The Inspirational Success Story Of Jeff Bezos | Amazon’s Founder

“What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you – what used to be a tailwind is now a headwind – you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn’t a strategy.” – Jeff Bezos. True to his word he did take advantage of the world changes and build the biggest e-commerce website Amazon. We cannot talk about the Success Story Of Jeff Bezos without talking about Amazon.

Amazon

Amazon is a third-party seller providing various subscription services to attract more customers.

The e-commerce giant that has paved the way for many other businesses has a remarkable story. Amazon is the outcome of the success story of Jeff Bezos. It is a Seattle, Washington-based e-commerce and cloud computing giant business that has been in existence since 1994. Initially incorporated with the name Cadabra, Inc and after a few months changed to Amazon.

The Success Story Of Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos currently owns about 9% of Amazon’s share and has a networth of $197 billion, currently making him the second richest person in the world. He also founded a spaceflight company in 2000, called Blue Origin. And in 2013 he purchased The Washington Post and affiliated publications. In 2021, he with his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen, all officially became astronauts after passing the Kármán Line in the suborbital spacecraft, New Shepard of the Blue Origin. There is so much more to the success story of Jeff Bezos.

Success Story Of Jeff Bezos

Early days of Jeff Bezos

Jeffrey Preston Bezos or Jeff Bezos was born to Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen, who was a teenager and Ted Jorgensen on January 12 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

His mother married Mike Bezos, a Cuban immigrant when he was around 4 years old. From an early age he had a keen interest in the inner workings of an object.

To fuel his passion his family moved to Miami to provide him the education that he needed.

He was heavily inspired by his father’s journey. Mike Bezos was only 16 years old when he left Cuba and came alone to America. He barely spoke any English and was just carrying bare minimum things with him. The fear of Cuba’s then-leader Fidel Castro made his parents send him to America. Initially he stayed in Camp Matecumbe, a refugee camp in Florida then he was sent to Delaware to attend high school. Here, he received a scholarship and went to a college in Albuquerque where he eventually met Jacklyn Gise and her son Jeff. He eventually married Gise and adopted Jeff when he was 4 years old.

Education

His love for innovation even at an early age made him create a Dream Institute, a summer camp that promotes creative thinking in young students. He was also the valedictorian at his high school. Jeff Bezos was an exceptional student who completed his higher education from Princeton University in 1986, with summa cum laude in both electrical engineering and computer science degrees.

Career

His career was growing at a high speed. From making burgers at a McDonald’s in Miami during his teenage years to securing employment at various companies based on Wall Street after completing his graduation.

He eventually joined the New York based investment bank D.E. Shaw & Co. in 1990. Here, he was in charge of assessing the investment opportunities related to the Internet. At the age of 30 he became the youngest vice president at D.E. Shaw.

Realising the potential of the Internet, in 1994 he decided to resign from his job and moved to Seattle to tap into the internet business.

The story of Amazon.

After quitting his job and shifting to Seattle, he created a list of 20 potential products with his team of 5 he believed could sell well online. Out of all he selected books to be his golden goose. He managed to raise $1 million from friends and family and started his online bookstore from the garage of his house. Amazon was a hit from the start as it not only managed to sell books in the United States but also in 45 other countries within just 30 and by the two months mark its weekly sales touched $20,000.

By September 1996 Amazon was selling over 1 million titles, had employed more than 100 employees and had made over $15.7 million in sales. In 1997, Amazon made its initial public offering (IPO) and by next 2 years it became the top e-commerce platform.

By now Amazon had expanded to movies and music and was further adding to its product category.

When more and more companies started to take advantage of the scope of the internet, Jeff Bezos, understanding the importance of diversification, introduced a cloud-computing service Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2006 and in 2007 Amazon released Kindle, a fabulous new handheld reading device.

In 2013 made many remarkable innovations; they created Amazon Studios that produced numerous original programs, they launched Amazon Prime Air, which aimed to utilise drones for customer deliveries.

In 2014 they launched Fire Phone which was discontinued the following year.

In 2017, Amazon purchased Whole Foods, allowing them to create exclusive in-store offers for its Amazon Prime customers and speeding up the grocery delivery services.

The change of the wind

In 2021 Jeff Bezos stepped down as the CEO of Amazon and assumed the role of executive chairman. Andy Jassy was then appointed as the CEO of Amazon.

In 2018, he donated $2 billion from his personal fortune to finance existing NGOs that helped homeless families and provided high-quality preschool education for the underprivileged communities.

In 2020, he launched the Bezos Earth Fund and pledged to allocate $10 billion for combating the potential impacts of climate change.

The Success Story Of Jeff Bezos is very inspirational and motivating for everyone. His story teaches us how to adapt changes and make it more for our growth. He tapped into the potential of the internet and that made him a billionaire. Change is not to be feared but to be seen as an endless possibility.