Jeff Bezos: Do something youre very passionate about, and dont try to chase what is kind of the hot passion of the day. [271][272][273][274], In 2014, Amazon won a bid for a cloud computing contract with the CIA valued at $600million. [123] Bezos is involved in the healthcare sector, which includes investments in Unity Biotechnology, GRAIL, Juno Therapeutics, and Zocdoc. [195] The following year, his net worth increased by 66.66% to $2.5billion. You know, if you make a customer unhappy they wont tell five friends, theyll tell 5,000 friends. Thats the likely outcome. Well, that means that the number of chickens is roughly right, even though theres nobody deciding how many chickens there should be. [266], According to public campaign finance records, Bezos supported the electoral campaigns of Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, two Democratic U.S. senators from Washington. And, for some of these truly gifted folks it was awe-inspiring for me to watch them because in a very easy, almost casual way, they could absorb concepts and solve problems that I would work 12 hours on, and it was a wonderful thing to behold. [303] In September 2018, Bezos donated $10million to With Honor, a nonpartisan organization that works to increase the number of veterans in political office. In sixth grade, at 12 years old, he practiced statistical analysis by . Paul Souders/Getty Images According to CNBC, Bezos, then Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen, was barely 17 years old and a junior in high school when she gave birth to her son in 1964. Jeff Bezos: Well, I had what I considered to be an idyllic childhood. I can only imagine that by the time Im 70 I will realize I know nothing. "[157], During the late 2010s, Bezos reversed his reputation for being reluctant to spend money on non-business-related expenses. It will always be different. $4,608 daily. I remember playing lots of games in elementary school like kick-the-can, tag, all the outdoor games. For other people with the surname, see, All currency figures expressed in the United States dollar (US$) 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. All of this eventually led you to Princeton? I was in the goody goody class of students and was working hard, studying. [25] Jeff's maternal grandfather was Lawrence Preston Gise, a regional director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Albuquerque. On July 1, Bloomberg announced that Amazon stock set a record high at . You succeeded. [253] He had lobbied Paramount for the role apropos of Alexa and his personal/professional interest in speech recognition. When you do that, you walk away from your annual bonus. An outstanding student, he was valedictorian of his class. In 1986, Jeff graduated with honours from Princeton University with a 4.2 GPA. Maybe Ill be a philanthropist one day! That wasnt ever on my list of archeologist, astronaut, those things I wanted to be. [27] Jeff would later purchase this ranch and expand it from 25,000 acres (10,117ha) to 300,000 acres (121,406ha). He should pay his workers first", "If Jeff Bezos wants to help low-income people why not just pay them better? And nobody none of the teachers knew how to operate this computer, nobody did. Suddenly youre talking about a lot of money, a lot of investors, a lot of responsibility, and things dont always go smoothly. [233], In June 2019, Bezos purchased three adjoining apartments overlooking Madison Square Park in Manhattan, including a penthouse, for a combined total of US$80million, making this one of the most expensive real estate purchases within New York City in 2019. [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. In 1998 and 1999 you could raise $60 million for an Internet idea without a business plan with a single phone call. It just is, and to pretend that its not will lead you to do strange and unnatural things. So, you really need to be very clear with yourself. He stayed in the finance realm with Bankers Trust, rising to a vice presidency. I think people should carefully reread the first part of the Declaration of Independence, because I think sometimes we as a society start to get confused and think that we have a right to happiness, but if you read the Declaration of Independence, it talks about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Nobody has a right to happiness. It is the world's largest online sales company, the largest Internet company by revenue, and the largest provider of virtual assistants and cloud infrastructure services through its Amazon Web Services branch. What was Jeff Bezos GPA? [168] Since 1998, Bezos has published an annual letter for Amazon shareholders wherein he frequently refers to five principles: focus on customers, not competitors; take risks for market leadership; facilitate staff morale; build a company culture; and empower people. [13] At the time of Jeff's birth, his mother was a 17-year-old