Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: biography and character of a billionaire

“Without willpower, inertia always wins” Tony Hsieh

The world is filled with thousands of incredible success stories! Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford. These people seem completely different from us. It feels like at birth someone told them a great secret of wealth, accessible only to a select number of people. They were just lucky, they were in the right place at the right time, most people think! But, often, all these stories begin in disadvantaged areas, without starting resources, surrounded by people from whom you should not expect support.

When we read hundreds of inspirational quotes, we often don't realize that behind every dollar we earn is a tremendous amount of work on ourselves. How can that be? Is it really possible to reach such heights as an ordinary person? Yes, yes and yes again! One such story is the success story of Jeff Bezos, which will be discussed in this article.

Childhood

Native American, Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. His parents, Jacqueline Guise and Ted Jorgensen, met at school. When Jacqueline became pregnant, she was 17 years old and Ted was 18. They went to Mexico with their parents' money to get married. The marriage did not last long: a year after the birth of their son, the couple filed for divorce. Jeff Bezos has never met his biological father, believing that this role rightfully belongs to Cuban Mike Bezos, his mother's second husband. The man adopted his wife's child and raised him as his own.

An inquisitive mind was evident from early childhood - his favorite pastime was disassembling into parts everything that was lying badly in his father’s garage. At the age of 6, he independently developed an alarm that would go off when someone tried to violate the privacy of his room. Another original creation is the “solar microwave”, consisting of foil and an umbrella. With its help, in the bright rays of the sun, it was possible to make a couple of hot sandwiches.

A large role in the upbringing of Jeff Bezos, whose biography was the subject of our review, belongs to his grandfather, Lawrence Preston, who before his retirement served as regional director of the US Atomic Energy Commission. Summer holidays at his ranch allowed the boy to fully demonstrate his talents. Together they repaired water pumps, combines, and mills, and while Jeff was in high school, they organized an educational camp for children. Grandfather and Grandmother were members of a club traveling around America and Canada with their caravans, and their grandson enthusiastically took part in these trips.

Brief biography of the businessman and the history of the creation of Amazon

Jeff Bezos did not live long with his biological father.
Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The maternal relatives are considered to be among the earliest settlers of the state of Texas. Mother - Jacqueline Giese Jorgenson, biological father - Ted Jorgenson. Jeff's parents were married for less than a year, and when the boy was four years old, his mother married an immigrant from Cuba, Miguel Bezos.

At the age of six, Jeff was sent to a school for gifted children, as he showed an interest in engineering from an early age. The boy was always taking things apart and constructing something, and he was also very interested in everything cosmic.

Even as a child, Jeff Bezos demonstrated his ingenuity

After completing school, Jeff entered Princeton University in the Department of Electronic Instrumentation and Computer Science of the Faculty of Physics, from which he successfully graduated in 1986 with honors. He even received honors from Phi Beta Kappa.

The future billionaire has proven himself to be an excellent student

After university, Bezos got a job in a number of companies, but did not stay anywhere for long.

These are the following places:

1. Financial company Fitel. She was just beginning her steps in the business world, and Bezos was not satisfied with his role in her. After two years of work, he left this place.
2. Financial company Bankers Trust. Bezos worked there as a software developer from 1988 to 1990.
3. Investment company DE Shaw&Co. Here he held the position of vice president, from which he left in the summer of 1994.

While still working at an investment company, Jeff Bezos turned his attention to online trading. Its role in the economy increased day by day, while there were still free niches for self-realization. This interested Bezos so much that he decided to try himself in this field. However, the risk was great, and his family did not initially support his new project. In 1995, Bezos founded Amazon, whose main specialty was selling books.

The company got its name from the Amazon River and for good reason. By associating the service with a large river, Jeff seemed to be hinting that his company should also become the largest in its industry.

However, the company was not called that right away. At first there were the following naming options:

1. Cadabra, however, in one of the telephone conversations it was confused with cadaver (“corpse”), so this name had to be abandoned.
2. There was also a Relentless variant, the relentless.com domain still exists and sends users to amazon.com.

The company was founded in Seattle.

