One day that spring, Jeffrey Bezos observed that Internet usage was increasing by 2,300 percent a year. Then you start to understand, if you push on this knob, this will move over here and so on. Jeff Bezos Education, Biography & the Amazon Story! - Leverage Edu I have a lot of respect for novelists who are able to do that. I had some family role models. You know, things just dont grow that fast. Its a point of pride. As exciting as that prospect may be, Jeff Bezos has had more terrestrial innovations on his mind as well. [95], After its founding, Blue Origin maintained a low profile until 2006 when it purchased a large tract of land in West Texas for a launch and test facility. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a really big deal. A Whispersync feature enables users with multiple devices to mark their place in one book and resume reading at the same place in another. Its sort of like, I dont have any doubt about whether were going to fail. In Amazon 's early days, Jeff Bezos asked job candidates for their SAT scores, The Atlantic's Franklin Foer reported. He described this life philosophy by stating: "When I'm 80, am I going to regret leaving Wall Street? From the beginning, Bezos sought to increase market share as quickly as possible, at the expense of profits. At the peak of this success, Jeff Bezos announced his decision to relinquish the role of CEO at Amazon, effective as of summer 2021. With a net worth of US$125 billion as of April 2023, Bezos is the third-wealthiest person in the world and was the wealthiest from 2017 to 2021, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes.[5][6]. [155][bettersourceneeded] In May 2014, the International Trade Union Confederation named Bezos the "World's Worst Boss", with its general secretary Sharan Burrow saying: "Jeff Bezos represents the inhumanity of employers who are promoting the North American corporate model",[156] while in 2019, Harvard Business Review, which ranked Bezos the best-performing CEO for 4 years in a row since 2014, did not rank him even in the top 100, citing Amazon's "relatively low ESG (environment, social, and governance) scores" that reflect "risks created by working conditions and employment policies, data security, and antitrust issues. I liked school. Jeff Bezos | lev radin / Shutterstock.com So, if I find that some particular thing is causing me to have stress, thats a warning flag for me. Jeff Bezos , byname of Jeffrey Preston Bezos, (born January 12, 1964, Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.), American entrepreneur who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, Inc., an online merchant of books and later of a wide variety of products. In fact, I spent all my summers on my grandfathers ranch not far from where were sitting right now, not far from San Antonio. The device used E Ink technology to render text in a print-like appearance, without the eyestrain associated with television and computer screens. When he disclosed his intention to go from being Earths biggest bookstore to Earths biggest anything store, skeptics thought Amazon was growing too big too fast, but a few analysts called it one of the smartest strategies in business history. Through each round of expansion, Jeff Bezos continually emphasized the Six Core Values: customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, frugality, high hiring bar and innovation. Our vision, he said, is the worlds most customer-centric company. He also purchased the major American newspaper The Washington Post in 2013 for $250million and manages many other investments through his venture capital firm, Bezos Expeditions. [169][170] Bezos maintains the email address jeff@amazon.com[171] as an outlet for customers to reach out to him and the company. [111] He launched nine days after Richard Branson launched onboard the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission. [198][199] His wealth rose by 85.2% in 2010, leaving him with $12.6billion. From the start point of 2020 to July 1, the day this sum was reported, 182 days had passed. Ive always felt that theres a certain kind of important pioneering that goes on from an inventor like Thomas Edison. [49] Prior to settling on Seattle, Bezos had investigated setting up his company at an Indian reservation near San Francisco in order to avoid paying taxes. "[157], During the late 2010s, Bezos reversed his reputation for being reluctant to spend money on non-business-related expenses. [58] After the company nearly went bankrupt, he closed distribution centers and laid off 14% of the Amazon workforce. Forensic analysis of Bezos's mobile phone conducted by advisory firm FTI Consulting, concluded it "highly probable" that the hack was achieved using a malicious file hidden in a video sent in a WhatsApp message to Bezos from the personal account of the crown prince on May 1, 2018. For other people with the surname, see, All currency figures expressed in the United States dollar (US$) in, Many calculations of Bezos's wealth during the late 2010s were not, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors, 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, "Riding the Wild, Perilous Waters of Amazone.com", "Jeff Bezos Is Getting Astronaut Wings. What do you think enabled you to see what you saw and to act on it? [64] On August 4, 2016, Bezos sold another million of his shares for $756.7million. So, thats the first step. Warren Buffett and 7 other billionaires who went to public school - CNBC When you werent