high-school student and his father was 19 years old. Jeffreys grandfather was a regional director of the Atomic Energy Commission in Albuquerque. There was a period where my brother and sister wouldnt go see a movie with me. Won't Award Them", "FAA Commercial Human Spaceflight Recognition", "Bloomberg Billionaire Index Jeff Bezos", "Meet Altos Labs, Silicon Valley's latest wild bet on living forever", "This Is The Richest Person in the World", "Jeff Bezos Becomes The First Person Ever Worth $200 Billion", "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos grows fortune by $24bn amid coronavirus pandemic", "Jeff Bezos's single teen mom brought him to night school with her when he was a baby", Why Some Locals Are Skeptical About Jeff Bezos' Free Preschool Near Seattle, "The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store", "Bike shop owner discovers he's father of Amazon founder", "At Last, Jeff Bezos Offers a Hint of His Philanthropic Plans", "Jeff Bezos just sold $534million worth of Amazon stock", "Biography and Video Interview of Jeff Bezos at Academy of Achievement", "Jeff Bezos: A rocket launched from Miami's Palmetto High", "Amazon.com's Bezos invests in space travel, time", "How Amazon's Jeff Bezos went from the son of a teen mom to the richest person in the world", "Top Executive Profiles Jeffrey P. Bezos", "MacKenzie Bezos and the Myth of the Lone Genius Founder", "Who's Writing the Book on Web Business? "[82] Sanders's efforts elicited a response from Amazon which pointed to the 130,000 jobs it created in 2017 and called the $28,446 figure for its median salary "misleading" as it included part-time workers. It would mean sacrificing a secure position in New York, but he and his wife, Mackenzie, decided to make the leap. [104], In December 2017, New Shepard successfully flew and landed dummy passengers, amending and pushing its human space travel start date into late 2018. Jeff Bezos: I went to my boss and said to him, You know, Im going to go do this crazy thing and Im going to start this company selling books online. This was something that I had already been talking to him about in a sort of more general context, but then he said, Lets go on a walk. And, we went on a two-hour walk in Central Park in New York City, and the conclusion of that was this: he said, You know, this actually sounds like a really good idea to me, but it sounds like it would be a better idea for somebody who didnt already have a good job. He convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. So, what you do with those early investment dollars if you have $300,000 and then you have a million dollars what you do with those early precious capital resources is you go about systematically trying to eliminate risk. [212] He is considered the first registered centi-billionaire (not adjusted for inflation). [87][88][89] On February 2, 2021, Bezos sent an email[90] to all Amazon employees, telling them the transition would give him "the time and energy [he] need[s] to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and [his] other passions. I really have been blessed with conscientious, hard-working, super smart teachers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported that Bezos's fortune had grown by $24 billion, citing a surge in demand from households on lockdown shopping on Amazon. You know, I left this Wall Street firm in the middle of the year. In October 2002, the firm added clothing sales to its line-up, through partnerships with hundreds of retailers, including The Gap, Nordstrom, and Lands End. [19] Jacklyn left her husband to live with her parents, filing for divorce in June 1965 when Jeff was seventeen months old. Yes, Jeff Bezos does have a degree and from a very prestigious university. So writing the business plan, the initial hiring, getting the company incorporated, all these are simple, almost pedestrian tasks, but thats how you start, one step at a time. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have. I knew that when I was 80 I was not going to regret having tried this. [131][132] The engines are currently on display at the Seattle Museum of Flight. [58] After the company nearly went bankrupt, he closed distribution centers and laid off 14% of the Amazon workforce. [166] When interviewing candidates for jobs at Amazon, he has stated he considers three inquiries: can he admire the person, can the person raise the common standard, and under what circumstances could the person become exemplary. [291] In 2013, he pledged $500,000 to Worldreader, a non-profit founded by a former Amazon employee. Bezos responded aggressively, cutting the Kindles retail price and adding new features. Mackenzie drove while Jeff typed a business plan. [b], His wealth, in 201718 terms, equaled that of 2.7million Americans. 