Jeff chose this city because:

• it is known as a technology hub;
• located near a major book distributor.

Many wondered why Bezos focused his attention on such a product as books. It’s just that the future billionaire analyzed what is mostly purchased on the Internet. Books were on the list of popular products along with clothes and CDs.

Amazon's main focus was selling books.

Jeff's parents helped him with his first financial investments, although they did not express much enthusiasm. The 100 thousand dollars they allocated were used.

Less than a month after Amazon started operating, weekly revenue reached $10,000. Books were sent to all states of the United States and even abroad. The company had more than a million book titles in its database. Customers searched for books using the search bar, paid with a credit card, and received the product within a few days.

Most orders were placed by wholesalers and publishers themselves, so the company didn't even need a warehouse. Amazon received the book and immediately sent it to the customer.

Sales grew so quickly that Bezos decided to expand the range of his online store.

Since 1998, Amazon's assortment began to include:

• music discs and DVDs;
• electronics;
• toys;
• household items;
• software, etc.

The service will gradually expand its product line
. Thus, Bezos has penetrated into almost all retail markets. Now Amazon is the world's largest online retailer, which even does not care about financial crises.

Other projects of Jeff Bezos

The Blue Origin company is focused on space flights.
Among other interesting projects of the entrepreneur, the most often mentioned are:

• Kindle e-reader;
• Amazon Studios, which produces films and TV series;
• private aerospace company Blue Origin for space tourism. Jeff sells 1 billion Amazon shares annually to finance this project.

It is known that the company successfully tested its New Shepard space shuttle, and in 2020 launched a rocket to an altitude of 103 km. Blue Origin is located on the territory of a businessman's ranch in Texas. In May 2020, it was included in the list of companies selected by NASA to develop and manufacture spacecraft prototypes for landing on the Moon.

The company is preparing to send the first space tourists in 2019. How this will actually happen is unknown. Skeptics doubt that Blue Origin will be able to perform such a function.

In 2013, Jeff Bezos acquired the Washington Post publishing house. The transaction amount was $250 million. It is known that the publishing house’s affairs have worsened, just like any other newspaper. The Internet era dictates new rules for business.

The Washington Post publishing house was owned by Jeff Bezos in 2013

Jeff Bezos said that he does not intend to interfere in the affairs of the publishing house, and he honors its traditions. However, he himself later admitted that some changes were still around the corner.

Education

Jeff Bezos (American nationality) graduated from school with honors and was honored to give a farewell speech to the graduates. His school years were spent under the auspices of his passion for physics; he planned to continue to develop his knowledge at Princeton University and become an engineer.

But fate decreed differently: the faculty was overcrowded, there were no places left, and the decision had to be urgently changed. The choice fell on the computer software department. His desire to be the best in any area of ​​his life worked here too: in 1986 he graduated from the university with honors, after which he immediately received many job offers.

Career

Jeff Bezos (you already know his nationality) decided to start his career at Fitel, a company that developed software for stock trading. After two years, he changed his job, concluding an employment contract with Bankers Trust. But this work did not bring satisfaction either; he felt that he could do much more.

New searches bring him together with the investment and management company DEShaw. Its founder, David Shaw, would later say in an interview that he was amazed by the combination of the qualities of a technical specialist with the inexhaustible creativity of Jeff Bezos. The biography contains information that over 4 years of work, Jeff rose to the rank of senior vice president. On instructions from management, he devoted a lot of time to issues of the then little-known Internet, new areas of business, and software.

After university

In 1986, it was time to think about “adult” work. The successful graduate of one of the world's most prestigious universities received many tempting offers. He didn’t accept them and went to the telecommunications startup Fitel. Two years flew by like two days. He started as the eleventh employee of the company and ended up as director of the client department. I managed to be the head of development. However, the startup did not take off.

For two years, Jeff Bezos worked as a developer for Bankers Trust, the largest American bank. In 1990, despite his youth (26 years old), he became its vice president. Naturally, people are not appointed to such positions through connections. The youngest top manager of one of the most influential US banks of the last century is Jeff Bezos.

In the “blind dates” that Jeff’s friends organized, Jeff was unable to find his soulmate.

