revealed that Jeff Bezos is in a relationship with television host Lauren Sanchez. Sanchez divorced her husband in April 2019. She and Bezos made their first public appearance as a couple that July at Wimbledon.
Acknowledgments owned by Jeff Bezos
| Year | Acknowledgment |
| 1999 | Time’s Person of the year |
| 2008 | Selected as America’s best leaders by US News and World Report |
| 2008 | Honorary doctorate in science and technology from Carnegie Mellon University |
| 2011 | Innovation Award for the Amazon Kindle by The Economist |
| 2012 | Businessperson of the Year by Fortune |
| 2014 | Best-performing CEO in the world by Harvard Business Review |
| 2015 | Topped the Fortune’s list of 50 great leaders of the world |
| 2016 | Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization |
| 2018 | Elected to the National Academy of Engineering |
| 2018 | Buzz Aldrin Space Exploration Award |
| 2018 | Germany’s Axel Springer Award for Business Innovation and Social Responsibility |
| 2018 | Listed in Time’s 100 most influential people in the world. |
He is also a member of the Bilderberg Group and attended the 2011 Bilderberg conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and the 2013 conference in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. He was a member of the Executive Committee of The Business Council for 2011 and 2012.
More about Jeff Bezos
- Jeff Bezos have supported the legalization of same-sex marriage, and in 2012 contributed $2.5 million to Washington United for Marriage.
- In 2016, A Star Trek fan since childhood, Bezos stepped in front of the camera for a cameo appearance playing an alien in Star Trek Beyond in 2016.
- In 2018, Bezos launched the Bezos Day One Fund, which focuses on “funding existing non-profits that help homeless families, and creating a network of new, non-profit tier-one preschools in low-income communities.”
- In August 2019, NASA announced that Blue Origin was among 13 companies selected to collaborate on 19 technology projects to reach the moon and Mars.
- On February 17, 2020, Bezos announced that he was launching the Bezos Earth Fund to combat the potentially devastating effects of climate change.
- Bezos has earned the same $81,840 salary at Amazon every year since 1998, and he has never taken a stock award. However, his shares of Amazon have made him a very wealthy man.
- Jeff Bezos was invited to join Donald Trump’s Defense Innovation Advisory Board, but he declined the offer without further comment.
Also, twitter faced a major hack in 2020, where several high-profile accounts fell victim to cryptocurrency scam. Bezos was one of them including the accounts of Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Formore US President Barak Obama and many more. It could be one of the biggest breach that social media has seen to date. The account holders could get no hold to their account as fake-tweets started appearing on these accounts with same theme of “send some money and we’ll send you back”!!
The man of good vision, who is very keen at putting customers first and being passionate about what to do has kept up his on-going success. The personality, who is 36% richer than the British monarchy has obtained it all because of his obsession and passion. The founder of Amazon obviously knows a few things about starting companies and making customers happy. He has lasted through an entire generation contributing exceptional service time and time again.
“Don’t satisfy your customers, figure out how to absolutely delight them. That is the number one thing no matter who your customers are.”, as in words of Jeff Bezos, details and teaches the others that whatever or however you do, give your all so will you gain in return. Jeff Bezos’s involvement in activities of social cause and working in what people favor teaches people a great story of morality and humanity as well. More importantly, Jeff hugely influences huge number of people with his success story that moving forward while accepting the criticisms help you improve and empower.