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. Looking ahead, is there some idea or problem or challenge that interests you? Over the course of their 25-year marriage, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos raised four children and maintained homes in Medina, Washington and in Beverly Hills, Manhattan, Washington, D.C., and Van Horn, Texas. We still have a tremendous amount of hard work ahead of us, but we have all the assets in place now. [277] In November 2019, when the contract was awarded to Microsoft instead, Amazon filed a lawsuit with allegations that the bidding process was biased. Since I was a little kid I have always been interested. [141], Bezos uses the term "worklife harmony" instead of the more standard "worklife balance" because he believes that balance implies that you can only have one and not the other. [167], In 2018, it was reported that he met with Amazon investors for just six hours a year. This is the way it works for me. So that was good luck. In 30 days, with no press, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries. [316], "Bezos" redirects here. [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. ", "Amazon is celebrating its 25th birthday. Im going to start this company selling books online.. I was doing well in terms of the grades I was getting, but for me it was laborious, hard work. For several years, as much as a third of the shares in the company were held by members of the Bezos family. Early in 2017, Bloomberg News estimated that Jeff Bezos had a net worth of $75.6 billion, making him the second wealthiest person in the world, second only to Microsoft founderBill Gates. Its highly unusual, and that started me about thinking, What kind of business plan might make sense in the context of that growth?. [51] He favored diverting Amazon profits back into the company in lieu of allocating it amongst shareholders in the form of dividends. [219] The Motley Fool estimated that if Bezos had not sold any of his shares from its original public offering in 1997, his net worth would sit at $181billion in 2018. So, we are at a point now where we have all of the things we need to build an important and lasting company, and if we dont, it will be shame on us. At the time we launched this business it wasnt even crystal clear that the technology would improve fast enough that ordinary people non-computer people would even want to bother with this technology. 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! In addition to The Washington Post, the leading daily newspaper in the nations capital, the sale included a number of smaller local newspapers in the Washington, D.C. area. Im working for this person? Jeff Bezos in 1997. This is great. ", "Amazon will have a new CEO as Jeff Bezos transitions to executive chair later this year", "NBC News reports Jeff Bezos' intention to stand down as CEO of Amazon in the third quarter of 2021", "Former Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson leaves Jeff Bezos' space venture", "Buzz in West Texas is about Jeff Bezos space craft launch site", "Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think", "Taking the long view: Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owes much of his success to his ability to look beyond the short-term view of things", "Unplugged: Richard Branson's otherworldly space quest", "Three Billionaires Are Racing to Space. [265], He is the Honorary Chair of the Explorers Club. Also, he was an active member of Quadrangle Clun at Princeton . The device used E Ink technology to render text in a print-like appearance, without the eyestrain associated with television and computer screens. However, Bezos would keep all of the couple's voting rights. Bezos started to wear tailored clothing; he weight trained, pursued a regimented diet and began to freely spend his money. [250], In March 2003, Bezos was a passenger in a helicopter that crashed in West Texas while surveying land to buy for Blue Origin; the other 3 occupants in the helicopter were pilot Charles "Cheater" Bella, Amazon lawyer Elizabeth Korrell, and local rancher Ty Holland. Answer: We don't know his GPA. [61] In 2013, Bezos secured a $600-million contract with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on behalf of Amazon Web Services. [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. Im going to go do this crazy thing. At the peak of this success, Jeff Bezos announced his decision to relinquish the role of CEO at Amazon, effective as of summer 2021. Jeff Bezos: No, I left Albuquerque when I was about four. [28][29] Jeff displayed scientific interests and technological proficiency and once rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. Things that Disney invented, like Disneyland, the theme parks, they were such big visions that no single individual could ever pull them off, unlike a lot of the things that Edison worked on. $140,153 monthly. You became a phenomenon. [65] A year later, Bezos took on 130,000 new employees when he ramped up hiring at company distribution