studying, what kinds of things did you like to do? And everybody wanted to be all of my friends we all wanted to be Spock, and if you couldnt be Spock then you would be Captain Kirk. [161][162], Bezos used what he called a "regret-minimization framework" while he worked at D.E. Shaw and again during the early years of Amazon. She remarried when Jeffrey was four. $192 hourly. Was Jeff Bezos a smart student? Jeff Bezos: On a personal level, very interested in exploration of space. We went ahead and incorporated under that name. Venture capitalists were totally uninterested. The first major challenge to the Kindles supremacy in the e-book market came in 2010, when Apple introduced its iPad tablet computer, which was also designed for use as an electronic reading device. Author of Book on Amazon", "What Is Jeff Bezos's Religion? What did you set out to do? [293] That same month, Janet Camarena, director of transparency initiatives at Foundation Center, was quoted by CNBC as having questions about Bezos's new Day 1 Fund, including the fund's structure and how exactly it will be funded. He went to work at Fitel, a start-up company that was building a network to conduct international trade. [244][245], In 1992, Bezos was working for D. E. Shaw in Manhattan when he met novelist MacKenzie Tuttle, who was a research associate at the firm; the couple married a year later. ", "Amazon is celebrating its 25th birthday. In 2013, Jeff Bezos purchased the newspaper division of The Washington Post Company for $250 million. [50] Bezos initially named his new company Cadabra but later changed the name to Amazon after the Amazon River in South America, in part because the name begins with the letter A, which is at the beginning of the alphabet. Watch Blue Origin Fly 'Mannequin Skywalker' to Space and Back", "Blue Origin plans growth spurt this year", "Jeff Bezos Says He Is Selling $1 Billion a Year in Amazon Stock to Finance Race to Space", "Jeff Bezos: Blue Origin Wants to Colonize the Solar System", "Jeff Bezos: 'We will have to leave this planet and it's going to make this planet better', "Exclusive: Jeff Bezos plans to charge at least $200,000 for space", "Jeff Bezos and brother to fly to space in Blue Origin flight", "Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen reach edge of space, return safely on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket", "Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos", "Jeff Bezos is buying The Washington Post. [283][284], In March 2018, Bezos met in Seattle with Mohammad bin Salman, the crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, to discuss investment opportunities for Saudi Vision 2030. The business grew faster than Bezos or anyone else had ever imagined. I would drive these things to UPS so we could get the last one, and we would wait till the last second. By August 2020, his personal stake in the company gave Jeff Bezos an estimated net worth of more than $200 billion, making him by far the wealthiest individual in history. [259][260] Later, Bezos published an online essay on February 7, 2019, in which he accused American Media, Inc. owner David Pecker of "extortion and blackmail" for threatening to publish intimate photos of Bezos and current girlfriend Lauren Snchez[261] if he did not stop his investigation into how his text messages and other photos had been leaked to the National Enquirer. That is actually something I should have mentioned. [23], After Mike had received his degree from the University of New Mexico, the family moved to Houston, Texas, so that he could begin working as an engineer for Exxon. Jeffrey Preston Bezos (/bezos/ BAY-zohss;[2] n Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. [109] He announced that New Shepard would begin transporting humans into sub-orbital space by November 2018. They were the pesky younger siblings that I was trying to shake off and keep out of my room. After completing high school despite challenging . [173][174], Bezos first became a millionaire in 1997 after raising $54million through Amazon's initial public offering (IPO). [222] On July 17, 2018, he was designated the "wealthiest person in modern history"[c] by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index,[225] Fortune,[226] MarketWatch,[227] The Wall Street Journal,[228] and Forbes. [98] After the crash, Bezos has been superstitiously wearing his "lucky" Texas Cowboy boots to all rocket launches. [56] In response to critical reports from Fortune and Barron's, Bezos maintained that the growth of the Internet would overtake competition from larger book retailers such as Borders and Barnes & Noble. . I used a large portion of my elementary school free time hours not only watching Star Trek the original of course but also playing Star Trek. [99] In May 2013, Bezos met with Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Galactic, to discuss commercial spaceflight opportunities and strategies. Our garage was basically science fair central, and my mom is a saint, because she would drive me to Radio Shack multiple times a day to the point where she would finally say, Okay. Its just that the level of visibility is so much higher. The things I got into trouble on were like I lost my library privileges one time which was really inconvenient for me for laughing too loudly in the library. [278][279] On July 6, 2021, the Pentagon cancelled the JEDI contract with Microsoft, citing that "due to evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances, the JEDI Cloud