Finding himself in 1990 at the hedge fund DE Shaw, he met a girl named Mackenzie. There is love at first sight, but here there was an understanding of the essence of a person at first sight. There is no other way to express it. Soon the young people got married. Mackenzie was one of the first people to whom Jeff revealed his ambitious plans to create a bookstore on the World Wide Web. At that time, the Internet in the current sense of the word did not yet exist. Let us remember that the year was 1994. Not everyone had a computer, let alone the Internet. It is logical that his wife became one of the first employees of the future company, which brought Jeff billions.

“I needed a woman who would pull me out of the category of second-class people, who would give me ideas and help me implement them,” said the rich man.

Jeff Bezos: family, personal life

When Jeff realized that he was ready for a serious relationship, he approached this issue thoroughly. I took up dancing and went on blind dates. But it didn’t take long to find the other half. Jeff Bezos's future wife, Mackenzie Tuttle, was an analyst for DE Shaw. More precisely, the acquaintance occurred in 1993, when she appeared on the threshold of his office for an interview.

Jeff Bezos, talking with journalists, always notes not only the beauty and sexuality of his wife, but also her resourcefulness and sharp mind, because he needed a companion who could even get him out of prison in third world countries.

Their offices were located next door. Mackenzie took the first step by inviting him to lunch one day. Subsequently, she noted that she was captivated by the famous booming laugh and immediately fell in love. Three months later, Jeff Bezos's personal life moved to a new level. They got engaged, and six months later they officially registered their marriage.

Does Jeff Bezos have children? Yes, the couple are raising four children. Three of them are the couple’s natural sons, and a daughter from China is adopted. Jeff Bezos' family is large and friendly. One can only envy their happiness.

Jeff Bezos. Facts from the biography of the founder of Amazon

Successful businessman Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964. The parents were Ted Jorgensen and Jacqueline Jais. She was 16, he was 18. Ted didn’t think about fatherhood at all, lived with odd jobs, and loved to have fun. They were together for only a short time, and when little Jeff was only one and a half years old, the young people decided to separate.

Ted Jorgensen in 2013.

Jacqueline is the mother of Jeff Bezos, although she was with the child, she eventually established her personal life.

In 1968, she married Cuban emigrant, oil company engineer Miguel Bezos. According to a beautiful legend, he knew only one word in English - “hamburger”.

Miguel adopted 4-year-old Jeff. This could only be done with the consent of the biological father. The latter was received without problems. From everything we can judge: Ted did not think about his own son, lived his own life and did not think about the future. The stepfather treated his stepson very well, raised him, seriously influenced the boy’s character and even helped him start his own business.

My own father disappeared for many, many years. When I found out about my son who became a multi-billionaire (in 2013–2014), I was imbued with fatherly feelings. I tried to establish a relationship with him. Jeff Bezos did not believe in the sincerity of his mother’s first choice, and besides, a whole life had passed, almost half a century. It's funny that even when writer Brad Stone interviewed Ted Jorgensen, he had no idea who his offspring had become. Jeff has admitted more than once that he considers Miguel to be his true father, and only remembers Ted when filling out a form at a doctor’s appointment.

Changes

According to his biography, Jeff Bezos once read that the number of users of the World Wide Web had increased by 2300% in just one year. He tried to find a niche of goods for trading via the Internet that would be in demand, but in vain - his reasoning led to a dead end. The idea came from his wife, who dreamed of becoming a writer. By the way, she will nevertheless write two books in the future - “The Trial of Luther Albright” and “Traps”, for one of which she will be awarded the American Literary Award.

Then Bezos came up with the idea of ​​selling books online, because to buy them you don’t need to preview or try them on. In addition, he understood that companies selling them by mail would not be able to compete with him. Such companies do not even have the opportunity to create a voluminous advertising catalog for mailing, because in printed form it will be like a large encyclopedia. But the Internet can be filled with an unlimited amount of information.

The next day, Jeff Bezos, whose biography is of great interest today, was already present among the conference participants of the largest publishers, convincing them of the huge prospects for sales through the online store.