centers. The code worked seamlessly across different computer platforms. If you dont finish that novel, there arent a whole bunch of people counting on you. Did you ever have any self-doubts, fear of failure? [103] He has repeatedly called for increased inter-space energy and industrial manufacturing to decrease the negative costs associated with business-related pollution. [224], In 2019, Bezos's wealth was reduced by the divorce from his wife MacKenzie Bezos. [150][151] His physical appearance increased the public's perception of him as a symbolically dominant figure in business and in popular culture, wherein he has been parodied as an enterprising supervillain. And we did a lot of analysis on that to pick that category as the first best category for e-commerce online, but there were no guarantees that that was a good category. [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. Its really a very involving and fun subject. [300][301], In January 2018, Bezos made a $33million donation to TheDream.US, a college scholarship fund for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors. [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. ", "What Has Jeff Bezos Chosen to Spend His $140B On? He also invented a music player called the Synapse Media Player, which was reviewed by PC Magazin. Bezos: $1,681,840 annually. He was making a bet on his son, as was my mother. [80] While preparing to introduce the bill, Sanders opined: "Instead of attempting to explore Mars or go to the moon, how about Jeff Bezos pays his workers a living wage? Almost overnight, the company Bezos started, Amazon.com, changed the book-buying habits of a nation. [204] However, just months later in October 2016, his wealth increased by $16.2billion to $66.5billion, unofficially ranking him the third-richest person in the world, behind Warren Buffett. He's the son of Jacklyn and Ted Jorgensen. Another thing that I would recommend to people is that they always take a long-term point of view. Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964,[12] the son of Jacklyn (ne Gise) and Ted Jorgensen. Over the years, it was adopted by government and academic researchers to exchange data and messages, but as late as 1994, there was still no Internet commerce to speak of. In fact, we quickly expanded. Jeff's stepfather is Miguel "Mike" Bezos. Likewise, while still in high school, Bezos participated in the Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida. 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. I stopped in San Francisco and interviewed vice presidents of engineering, because that was going to be an important long lead time item. [136][137] Journalist Mark O'Connell criticized Bezos's relentless customer focus as "very small" in terms of impact on humanity as a whole,[138] a sentiment technologist Tim O'Reilly agreed with. I mean, its something that I had my sights set on for a long time, and it was a harsh realization that there were these awe-inspiring people whose brains were just wired differently. And that was where I was working when I came across the fact that the web was growing at 2,300 percent a year, and thats what led to the forming of Amazon.com. Physicist. Jeff Bezos: I was very, very lucky because in fourth grade which for me would have been around 1974 I had access to a mainframe computer. Jeff Bezos: If you are a lottery winner, as I am, then one of the things that you get a chance to do at some point in your life is to be a philanthropist and so, I didnt grow up hoping, Boy! I think it was a great experience. And, from that day forward all we did was play Star Trek. I have a 14-month old son, and its very easy for me to if I think about myself when Im 80, I know I want to watch that little guy grow up, and so its I dont want to be 80 and think, Shoot! [141][142][143], Bezos was seen by some as needlessly quantitative and data-driven. I would take as my third choice if I couldnt get Spock or Kirk I would take the computer. I dont know if Ill ever get that chance. We always had lots of supporters and we always had lots of skeptics, and thats still the same today. He believes that work and home life are interconnected, informing and calibrating each other. In his initial discussion of the project which became Alexa with his technical advisor Greg Hart in 2011, Bezos told him that the goal was to create "the Star Trek computer. But although he was clearly Why do you do what youre doing for a living? We needed to build the technology that would run the store, and found the person who turned out to be the most important person ever in the history of Amazon.com on that trip. [55] Although Amazon was originally an online bookstore, Bezos had always planned to expand to other products. Despite this interview question, Jezz Bezos' SAT score is undisclosed but we do know that he graduated as valedictorian from high school and had a 4.2 GPA in college. Author of Book on Amazon", "What Is Jeff Bezos's Religion? He retired early to the family ranch, where Jeffrey spent most of the summers of his youth, working with his grandfather at the enormously varied tasks essential to the operation. 