When we say Jeff Bezos – nothing but we have our Amazon e-commerce in front of our eyes. He is one of the internet era’s biggest story. Who changed the face of shopping forever? Jeff Bezos, besides being, the founder, the president and CEO of Amazon he has more of feathers in his cap. Investor, media proprietor, computer engineer, commercial astronaut, founder, and the third richest man in the world–Jeff Bezos.

In this blog, we will delve into the remarkable life of Jeff Bezos, tracing his path from childhood to the founding of Amazon, the e-commerce giant that revolutionized the way we shop and paved the way for the digital age.

It’s not a story of some sky high wealth and a born billionaire but a journey fueled by a teenage tech, a young boy’s fascination with science and technology, unsatisfied curious mind.

Childhood of Jeff Bezos:

Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen, now famously known as Jeff Bezos, was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is the son of Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen and Ted Jorgensen.His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother remarried Miguel Bezos, a Cuban immigrant who later adopted Jeff and gave him his last name.

According to the 2013 biography of Jeff Bezos by Brad Stone, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, the now-billionaire’s biological father was a circus performer. When Stone(writer of the book) tracked down Jorgensen to interview him for Jeff’s biography, he had reportedly not seen his son in decades and hadn’t realized he was his biological father. Jorgensen reached out to his son, and the two sorted out gap between them, Bezos also never had any hard feelings towards Jorgensen at all, according to Stone. 

With keen interest in technology at very early age, Bezos demonstrated an special talent and ability for engineering and electronics. At just the age of four he managed to dismantle his crib cot with a screwdriver and, not long after, this curious kid set-up an electric alarm system in his bedroom in order to prevent his younger siblings from entering his room.

At 16, as a teenager, Bezos instead of just enjoying college life and summer, worked at McDonald’s store as a fryer. And till now he always points McDonald’s experience where he learned sense of responsibility and adeptness while working under pressure. The spark was still alive which showed the fire to do something and lead the minds. After gaining little of the experience in the outer world he launched his own ‘Dream Institue’ an educational summer camp for 9-12 years kids, charging $600 per person. He had 6 attendees for his camp. Bezos collaborated this camp with his then girlfriend.

Where 16 years old are just enjoying their life knowing nothing around the world, kids with unique abilities, just like Bezos and other genius and rich people have always been undistracted from their vision from early life.

After graduating from Princeton University with degrees of electrical engineering and computer science Bezos had a successful career on Wall Street, holding positions at firms like Fitel, Bankers Trust, and D. E. Shaw & Co. It was at D. E. Shaw & Co. that Bezos would meet his future wife, MacKenzie Tuttle, who was also working at the firm.

Despite his success in finance, Bezos was drawn to the new potential of the internet and e-commerce. In 1994, he left his lucrative job at D. E. Shaw & Co. and moved to Seattle to start his own internet company. With a vision to create an online bookstore that would offer a vast selection of books at competitive prices, Bezos founded Amazon.com in his garage.

The first prototype of Amazon website was very basic and hence he invited 300 friends for beta testing and reviews. Bezos along with his few employees, embarked the journey of Amazon and started developing this software in his garage. Bezos conducted all his meetings at local Barnes and a book store as garage space was very limited. As the work flow continued to expand, gradually they hoped in a 2 BHK house.

Amazon was founded in 1994. Jeff’s ex-wife played an important role helping him build the foundation of Amazon. Mackenzie Scott and Jeff Bezos divorced each other after 25 years of marriage. Mackenzie got 25% of their Amazon stock which worths $35.6 billion at the time of divorce settlement.

Initially the first name for amacon.com was ‘Cadabra’ but was people certainly had confusion with this word while online search. Acknowledging this he did think for other options like “MakeltSo” and “Relentles” but finally settled for word Amazon as its inspired from world’s largest river with the vision to building the world’s largest online bookstore.

In the startup period, Bezos used a door as his desk to save money, as doors were affordable then a desk. Over time door desks came to become a symbol of frugality at Amazon.

Amazon sold its first book in July 1995.

Internet web usage was growing by more than 2,000 percent a year and this came to an advantage to Amazon as it quickly got the hold in e-commerce world. Open for 24 hrs, simple, user friendly interface, encouraging users to post their own reviews of books on site and also offering discounts, personalized recommendations, and searches for out-of-print books. by 1998 bezos started adding new options like CDs, videos etc.

Throughout Amazon’s evolution, Bezos remained at the forefront of innovation, constantly pushing the boundaries of what was possible. Seeing the growth and enormous potential in online e-commerce many retailers lined up for making it to online. Bezos realized the need to upgrade and diversify and by 2005 Amazon offered a vast categories of products, including consumer electronics, hardware and apparels. In 2006 AWS- Amazon cloud computing, 2007 – Kindle, Amazon Prime and so on. Every time when consumers where settled and satisfied with the new options he introduced groundbreaking initiatives which constantly gave its consumers an engaging and quality products.

Like many startups, Amazon faced many challenges as the online shopping was a new concept. Jeff Bezos and team faced lot of criticism, logistical issues and most importantly financial challenges in its early years. The company operated at a loss for several years as Bezos prioritized long-term growth and market expansion over short-term profitability. Because Bezos knew the competitors will follow and can get aggressive on product pricing. This approach of developing new things constantly required significant investment and incurred substantial financial risks as Jeff always invested more in innovation and developing than what he was earning for a long term goal. Ultimately with strong determination laid the foundation for Amazon’s dominance in the e-commerce industry.

After Amazon he was unstoppable and thus invested in other ventures and business like owning a newspaper, launching Blue Origin- a space exploration company and so on.

In 2017, Jeff Bezos became the richest person in the world overtaking Bill Gates for some hours!

Some interesting facts about Jeff Bezos.

1. Bezos has a public Amazon email address, and when he comes across interesting customer complaints, he forwards them to Amazon executives with a single question mark.
2. Despite being worth $10 billion in 1999, Bezos still chose to drive a 1997 Honda Accord.
3. He washes the dishes every night, jokingly calling it one of the sexiest things he does. Many entrepreneurs enjoy washing dishes, which research suggests can reduce stress and boost creativity.
4. Jeff Bezos admitted to being superstitious during an interview with Shah Rukh Khan in Mumbai, sharing that he wears lucky boots to prevent failure during every Blue Origin rocket launch.
5. Jeff Bezos is known for his adventurous palate. He ate an octopus with Woot’s founder to show he’s willing to try new things, and in 2018, he also tried iguana at the Explorer’s Club Annual Dinner, where he received an award.
6. He banned Microsoft PowerPoint in executive meetings at Amazon and instead requires a six-page memo to be read and discussed. He believes this forces clear thinking and considers it one of the best decisions they’ve made at Amazon.

Whether you like him for his achievement or dislike him for his enormous wealth and villain like looks. Every man, budding entrepreneurs, startups have a lot to learn as Jeff Bozos definitely is a rags to rich journey. A humble beginning to becoming a wealthiest person, Jeff Bezos has proven his meteoric rise through innovation, hard work, smart work and the quality to never give up!