“I knew that if I failed, I would regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.” – Jeff Bezos
Hey reader! You must have come across the news regarding the 11-minute space tour of Jeff Bezos, which grabbed the headlines a few months back. The second-richest man on the planet, Jeff.
As you might know, Bezos is the founder and CEO of e-commerce giant Amazon, which is the crown jewel of not a single domain, but many. His career is a roller-coaster ride of success and knowledge from failures, swimming against a diet of negative criticism and financial crisis. You must be eager to know about this man and his journey. Let’s look at some of them.
History:
Born on January 12 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Jeffrey Preston Bezos, a.k.a Jeff Bezos, displayed his admirable qualities right from childhood. Greatly influenced by his grandfather, he learned basic science, he spent summers vaccinating cattle and fixing windmills. After graduating from Princeton University with a B.S.E Degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, he worked in various companies like Fitel, Bankers Trust, and D.E.Shaw & Co. You won’t be surprised to know that he became the youngest Vice President in the latter at 30. Though meeting success in the initial years, he decided to shift from the finance domain and eventually founded an online bookstore Amazon, formerly named Cadabra but later changed after the South American Amazon river.
Life Story:
The list of journeys and achievements of this man is endless. Amazon became a success and soon outpaced its competitors. Three years later, he made the Initial Public Offering of the company. In 1998, it started offering C.D.s and videos.
In 2002, it included clothes in its portfolio. Thus, Amazon started extending its claws to other domains too.
Bezos eventually decided to explore space travel, which sparked his interest right from childhood. The aerospace company, Blue Origin, was founded in 2004 to make outer space available for humans.
Following the success, Bezos introduced Kindle- yes, the one where you read your favorite books now. Kindle- an electronic reading device claimed to cause minimal eye strain, and thus, books were available for global users anywhere and anytime. Kindle proved to be a huge success making Amazon capture 95 percent of the U.S. ebooks market.
Consequently, in 2011, Kindle Fire was introduced to challenge the newly founded iPad. In 2012, he launched Amazon Studios. In 2013, he purchased the Washington Post. Wait, that’s not the end. He bought Whole Foods, a national grocery retailer.
That’s just a small list of his business achievements.
Jeff Bezos married MacKenzie Tuttle in 1993, with whom he has four children. He got divorced in 2019.
Achievements:
Bezos has been conferred with numerous awards. In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Science and Technology from Carnegie Mellon University. U.S. News & World Report selected Bezos as one of America’s best leaders.
Three years later, he and Gregg Zehr received an Innovation Award from The Economist for the Amazon Kindle. The following year, Fortune named him Businessperson of The Year.
In December 2012, the National Retail Federation awarded Bezos the Gold Medal Award and named Amazon as the top retailer of the year. He was ranked the best-performing CEO globally by Harvard Business Review in 2014-2018. Apart from these major ones, there are several others. So don’t be surprised.
Also Read: Jeff Bezos Steps Down as Amazon CEO, Here’s One To His Legacy
Bezos became a millionaire in 1997. Two years later, he was included in Forbes World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $10.1 billion. After that, a series of failures and financial crises followed in the following years. 2014 saw his economic rise once again, and guess what? The pandemic helped the company and its founder increase their wealth due to a demand for online shopping.
Here are Top Quotes by Jeff Bezos
“Let’s look at some of the quotes of the billionaire who inspires millions.”
“Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.”
“One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”
“If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you’re going to double your inventiveness.”
“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn a reputation by trying to do hard things well.”
“I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.”
“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”
“The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.”
“If you only do things where you know the answer in advance, your company goes away.”
“If you don’t understand the details of your business, you are going to fail.”
“Failure and invention are inseparable twins. To invent, you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment.”
In Summer 2021, at the peak of success, Bezos announced that he would step down from the CEO role at Amazon, but he continues to serve as Executive Chairman of the company. Let’s wish this amazing Amazon founder who reaches stratospheric heights a Happy Birthday on his 58th birthday.