contract no longer meets its needs. Bezos rose to be the 5th richest person in the world hours before market close; he gained $7billion in one hour. Jeff Bezos - Wikipedia [116] In March 2014, Bezos made his first significant change at The Washington Post and lifted the online paywall for subscribers of a number of U.S. local newspapers in Texas, Hawaii, and Minnesota. Now that Im 37 years old, its like were the same generation. [70] 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 $90billion. How much did Jeff Bezos make in 2020? The font size was adjustable for further ease in reading, and, unlike earlier electronic reading devices, the Kindle incorporated wireless Internet connectivity, enabling the reader to purchase, download and read complete books and other documents anywhere, anytime. Edison, of course, for a little kid and probably for adults, too, is not only the symbol of that but the actual fact of that the incredible inventor. Two people I always would read about were Thomas Edison and Walt Disney. Alumnus of the Phi Beta Kappa organization at Princeton, Bezos was a Phi Beta Kappa member. And, you know, I thought I was giving myself triple the normal odds, because really, if you look at the odds of a start-up company succeeding at all, its only about ten percent. I can only imagine that by the time Im 70 I will realize I know nothing. His wealth surpassed $100billion 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 $112billion. ", "Are you lazy or just incompetent? [296][297] A year later in June, he tweeted that he would announce two philanthropic foci by the end of summer 2018. Jeff Bezos: Oh, tons of teachers! I think that over the next 50 years we are going to face a lot of very tough decisions as a society in how we make sure that we are harnessing those technologies for good purposes. [100] He has been compared to Branson and Elon Musk as all three are billionaires who prioritize spaceflight among their business interests. [93] The 18-year-old Bezos stated that he wanted to preserve Earth from overuse through resource depletion. Here's everything that's happened since their relationship began, including a tabloid scandal and possibly even a hack by foreign operatives", "Jeff Bezos Walks Through a One-Way Door, Opening a New Age for Amazon", "Jeff Bezos Accuses National Enquirer of 'Extortion and Blackmail', "Jeff Bezos' nudes were reportedly leaked when his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez sent them to her brother, in a new twist to the dramatic saga here's everything we know so far", "Jeff Bezos to keep 75 percent of couple's Amazon stock after finalizing divorce", "Amazon's Jeff Bezos, wife, make $2.5million donation for gay marriage", "Amazon.com Contributions to Federal Candidates, 2012 cycles", "How to Understand Donald Trump's #AmazonWashingtonPost Tweet in 3 Easy Steps", "Slammed by Trump, Amazon's Jeff Bezos Chooses Silence", "Why Jeff Bezos Is Dumping Cash into Trump's Swamp", "Donald Trump called out Jeff Bezos on Twitter. I had a very normal childhood except for my ranch experience, which I think is a very unusual experience, and a great one to have had I think my experience as a kid was a very normal one. We were betting on Jeff. By the end of the decade, as six percent owners of Amazon, they were billionaires. what grades did jeff bezos get in high school? Although the crash was viewed as a setback, news outlets noted how far the company went from its founding-to-date in advancing spaceflight. Im a lottery winner of a certain kind, and I suspect if you were to survey lottery winners you would find that the core things about them dont really change because they won the lottery. [164] Journalist Walt Mossberg dubbed the idea that someone who cannot tolerate criticism or critique shouldn't do anything new or interesting "The Bezos Principle". [292], In September 2018, Business Insider reported that Bezos was the only one of the top five billionaires in the world who had not signed the Giving Pledge, an initiative created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that encourages wealthy people to give away a majority of their wealth. Was there a moment of inspiration? For the first four years of the company, we worked in relative obscurity. Plans to change the world. And, a lot of these discoveries tend to have two uses. So that requires not only a lot of planning, a lot of hard work, a big team of people who are all dedicated, but it also requires that not only the planets align, but that you get a few galaxies in there aligning, too. As journalist Brad Stone revealed in his book The Everything Store, Bezos issued remarks to his employees such as "I'm sorry, did I take my stupid pills today? Notably, journalist Brad Stone wrote a book that described Bezos as a demanding boss as well as hyper-competitive,[137][144] and opined that Bezos perhaps "bet the biggest on the Internet" than anyone else. [51] At the time, website listings were alphabetized, so a name starting with "A" would appear sooner when customers conducted online searches. [45][246] In 1994, they moved across the country to Seattle, Washington, where Bezos founded Amazon. Its great. Bezos rose quickly at Shaw, becoming a senior vice president, and was looking forward to a bright career in finance when he made a discovery that changed his life and the course of business history. They set up shop in a two-bedroom house, with extension cords running to the garage. Even as a toddler, he asserted himself by