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. ", and "Why are you ruining my life?". 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. Now, the question that I would pose is, if that turned out to be the world, Is that a good trade? Personally, I dont think so. Bezos founded the aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company Blue Origin in 2000. How much did Jeff Bezos make in 2020? [52] In addition, he regarded "Amazon," the name of the world's largest river as fitting for what he hoped would become the world's largest online bookstore. Youre asking me about my story, and its still the very beginning. [315], On November 22, 2022, Jeff Bezos awarded $123 million to organizations that are engaged in relocating homeless families to permanent housing. If I ever get the chance Id like to go investigate the moon and Mars and tool around our solar system a little bit. We moved to Houston, Texas. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and electrical engineering. [20], After his parents divorced, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel "Mike" Bezos in April 1968. Upon graduating from college, Jeff. $32,343 weekly. He continues to serve as Executive Chairman of the global retail, communications and media empire he has built. Was there a moment of inspiration? When Jeff graduated from Princeton, he had a GPA of 4.3 / 4. And, by the way, it wasnt more difficult than it had been for the previous 20 years to raise money, it just was sort of normally hard. 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. What did you set out to do? On July 16, 1995, Bezos opened his site to the world, and told his 300 beta testers to spread the word. [111] He launched nine days after Richard Branson launched onboard the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High in 1982, where he was a straight-A student and the valedictorian. Those were sort of my two biographical heroes. Teachers, who are really good create that environment where you can be very satisfied by the process of learning. [83] However, Sanders countered that the companies targeted by his proposal have placed an increased focus on part-time workers to escape benefit obligations. what grades did jeff bezos get in high school? Its great. You know, one of the things that its very hard to believe when youre 22 or 23 years old is that you dont already know everything. They were the pesky younger siblings that I was trying to shake off and keep out of my room. Jeff Bezos: Its very interesting, because the Internet in general and Amazon.com in particular, is still Chapter One. By mid-2010, Kindle and e-book sales had reached $2.38 billion, and Amazons sales of e-books topped its sales in hardcover. [159][160], Day 1: start upDay 2: stasisDay 3: irrelevanceDay 4: "excruciating, painful decline"Day 5: death, Bezos has stated "it is always Day 1" to describe his growth mindset. [251][252] All survived; Bezos sustained only minor injuries and was discharged from a local hospital the same day. And, a lot of these discoveries tend to have two uses. 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. Its supposed to be hard to raise a million dollars. It is kind of an obscure thing, and its not very interesting to go into, but it used my technical skills, and it was very fun work, and I loved the people I was working with. [139] His business practices projected a public image of prudence and parsimony with his own wealth and that of Amazon. [96] After the company gained the public's attention during the late 2000s, Bezos additionally indicated his interest in reducing the cost of space travel for humans while also increasing the safety of extraterrestrial travel. [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. [173][174], Bezos first became a millionaire in 1997 after raising $54million through Amazon's initial public offering (IPO). So that was, I think, a very good decision to not do that. As you can see, Bezos earns in a day what the average person with a decent-paying job earns in an entire month. And, I think thats very good. [7] The company has recruited prominent scientists such as Juan Carlos Izpisa Belmonte (known for work on rejuvenation through reprogramming), Steve Horvath (known for work in epigenetic aging clocks), and Shinya Yamanaka (the Nobel Prize-winning inventor of cellular reprogramming in mammalian cells). He was a high-achieving student, becoming a National Merit Scholar and a member of the honor society Phi Beta Kappa. [136] During the 1990s, Bezos earned a reputation for relentlessly pushing Amazon forward, often at the expense of public charity and social welfare.
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