The Fascinating Journey of Amazon's Founder, Jeff Bezos

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7 Mar 2024

If the intentions are good and the courage is high, then success definitely follows. The biggest example of this is Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man and owner of Amazon. After working in many companies, Bezos opened an online book store, which changed his fortunes.
Jeff was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jeff's mother's name is Jackie Jorgensen and father's name is Ted Jorgensen.

At the time of Jeff's birth, his mother was only 17 years old. Jackie and Ted's relationship lasted only for a year. After that both of them got divorced.

He grew up in Texas and Florida with his mother and stepfather Mike Bezos.

According to Brad Stone's 2013 biography of Jeff Bezos, he first showed inclination towards engineering and science at the age of three. When he broke his crib with a screwdriver.

In the speech given on completing high school, he also mentioned the idea of building a colony in space.

In 1986, he received a degree in Electrical Engineering Bachelor of Science from Princeton University. After this he worked in financial companies in New York and during that time he also met his wife Mackenzie. His wife is a novelist.

His inclination, imagination and ambitions towards engineering and science led him to start Amazon.

Sensing the increasing reach of the Internet, Jeff Bezos left his job at the age of 30.

In one of his speeches in 2010, he had called this decision an unsafe path. He had said, “I had decided to do something immediately. I didn't think I would regret trying and failing. If I don't do this, I will definitely be troubled by the thought of not trying even once."

In 1994, Bezos started Amazon from a garage. At that time he used to sell only old books. After this, its website also came in July 1995. He invested $100,000 in his e-commerce company with personal money and family support. This company immediately started living up to their expectations.

According to Amazon's report, by the end of 1997, about two years later, the company had more than 1.5 million customers in more than 150 countries.

Amazon was not the first name -

Jeff was not the first to think of the name of the company as Amazon. He was so attracted by the name ‘Abra Ka Dabra’ that he wanted to name the company ‘Cadabra’. Although his lawyer refused to do so. After this he liked the name RELENTLESS, but things did not work out. Then he named it Amazon.

Continuous improvement is the first step to success.
The company was in loss in the initial years - it is most important to remain engaged in your work.

The company suffered losses in the first few years. There was a loss of more than Rs 16 lakh in the very first year of starting the company. But later there was profit every year.

According to Amazon's annual reports, in the year 2019 alone, the company got a revenue of Rs 19.63 lakh crore and a profit of more than Rs 81 thousand crore.

Profit since 2005 -

In 1995, the company had a revenue of Rs 1.64 crore and a loss of Rs 0.96 crore. In 2000, the company had a revenue of Rs 11,868 crore and a loss of Rs 0.96 crore.

But in the year 2005, the company made profits, which kept increasing day by day.
According to Brad Stone's book 'The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon', within a month of Amazon's launch in 1995, it took orders from 50 states and 45 countries.

In the first five years, the number of Amazon customers increased from 1 lakh 80 thousand to 1 crore 17 lakh. Its sales increased from 5 lakh 11 thousand dollars to 1.6 billion dollars.

Big investors started coming to the company. It went public in 1997 and within no time Jeff Bazos became the richest person in the world before the age of 35.

Amazon is the world's second largest company in terms of market capitalization.

Talking about Amazon's market capitalization, it has reached 10 trillion dollars in less than 25 years.

Whereas in 2008, Warren Buffet was at the first place in this list. But only after a year, Gates achieved this position again. Carlos Slim was at the top for four consecutive years from 2010 to 2013. And in 2014, Gates again came on top.

Jeff Bezos Net worth

According to Forbes, while Bill Gates's total wealth in 1999 was Rs 3.65 lakh crore, Bezos was the owner of Rs 43,000 crore at that time. His wealth has fluctuated considerably. Till 2015, Bill Gates' net worth was more than Bezos.

In 2015, Gates' net worth was Rs 5.05 lakh crore, while Bezos's net worth was almost half that i.e. Rs 2.24 lakh crore. But since 2018, Bezos's wealth has been higher.

Bill Gates' net worth in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was Rs 6.12 lakh crore, Rs 6.79 lakh crore and Rs 8.58 lakh crore respectively. During this period, Bezos's net worth was Rs 7.61 lakh crore, Rs 9.17 lakh crore and Rs 15.17 lakh crore respectively.

Salary was around Rs 60 lakh in 2019

Bezos has more than 7.50 crore shares of Amazon. That is, he holds 15.1 percent shares in Amazon. In 2019, he received $81,840 (about Rs 60 lakh) as salary.

Collecting parking payments from its headquarters employees, fighting with suppliers, opposing the formation of labor unions in its warehouses, and avoiding paying taxes as much as possible

Jeff Bezos has announced his CEO resignation on February 2, 2021. He wants to devote his time and attention to other areas. Andy Jassy will be the new CEO of Amazon

Bezos has written this last line in his resignation letter

When the idea seems strange compared to what was thought before, keep innovating and don't despair. Remember wandering. Use curiosity as your compass. this is the first day.