dismantling his crib with a screwdriver. When Jeffrey Preston Bezos graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High in 1982, he had big plans to change the world. In 1998 and 1999 you could raise $60 million for an Internet idea without a business plan with a single phone call. Jacklyn was only 17 years old when she gave birth to her son. [37] In 1986, he graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a 4.2 GPA and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree (B.S.E.) On July 14, 2021, the Smithsonian Institution announced it would receive a $200 million donation from Jeff Bezos the largest gift to the Smithsonian since the Institutions founding gift from James Smithson in 1846. I was in the goody goody class of students and was working hard, studying. All that was needed was a single location on the Internet, where the book-buying public could search the available stock and place orders directly. [136] During the 1990s, Bezos earned a reputation for relentlessly pushing Amazon forward, often at the expense of public charity and social welfare. Yet Amazon flowed on like its mighty namesake, still expanding, but also showing profits, while other promising start-ups faded from the scene. I think what you do is think about the great expanse of time ahead of you and try to make sure that youre planning for that in a way thats going to leave you ultimately satisfied. We were packing these things, everybody in the company, and I had this brainstorm as I said to the person next to me, This packing is killing me! What gives you the greatest sense of satisfaction about it? [86], In February 2021, Bezos announced that in the third quarter of 2021 he would step down from his role as CEO of Amazon to become the Executive Chairman of the Amazon Board. He graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Jeff Bezos is known for asking job candidates what their SAT score was, in order to determine whether or not they are qualified for a job. [106] Since 2016, Bezos has spoken more freely about his hopes to colonize the solar system, and has been selling US$1 billion in Amazon stock each year to capitalize Blue Origin in an effort to support this endeavor. I was drawn to that more and more and that turned out to be a great thing. [165] Bezos does not schedule early morning meetings and enforces a two-pizza rulea preference that meetings are small enough for two pizzas to feed everyone in the boardroom. [28] Multiple opinion columnists responded by asking Bezos to pay higher wages to Amazon warehouse workers. [109] In July 2018, it was announced that Bezos had priced commercial spaceflight tickets from $200,000 to $300,000 per person. Looking ahead, is there some idea or problem or challenge that interests you? In all, he graduated with a 4.0 GPA. And then we would spend all afternoon into the wee hours of the morning packing up the orders and shipping them out. What did you have to do? Jeff Bezos - Early Life & Career - LinkedIn I know there are a lot of hard-working teachers out there but I seem to have had more than my fair share. And, I sometimes worry about that, because I think its a coincidence that liberty tends to do such a good job of creating an economy that functions well. For several years, as much as a third of the shares in the company were held by members of the Bezos family. Every single person in the company, because we had to work with our hands so close to the customers, making sure those orders went out, really set up a culture that served us well, and that is our goal, to be Earths most customer-centric company. That works for career decisions. Thats fun. What about teachers? So, with a lot of hard work we raised that million dollars from about 20 different angel investors who invested about $50,000 each, and that was the original money that really funded Amazon.com. Bezos founded the aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company Blue Origin in 2000. When you showed up in Seattle, you had left your job, youd left any regrets you might have behind you. Well, the first thing you do is you should write a business plan, and so I did that. If you can project yourself out to age 80 and sort of think, What will I think at that time? it gets you away from some of the daily pieces of confusion. ' I was very serious, and this person looked at me like I was the stupidest person theyd ever seen. It works for family decisions. How do you deal with that kind of pressure you must have felt during the past year? We tried to get a lot of the little housekeeping details done even before we arrived in Seattle. [299] As part of this announcement, he committed to establishing the "Day 1 Families Fund" to finance "night shelters and day care centers for homeless families" and the "Day 1 Academies Fund" for early childhood education. Well, that means that the number of chickens is roughly right, even though theres nobody deciding how many chickens there should be. You go home and you say to your wife you want to throw all that over and get in the car and go to Seattle. [39] To push Amazon forward, Bezos developed the mantra "Get Big Fast", establishing the company's need to scale its operations to produce market dominance. There were three or four people in the class whose brains were so clearly wired differently to process these highly abstract concepts, so much more. When did you get the idea to start Amazon? I did all those things. And, likewise, if you use that as an analogy for what I was just talking