DE Shaw's resignation letter reached management's desk by the following Monday morning. His boss David tried his best to sow a seed of doubt in the young entrepreneur’s head, urging him to spend more time developing a step-by-step plan. Jeff had the courage not to listen to reason. So in the spring of 1994, he devoted himself entirely to his business.

Amazon history. The very beginning

The Internet was spreading at a breakneck pace: growth reached 2,300% per year. It's easy to grow from scratch, but the speed is still impressive. This did not escape the attention of the perspicacious Jeff.

The dot-com bubble was just beginning to emerge. This term itself was not even invented then. The dot-com bubble is an economic bubble caused by unjustified optimism and speculation regarding Internet startups. Many of them were then liquidated or sold. It was at this moment that Jeff began working on his own online store.

Taking risks so that you don’t regret what you didn’t do for the rest of your life is the famous rule of Jeff Bezos.

Amazon has a history of creation such that it can be called an integral part of the history of the entire world Internet. Bezos decided to take a risk and started his own project. This is exactly what the businessman thought at the beginning of his journey. In 1994, he left DE Shaw as vice president of that company and moved to Seattle to start his own business.

In an interview, MacKenzie (Bezos's wife) said that Jeff was fanatically passionate about the idea of ​​​​creating an online trading platform. She supported her husband as best she could, and together with him she developed a business plan for a joint startup.

Microsoft, Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Dell - they were all born in a garage. Jeff's venture was no exception. The company's first office was the garage of a house rented by a businessman in Seattle.

Bezos focused on selling books for a reason: he himself was a lover of reading. Even now, he compulsorily forces his staff to read the book “Black Swan” by American coach Nassim Toleb. The businessman seeks responsibility for his actions from his subordinates.

Delivery of books by mail left much to be desired; it was often impossible to get exactly what you needed.

Programmer Shel Kafan became the first employee of the online store. The Amazon company's history of creation essentially began with him. Nowadays, few people remember this person, but the company’s infrastructure, apparently, owes its existence to this very person. As long as Jeff saw value in him, his ideas were accepted, respected, then relegated to the background and forced to leave.

I don’t know if there were “golden parachutes” then; Shel Kafan was clearly left without one. He perceived Jeff’s actions as a betrayal, which he spoke about more than once in his interviews.

The same thing happened to Paul Barton-Davies, who worked on a piecework basis. However, perhaps Jeff Bezos initially perceived these people as people with whom one should maintain certain relationships as long as they bring promising ideas, nothing more.

By the way, Bezos constantly argued with his employees, proving the value of his next “strange idea.” And he is simply gushing with ideas: in a short time, from an online book store, Amazon turned into an online store of everything.

How history was made

To begin implementing the plan, considerable financial resources were required. His father, Mike Bezos, became the first investor, writing him a check for $300,000. Jeff honestly told all his shareholders that the probability of success was 30%. In the meantime, to start work, it was necessary to go through the company registration procedure. The first step was to assign a legal address. It was decided to choose from the list of cities on the west coast of the United States, because this is where IT companies were actively developing.

Under American law, buyers will be required to pay tax if they are registered in the same state as the seller. Since the goal was to establish sales throughout the country, it was necessary to choose a state with the smallest population so that only a small part of buyers would pay the increased tax. The choice fell on Seattle, Washington, where one of Jeff Bezos’ friends lived, who promised to invest a large sum in his business and introduce him to the right people.

When the Bezos couple arrived with the documents to the lawyer, it turned out that no one thought about the name in the confusion. Jeff announced that he would call , from the magician's magic phrase "Abracadabra". The lawyer turned out to be more down to earth and gave me time to think. Two weeks later Amazon arrived.

The first steps of the Internet giant

The first office of the future titan of online trading was located in the couple's rented house. Jeff and his staff had three computers at their disposal to develop the store's technical platform. Immediately after its completion and testing of the system, the first orders began to arrive, the office moved to the basement, where the recording studio had previously been located. His team has also developed a special discount system so that customers see the benefits of purchasing goods through their website.

