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Jeff Bezos turns 58 today. Here's how he built Amazon into a $1.7 trillion company and became one of the world's richest people.Updated 2022-01-12T21:14:28Z
Jeff Bezos' mom, Jackie, was a teenager when she had him on January 12, 1964. She had recently married Cuban immigrant Miguel Bezos, who adopted Jeff. Jeff didn't learn that Miguel wasn't his real father until he was 10, but says he was more fazed about learning he needed to get glasses than he was about the news.Jeff Bezos with his father, Miguel Bezos. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Statue Of Liberty-Ellis Island FoundationSource: Wired When Bezos was 4, his mother told his biological father, who previously had worked as a circus performer, to stay out of their lives. When Brad Stone interviewed Bezos' biological father for Stone's book "The Everything Store," Bezos' dad had no idea who his son had become.Not Jeff Bezos' father. Reuters/Eric GaillardSource: The Everything Store Bezos showed signs of brilliance from an early age. When he was a toddler, he took apart his crib with a screwdriver because he wanted to sleep in a real bed.Fabian Strauch/picture alliance via Getty ImagesSource: The Everything Store From ages 4 to 16, Bezos spent summers on his grandparents' ranch in Texas, doing things like repairing windmills and castrating bulls.AP Photo/Richard DrewSource: The Everything Store His grandfather, Preston Gise, was a huge inspiration for Bezos and helped kindle his passion for intellectual pursuits. At a commencement address in 2010, Bezos said Gise taught him "it's harder to be kind than clever."Jeff Bezos. AP ImagesSource: Business Insider In school, Bezos told teachers "the future of mankind is not on this planet." As a kid, he wanted to be a space entrepreneur — now, he owns a space-exploration company called Blue Origin.Getty Images / Blue OriginSource: Wired After spending a miserable summer working at McDonald's as a teen, Bezos, together with his girlfriend, started the Dream Institute, a 10-day summer camp for kids. They charged $600 a kid and managed to sign up six students. The "Lord of the Rings" series made the required reading list.Kim Kulish/Getty imagesSource: Wired Bezos eventually went to college at Princeton University and majored in computer science. Upon graduation, he turned down job offers from Intel and Bell Labs to join a startup called Fitel.Princeton University. John Greim / Getty ImagesSource: The Everything Store After he quit Fitel, Bezos considered partnering with Halsey Minor — who would later found CNET — to launch a startup that would deliver news by fax.Karl Baron/FlickrSource: Wired Instead, he got a job at the hedge fund D.E. Shaw. He became a senior vice president after only four years.The rising graph of the Bombay Stock Index is reflected in the glasses of Senior broker and Assistant Vice President of Motilal Oswal Securities Limited, Jitendra Prasad, as he looks into a computer in his firm in Bombay November 15, 2001. India's key share index finished up more than two percent on Thursday to its highest level since September 11, as investors bet on a recovery in global equity sentiment. The 30-share Bombay Sensitive Index closed up a provisional 2.65 percent at 3,195.52 points. YEAREND PICTURES 2001 Reuters/Arko DattaSource: The Everything Store Meanwhile, Bezos was taking ballroom dancing classes as part of a scheme to increase his "women flow." Just as Wall Streeters have a process for increasing their "deal flow," Bezos thought analytically about meeting women.Lisi Niesner/ReutersSource: The Everything Store He married MacKenzie Tuttle, a D.E. Shaw research associate, in 1993. The couple had four kids together.APSource: The Everything Store In 1994, Bezos read that the web had grown 2,300% in one year. This number astounded him, and he decided he needed to find some way to take advantage of its rapid growth. He made a list of 20 possible products to sell online and decided books were the best option.Paul FalardeauSource: The Everything Store Bezos decided to leave D.E. Shaw even though he had a great job. His boss at the firm, David E. Shaw, tried to persuade Bezos to stay. But Bezos was already determined to start his own company — he felt he'd rather try and fail at a startup than never try at all.Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is silhouetted during a presentation of his company's new Fire smartphone at a news conference in Seattle, Washington June 18, 2014. REUTERS/Jason RedmondSource: Wired And so Amazon was born. MacKenzie and Jeff flew to Texas to borrow a car from his father, and then they drove to Seattle. Bezos was making revenue projections in the passenger seat the whole way, though the couple did stop to watch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon.Sara Jaye/Getty ImagesSource: The Everything Store In the early days, a bell would ring in the office every time someone made a purchase, and everyone would gather around to see whether anyone knew the customer. It took only a few weeks before it was ringing so often they had to make it stop.AP Photo/Andy RogersSource: Insider In the first month of its launch, Amazon sold books to people in all 50 states and in 45 different countries. And it continued to grow: Amazon went public on May 15, 1997.Frank Micelotta/Getty ImagesSource: Insider Amazon has now gone beyond selling books to offering almost everything you can imagine, including appliances, clothing, and even cloud computing services.An Amazon warehouse. ShutterstockIn the early days, Bezos was a demanding boss and could explode at employees. Rumor has it he hired a leadership coach to help him tone it down.Amazon's Jeff Bezos ReutersSource: Insider Bezos is known for banning PowerPoint presentations at Amazon. Instead, he requires his staff to turn in papers of a specific length on their proposals to encourage critical thinking over simplistic bullet points.Pens and paper with an Amazon logo are seen at the logistics center in Brieselang Thomson ReutersSource: The Everything Store Bezos is also known for creating a frugal company culture that doesn't offer perks like free food or massages.An Amazon office. Business InsiderWhat does Bezos do with all his money? In 2012, he donated $2.5 million to defend gay marriage in Washington. More recently, he's pledged $10 billion to fight climate change, donated $200 million to the Smithsonian, and gave $100 million each to the Obama Foundation, chef Jose Andres, and activist Van Jones.Jeff Bezos. REUTERS/Abhishek N. ChinnappaSource: The Washington Post, Insider, Insider Bezos has also donated $42 million and part of his land in Texas to the construction of The Clock Of The Long Now, an underground timepiece designed to work for 10,000 years.The Long Now Foundation / FacebookSource: Insider In August 2013, Bezos bought The Washington Post for $250 million.Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesSource: The Washington Post And he also spend money on his space company, Blue Origin. Blue Origin made history in 2015 when it became one of the first commercial companies to successfully launch a reusable rocket.Blue OriginSource: Insider Bezos' interest in flying has gotten him into trouble in the past. In 2003, Bezos almost died in a helicopter crash in Texas while scouting a site for a test-launch facility for Blue Origin.This isn't Bezos' helicopter. NTSBSource: CNN But in early 2016, he flew his personal jet to Germany to pick up and bring home Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter who had been detained by Iran.Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesSource: Insider Bezos is said to own a 5.35-acre estate on Seattle's Lake Washington that includes 200 yards of shoreline.An Amazon-branded Boeing 767 freighter, nicknamed Amazon One, flies over Lake Washington. Stephen Brashear/GettySource: Curbed Seattle He bought a seven-bedroom, $24.5 million mansion in Beverly Hills in 2007. There's a greenhouse, tennis court, pool, and guest house on the property, and it neighbors Tom Cruise's estate.Bezos' house in Beverly Hills. Dream Homes MagazineSource: Forbes Bezos also owns five apartments at 212 Fifth Avenue in New York City. His most recent purchase in the building was last August, when he paid a reported $23 million for a four-bedroom unit, bringing his total real estate holdings in the building to $119 million.Madison Square Park in New York City. ShutterstockSource: Insider In February 2020, Bezos became the new owner of the Warner estate, a sprawling compound in Beverly Hills, California, that he reportedly purchased for $165 million. A few months later, Bezos added to the compound with an adjacent house worth $10 million.Los Angeles County/PictometrySource: Insider In October 2021, Bezos reportedly added to his real estate portfolio once again with a new home in Hawaii. The home is located in an isolated area on Maui's south shore and is near lava fields, Pacific Business News reported.A home in Maui, Hawaii, although not the one Bezos purchased. ejs9/Getty ImagesSource: Insider, Pacific Business News Now, more than 20 years after going public, Amazon has a market cap of nearly $1.7 trillion.Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Alex Wong/Getty ImagesSource: Markets Insider In July 2017, Bezos became the world's richest person for the first time, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates. At the time, his net worth was more than $90 billion.Getty ImagesSource: Markets Insider, Forbes Despite his high net worth, Bezos never actually took home a high salary, comparatively speaking: His annual salary while he was CEO came out to $81,840, according to Bloomberg.Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon, and John Elkann, chairman of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, walk together during the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2018 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesSource: Bloomberg Shortly after the Bezoses announced their divorce, news broke that Bezos was dating TV host and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez. At the time, the National Enquirer said it had obtained texts and explicit photos the couple had sent to each other.Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty ImagesSource: Insider Bezos immediately launched an investigation into who had leaked his personal messages. Soon after, he dropped a bombshell of his own: an explosive blog post accusing National Enquirer publisher AMI of trying to blackmail him. "Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I've decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten," Bezos wrote.Jeff Bezos. Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesSource: Medium The Bezoses announced on Twitter they had finalized the term of their divorce in April 2019. MacKenzie retained more than $35 billion in Amazon stock, making her one of the world's richest women.Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos. ReutersSource: Insider Since then, Bezos and Sanchez have had a whirlwind few years, attending Wimbledon together, yachting with other moguls and celebrities, and vacationing in Saint-Tropez and St. Barths.Reuters/Andrew CouldridgeSource: Insider During the coronavirus outbreak, Amazon saw a surge in demand as more people were forced to shop online. At the same time, the company faced criticism over its treatment of workers and its attention to health and safety at its fulfillment centers nationwide.Former Amazon employee, Christian Smalls, stands with fellow demonstrators during a protest outside of an Amazon warehouses in the Staten Island borough of New York on May 1, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas JacksonSource: Insider Amazon delivery drivers, who are contractors employed by third-party companies, have also spoken out about the demands of their jobs. Drivers say Amazon's emphasis on metrics has forced them to use their delivery vans as a bathroom or sacrifice safety to deliver packages on time.An Amazon driver carrying packages. Patrick T. FALLON / AFPSource: Insider, Insider The company is also facing antitrust concerns, particularly over the company's treatment of third-party sellers on its platform. Bezos and other major tech CEOs were called to testify before Congress in July 2020.Jeff Bezos threw his weight behind the US military. AP/Pablo Martinez MonsivaisSource: Insider After the killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed in 2020, Bezos was outspoken about his support for the Black Lives Matter movement, publicly shaming customers who sent racist emails about his and Amazon's support. In an Instagram post, he posted a screenshot of a customer email and described the man as "the kind of customer I'm happy to lose."A person holds a "Black Lives Matter" sign at a protest in Seattle, Washington on June 1, 2020. Lindsey Wasson/ReutersSource: Insider On February 2, 2021, Bezos announced he would step down as Amazon's CEO and transition to executive chairman after 27 years at the helm. Bezos said that he planned to spend more time on philanthropy — including the Bezos Earth Fund and his Day 1 Fund — as well as his two other major endeavors: The Washington Post and his rocket company, Blue Origin.Jeff Bezos attends the premiere of "Star Trek Beyond" in 2016. Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesSource: Insider Bezos stepped down in July and embarked on his next adventure: On July 20, he took an 11-minute voyage to the edge of space aboard a Blue Origin spacecraft. He was accompanied by his brother, Mark; a Dutch teenager named Oliver Daemen; and Wally Funk, an 82-year-old aviator who trained to go to space in the '60s but was ultimately denied the opportunity because she was a woman.Isaiah J. Downing/ReutersSource: Insider Allana Akhtar contributed to an earlier version of this story. Read next LoadingSomething is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. More... What investment bank did Jeff Bezos work at?From 1990 to 1994, Bezos helped build one of the most technically sophisticated and successful quantitative hedge funds on Wall Street for D.E. Shaw & Co., New York, becoming their youngest senior vice president in 1992.
Where did Bezos get his money?Most of Jeff Bezos' wealth comes from his Amazon shares. He still owns 11% of Amazon shares and has sold an estimated $27 billion worth of shares since 1997 according to Forbes. He is known for his generous philanthropy, regularly giving to causes such as cancer research and climate change.
Where was Jeff Bezos first job?In the early 1980s, you could find 16-year-old Jeff Bezos, a student at Miami Palmetto Senior High, working as a short-order line cook during the breakfast shift at McDonald's before the sun rose each morning.
Did Jeff Bezos get a loan from parents?His parents loaned him the money to start Amazon
They ultimately loaned him US$245,000 in 1995, according to The Los Angeles Times. By 2020, Bezos has transformed this into US$1 trillion!
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