Jeff Preston Jorgensen was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the time of his birth, his father was only 19 and his mother 17. His mother attended night school and took him with her to take care of him. When he was only two years old, his parents divorced. His mother then married Miguel Bezos, a Cuban immigrant. Miguel then adopted Jeff when he was only four years old and named him Jeff Bezos.
Miguel later earned a degree from the University of New Mexico and then his family moved to Houston, Texas. They moved when he got a job as an engineer at Exxon. Jeff has been involved in science and technology from an early age, going as far as building his own alarm system to keep his siblings out of his room. The Bezos family moved again, this time to Miami, Florida. Bezos went to high school there and worked at McDonald’s.
Then, after being a high school graduate, National Academy of Sciences Scholar, and Silver Knight Award winner, he went to the University of Florida, where he enrolled in an undergraduate science program.
In his graduation speechBezos told the audience that he dreams of the day when man colonizes space. He graduated with honors from Princeton University in 1986. He received a GPA of 4.2 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Table of Contents
business career
The Early Years of Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos has been offered jobs at various companies including Intel and Bell Labs. Instead, Bezos chose Fitel, a small telecommunications company. He helped build their network for international trade. He was promoted and then moved to the banking industry, where he was a product manager from 1988 to 1990.
He later joined a new hedge fund with a focus on mathematical modeling, D.E. Shaw & Co. After five years there, Bezos became senior vice president at just 30 years old.
Creation of the Amazon
In 1993, Jeff Bezos read that the Internet was growing at 2300% per year. Because of this, he opened an online bookstore. He and his then-wife Mackenzie quit their jobs and founded Amazon in a garage in Bellevue, Washington. They wrote a business plan while driving from New York to Seattle, and on July 5, 1994, Amazon was born.
Amazon was originally going to be called Cadabra, but Bezos changed it to Amazon after the Amazon River because the name started with an A, the first letter of the alphabet. He also hoped that by naming his store after the largest river in the world, his company would become the largest online bookstore. His parents even chipped in for a whopping $300,000.
Three years later, Bezos took Amazon public with an initial public offering (IPO). This means that this is a public offering where shares are sold to institutional investors.
By October 2013, Amazon had become the largest online retailer in the entire world. Bezos also received a $600 million CIA contract.
Later career
Beginning in 2016, Jeff Bezos began selling stock to raise money for other ventures, especially Blue Origin, his favorite space colonization project.
On July 27, 2017, Bezos temporarily became the richest person in the world with a net worth of $90 billion. In November of that year, his fortune was estimated at $100 billion. Later on March 6, 2018, Forbes named him the richest person in the world with a net worth of $112 billion.
However, Bezos got into trouble when many began to learn about the unfair work practices that many workers had to suffer. Because of this, Bezos will step down as Amazon CEO in February 2021 and become executive chairman of the board. Now Bezos is focusing on his other work:
- Day 1 Foundation
- Bezos Earth Foundation
- Blue Origin
- Washington Post
Empires of Jeff Bezos
Blue Origin
Founded in September 2000, Jeff Bezos wanted the company to be the start of human space colonization. The company focused on human spaceflight, aerospace manufacturing, and more.
Bezos is interested in building hotels, amusement parks and colonies in orbit for people who have lived in space. He wanted to do all this so that the Earth would be able to outlive mankind and that we would not overwork it from resource depletion.
On July 20, 2021, Bezos, his half-brother Mark, astronaut Wally Funk, and space tourist Oliver Damen departed for suborbita on the NS-16 mission. This came 9 days after fellow billionaire Richard Branson made his own Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission.
Washington Post
Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post on August 5, 2013 for $250 million. Since then, Bezos has been working to rebuild the paper using technology. Bezos has been criticized for conflicts of interest, with claims that he controlled what was published in the paper. He denied it. Money on paper first began to bring in 2016, when there was a surge in subscriptions.
Bezos expeditions
These are his personal investments and venture capital. He was associated with the health sector. It is also used for charitable purposes that have a strong focus on science and the aviation industry.
Altos Labs
In September 2021, Jeff Bezos co-founded the biotech company Altos Labs. The company wants to increase human lifespan through cellular reprogramming. Prominent scientists were hired and it all started with a capital of $3 billion.
Conclusion
Jeff Bezos continues to delight the world even after his divorce from Mackenzie in 2019. But Bezos was able to keep 75% of their shares, and she got a quarter ($35.6 billion).
From his humble beginnings, he built an empire. Bezos is now worth about $169.2 billion. Bezos continues to be a leader in America and around the world. However, he is criticized by many for his leadership style, business methods, and treatment of workers. Many are still interested to see what Bezos creates next.