The scheme of work was simple: upon receiving an application, Amazon employees ordered books from Ingram, one of the largest wholesale suppliers of printed materials in the United States with a minimum order of 10 items. To get around this condition, Jeff used a trick: he included 9 items in the list that were not in stock. The result was a package with the necessary book and a letter with sincere apologies for the absence of the others.

Bezos personally delivered orders to the post office. It was his team that launched the concepts of 1-click purchasing, a customer reviews section, as well as the purchase confirmation function by email. The founder did not have a personal car; he drove his parent’s 1987 Chevrolet Blazer, because the company was forced to save money.

The team consisted of people who would never choose money over the opportunity to realize their ideas. The main goal was to improve the quality and uniqueness of the project, they aimed to turn Amazon.com into something like a social network where everyone could share their opinion about the book.

Over time, the store concept was refined. A survey was conducted among randomly selected users (about 1,000 people participated) about what they would like to buy on the site. The list was filled with many items, ranging from household appliances to car dusters. This moment changed Bezos's thinking. Now on the store's website you can purchase furniture, films, building materials, children's products, toys, medical devices and much more.

Amazon today

A super corporation with a turnover of tens of billions of dollars per year, a net profit of $500 million. An entire empire built thanks to the digital revolution and the Internet. The site has powerful advertising, analytics and information departments. Lots of technological services. The company moved from explosive development to gradual, stable growth. There are no shocks, no leaps, no failures. Capitalization and assortment are increasing, representative offices are opening in various countries around the world (there is still no official Amazon online store in Russian). Everything suggests that the online shopping store will not surrender its leading position to anyone. Amazon has no real competitors on a global scale and is not expected to do so.

Jeff Bezos is a talented and, of course, very intelligent person. His company and himself are expected to face new challenges and conquer new heights.

Collages comparing modern photos of Bezos with photos taken in the early days of Amazon have become an endless source of memes and jokes on the Internet.

The businessman also bought the Washington Post newspaper, for which he is being attacked by the current US President Donald Trump. In another exchange of tweets, Bezos promised Trump to book him a seat on one of Blue Origin's rockets, signing his tweet with the hashtag #SendDonaldtospace. For Bezos, Blue Origin is now the main project; he entrusted the management of Amazon retail to other people, all in order not to be distracted from the space project.

Bezos' goal now is to make space accessible to everyone. Knowing his approach to business, there is no doubt about the businessman’s new successes.

Development and competitors

According to the initial business plan, profitability was planned in 4-5 years, but in fact this happened only by 2001. After 7 years, Jeff Bezos' Amazon earned $5 million in net profit with an annual turnover of over $1 billion. However, it is worth noting that by 1999, the company's share price had soared 5 times.

After 2005, the company actively sought to reduce delivery costs and delivery times. An offer was developed for customers: for a subscription fee of $79 per year, you can receive the goods in two days. Manufacturers were offered the services of sorting centers for storing products, which would also reduce delivery time. The realization that his competitors were not book-selling Barnes & Noble or large retailers such as Walmart, but Google and Apple, came quickly. For example, the release of the iPod and Apple's own music store significantly reduced Amazon's revenue.

Jeff Bezos decides to hit it himself, out of fear that someone else might hit the book side of the business in the same way. The company introduces the Kindle to the public, an electronic device for purchasing and reading books. At the same time, in an interview, Jeff notes that he does not wake up in the morning thinking about competitors, developing plans on how to eliminate a couple of such companies; moreover, this is the last thing he thinks about. Its goal is to create better conditions for customers than others.

Company ideology

Amazon is committed to austerity, and the 2008 crisis partially confirmed this thinking. Thus, employees do not use color printers, and parking in the corporate parking lot is still paid. Jeff made his first desk himself from a wooden door purchased from a thrift store around the corner. The company's office style still does not accept the use of expensive furniture, and decorating the office with luxurious items is prohibited.

Bezos, an ardent proponent of the “Customer is always right” rule, tasks his employees with studying the specific needs of his customers, forgetting about the priority of the bottom line of the quarter. Thus, agreeing with the designers of a branded box for sending books took a couple of months, since Jeff wanted it to be used in everyday life, and not get rid of it by tearing it into pieces.