about, if youre out of work but youre going through a disciplined approach, a series of job interviews and so on, and working to remedy that situation, you are going to be a lot less stressed than if youre just worrying about it and doing nothing. Jeff Bezos: In my particular case, I laugh a lot. [193] His wealth plummeted even more the following year, dropping 66.6% to $2.0billion. [20], After his parents divorced, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel "Mike" Bezos in April 1968. How do you explain to someone who has no idea what you do, why you do it? [59][failed verification] In November 2007, Bezos launched the Amazon Kindle. $140,153 monthly. Jeff Bezos: Thats for sure. [51] He favored diverting Amazon profits back into the company in lieu of allocating it amongst shareholders in the form of dividends. What kind of responsibility goes along with the kind of success youve had? [39], Bezos portrayed a Starfleet official in the 2016 movie Star Trek Beyond, and joined the cast and crew at a San Diego Comic-Con screening. [218] During March 9, Bezos earned $230,000 every 60 seconds. Thats how small companies get a little bit bigger, and then a little bit bigger, and a little bit bigger, until finally, at a certain stage, you reach a transition where the company has more control over its future destiny. My wife is working on a novel, and thats about as opposite as you could get in some ways, because when youre working on a novel you are really counting on yourself. "[141] Select accounts of his persona have drawn controversy and public attention. And, certainly I always had a facility with computers. I find as soon as I identify it, and make the first phone call, or send off the first e-mail message, or whatever it is that were going to do to start to address that situation even if its not solved the mere fact that were addressing it dramatically reduces any stress that might come from it. Mind-boggling", "If You Invested in Amazon at Its IPO, You Could Have Been a Millionaire", "The electricity metaphor for the web's future", "How Jeff Bezos was selected for, but never joined, the Defense Innovation Board", "Bezos Jeffrey P.: Insider Trading Transactions", "Amazon posts quarterly profit of $1.9billion, its highest ever", "Bezos is putting $1billion a year into rocket-maker Blue Origin by selling Amazon stock", "Billionaire Jeff Bezos Will Star in Amazon's Super Bowl Ad", "Amazon posts largest profit in its history on sales, tax boost", "After losing China, Jeff Bezos really wants to win in India", "Jeff Bezos Is $1.8 Billion Richer As Amazon's Market Cap Briefly Hits $1 Trillion", "Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day", "Forget Zuckerberg: Why Trump Is "Obsessed" with Breaking Bezos", "The World's Richest Man Just Lost $10.7 Billion as Trump Tweets About Amazon", "Why a Trump-Led Antitrust Case Against Amazon Is a Long Shot", "Congress demands Jeff Bezos explain Amazon's face recognition software", "Bernie Sanders introduces 'Stop BEZOS Act', "Bernie Sanders introduces 'Stop BEZOS' bill to tax Amazon for underpaying workers", "Bernie Sanders's BEZOS bill takes aim at how Amazon pays workers", "Bernie Sanders targets Amazon, Walmart with 100% tax", "What the Bernie Sanders Amazon welfare fight is really about", "Amazon to raise minimum wage to $15 for all U.S. workers", "Why Amazon really raised its minimum wage to $15", "Amazon.com Announces Financial Results and CEO Transition", "Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon C.E.O. By the time I was in high school we did some prank type things, but they were the kind of pranks that at the end of the day the teachers actually secretly loved. If you do bad things, if you go murder somebody, that would be bad and that would be an act of commission that you would regret. And, I spent three months every year from the age of four to the age of 16 working on the ranch with my grandfather, which was just an incredible, incredible experience. [146] Bezos has been characterized as a notoriously opportunistic CEO who operates with little concern for obstacles and externalities. That $250,000 investment resulted in 3.3million shares of Google stock, worth about $3.1billion in 2017. I had already talked to my wife about this, and she was very supportive and said, Look, you know you can count me in 100 percent, whatever you want to do. Its true she had married this fairly stable guy in a stable career path, and now he wanted to go do this crazy thing, but she was 100 percent supportive. What was Jeff Bezos GPA? Born in Albuquerque and raised in Houston and Miami, Bezos graduated from Princeton University in 1986. [46] He and his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, left their jobs at D. E. Shaw and founded Amazon in a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington on July 5, 1994, after writing its business plan on a cross-country drive from New York City to Seattle. ", "Jeff Bezos's Net Worth Hits Record $151 Billion After Strong Amazon 'Prime Day', "Jeff Bezos Becomes the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150 Billion", "Jeff Bezos Is Now the Richest Man in Modern History, Topping $150 Billion", "Jeff Bezos becomes the richest person in modern history amid Amazon Prime Day kickoff", "Is Jeff Bezos Really the Richest of Them All? Most regrets, by the way, are acts of omission and not commission. So, if you have ever found yourself wondering how much Jeff Bezos makes a day, now you know the answer is over $4,000.