The demands on employees are also high. They are required to have maximum involvement in the process, full dedication and high efficiency. The corporate rule is to work to the limit. Underperforming team members are fired annually. Any employee, even a small one, is required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Each new employee increases the requirements for subsequent ones.

To obtain employment you will have to go through a series of interviews. The interviewers include a person whose job, in jargon, is to “raise the bar.” His powers include the ability to refuse an applicant without giving reasons, even if other members of the commission approved his candidacy. This role typically goes to employees who have made more successful hiring decisions.

Other areas of activity

The entrepreneur did not stop there. Since childhood, like many boys, Jeff, who dreamed of conquering space, in 2000 created a company that organizes space tourism - Blue Origin. It was led by ex-NASA engineer Rob Meyerson.

2015-2016 were marked by the testing of an unmanned spacecraft, which successfully ascended 100 km. above the Earth and returned safely to its original position. The first human-powered flights are planned for 2020. The company employs over 600 people, but it exists so far only due to investments from Jeff Bezos and is completely dependent on the success of Amazon.

The projects do not end there: in 2013, the entrepreneur purchased The Washington Post publishing house for $250 million, which, by the way, once had the imprudence to publish a note about the financial difficulties of the creator of Amazon. In addition, he played the role of an alien in one of the scenes in the film “Star Trek Beyond.”

Character Traits That Helped Him Succeed

Jeff Bezos and his wife are the main feature of his life that helped him become a legendary rich man. Since childhood, Jeffrey was an inventive, inquisitive, disciplined young man, he absorbed knowledge like a sponge, and read a lot, like our educated users. Bezos is perfect, but in pursuit of pure values, he could not stand it and, perhaps, that is why he is getting divorced.

In the company, Jeff valued uniqueness, customer focus, constant development, and the desire to surprise and conquer. His attitude towards projects was not just dreamy, he recognized only commitment to one task, had an extremely negative attitude towards multitasking and tried to complete what he started. The billionaire separated work and family life, so for the time being he was an excellent father and husband.

Billionaire fortune

The first time Forbes remembered Jeff Bezos was in 1997. His capital consisted of $1.6 billion. Jeff was included in the list of TOP 400 richest Americans. In 1999, he was awarded the title "Person of the Year" by Time magazine. By 2007, Jeff Bezos's net worth—$4.4 billion—was among the top ten. In 2020, he settled in third place in the ranking of the richest people on the planet, having earned $72.8 billion. According to the Land Report, he is one of the largest landowners in the country and owns several mansions:

• Medina, Washington. There are two houses here, the area of ​​which is over 2 hectares. One of the estates is located along the picturesque shore of the lake. The length of the coastline is almost 100 meters. This is where Jeff's family lives most of the time.
• Beverly Hills, California. Jeff Bezos's house is located on one of the streets popular among Hollywood stars, has many bedrooms, a swimming pool, fountains, a garage for several cars, and a tennis court.
• Van Horn, Texas. Growing up on a farm in Texas inspired a desire to own a 30,000-acre ranch. Blue Origin is also located here.
• Manhattan. Owns three luxury apartments in Western New York.
• Washington. The Kalorama area is popular as the residence of the most senior officials. For example, the Obama family and Ivanka Trump and her husband own property on this street. The area of ​​the house is 2500 square meters. The building was previously a textile museum.

Facts about Jeffo Bezos

• Jeff always imitated people like Thomas Edison and Walt Disney
• At first, Jeff didn't know what to sell. And when my wife was writing her women's novel, she proposed her idea for selling books.
• His space company is located on his ranch in Texas.
• The first idea for one-click shopping was on Amazon.
• He has his own principles in the company: a department of workers could be fed with two pizzas. If two pizzas are not enough, then the department is too large.
• Jeff Bezos tries to take care of his customers. He developed the box for them for 3 months. So that customers can use it again.
• In 1999 he earned the title “Person of the Year”
• He starred in the film as an alien. The movie is called "Star Trek Beyond"
• Has a personal Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jeffbezos/
• Bezos is missing one eye. He has it plugged in
• Jeff Bezos' current net worth is $116 billion.

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