Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Becomes Richest Man in The World - CAREER HISTORY - Business Insider

7/28/2017 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos becomes richest man in the world: CAREER HISTORY - Business Insider
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the new richest

person in the world — here's how he got
there
AVERY HARTMANS
4H
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon,

surpassed Bill Gates on Thursday to become
the richest person in the world, with a net
worth of roughly $90 billion.
Today, his "Everything Store" sells more than

$136 billion worth of goods a year, and
Amazon's market cap has grown to over $500
billion.
Here's how the former hedge funder got his

start and became one of the world's richest
people.
Jillian D'Onfro and Eugene Kim contributed

to an earlier version of this story.
Jeff Bezos became the world's richest person on Thursday.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-richest-man-world-career-life-story-2017-7?utm_content=buffer5567b&utm_medium=soc… 1/42
Jeff Bezos' mom, Jackie, was a teenager when she had him in January
1964. She had recently married Cuban immigrant Mike Bezos, who
adopted Jeff. Jeff didn't learn that Mike 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.
Screenshot / Bio
Source: 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' father for Stone's book "The Everything
Store," Bezos' dad had no idea who his son had become.
Not Jeff Bezos' father.
Reuters/Eric Gaillard
Source: 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.
Daniel Lobo/Flickr
From ages 4 to 16, Bezos spent summers on his grandparents' ranch in

Texas, doing things like repairing windmills and castrating bulls.
Flickr / Big Grey Mare
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 Images
Source: Business Insider
Bezos fell in love with reruns of the original "Star Trek" and became a
fan of later versions too. Early on, he considered naming Amazon
MakeItSo.com in reference to a line from Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Star Trek
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.
Blue Origin
Source: 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 but managed to sign
up six students. The "Lord of the Rings" series made the required
reading list.
Flickr / Jessie Moore
Source: Wired
Bezos eventually went to college at Princeton and majored in computer

science. Upon graduation, he turned down job offers from Intel and Bell
Labs to join a startup called Fitel.
A young Bezos at an early computer.
Screenshot / Bio
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-richest-man-world-career-life-story-2017-7?utm_content=buffer5567b&utm_medium=so… 10/42
After he quit Fitel, Bezos almost launched with Halsey Minor — who
would later found CNET — a startup that would deliver news by fax.
Karl Baron/Flickr
Source: Wired
Instead, he got a job at the hedge fund D.E. Shaw. He became a senior
vice president after only four years.
Reuters/Arko Datta
Meanwhile, Bezos took 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/Reuters
He married MacKenzie Tuttle, a D.E. Shaw research associate, in 1993.

She's now a novelist.
AP
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 Falardeau
Bezos decided to leave D.E. Shaw even though he had a great job.
AP
"When you are in the thick of things, you can get confused by small stuff," he said later. "I knew when I was 80 that I would
never, for example, think about why I walked away from my 1994 Wall Street bonus right in the middle of the year at the
worst possible time. That kind of thing just isn't something you worry about when you're 80 years old. At the same time, I
knew that I might sincerely regret not having participated in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a
revolutionizing event. When I thought about it that way…it was incredibly easy to make the decision."
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.
REUTERS/Jason Redmond
Source: 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.
Shutterstock/Galyna Andrushko
Bezos started Amazon.com in a garage with a potbelly stove. He held

most of his meetings at the neighborhood Barnes & Noble.
Mike Segar/Reuters
Source: Wired
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.
Flickr / James Duncan Davidson
Learn more about some of Amazon's early employees here.
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.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
When the dot-com crash came, analysts called the company

"Amazon.bomb." But it weathered the storm and ended up being one of
the few startups that wasn't wiped out by the dot-com bust.
REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
Amazon shares have continued to go up since the crash (until the

recent market correction). It has now gone beyond selling books to
offering almost everything you can imagine, including appliances,
clothing and even cloud computing services.
An Amazon warehouse.
Shutterstock
Jeff Bezos was a demanding boss and could explode at employees.

Rumor has it he hired a leadership coach to help him tone it down.
Reuters
Here are some of the strategies Bezos used in building his Amazon empire.
Bezos is known for banning PowerPoint presentations at Amazon.

Instead he requires his staff to turn in six-page papers on their
proposals to encourage critical thinking over simplistic bullet points.
Thomson Reuters
Bezos is also known for creating a frugal company culture that doesn't
offer perks like free food or massages.
An Amazon office.
Business Insider
In 1998, Bezos became an early investor in Google. He invested

$250,000, which was worth about 3.3 million shares when the company
went public in 2004. Those would be worth about $2.2 billion today.
(Bezos hasn't said whether he kept any of his stock after the initial
public offering.)
Bloomberg Game Changers
Source: All Things D
What does Bezos do with all his money? In 2012, he donated $2.5
million to defend gay marriage in Washington.
David Ryder/Getty Images
Source: The Washington Post
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 / Facebook
In August 2013, Bezos bought The Washington Post for $250 million.
Flickr / Mike Licht
His space company Blue Origin made history last year when it became
one of the first commercial companies to successfully launch a reusable
rocket.
Blue Orgin
Bezos' interest in flying has gotten him into trouble in the past. In 2003,
Bezos almost died in a helicopter crash in the Texas boondocks while
scouting a site for a test-launch facility for Blue Origin.
This isn't Bezos' helicopter.
NTSB
Source: CNN
But in early 2016, he flew his personal jet to Germany to pick up and
bring home the Washington Post reporter who had been detained by
Iran.
Reuters
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/Getty
Source: Curbed Seattle
He also 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 Magazine
Source: Forbes
In January 2017, Bezos bought the Textile Museum, a pair of mansions

in Washington, D.C.'s Kalorama neighborhood. The property sold for
$23 million and is the largest in Washington.
AgnosticPreachersKid/Wikimedia Commons
Bezos also owns three linked apartments totaling 10,000 square feet in
New York City's Century Tower.
iStock
Source: Forbes
20 years after going public, Amazon has a market cap of $501.5 billion.
Barclays predicted Amazon could be the first trillion-dollar company.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Source: Markets Insider
In July, Bezos became the world's richest person, surpassing Microsoft

founder Bill Gates. His net worth is now more than $90 billion.
Getty Images
Source: Markets Insider, Forbes
But don't expect Bezos to stop experimenting with new ideas anytime
soon. In an interview with Business Insider, Bezos said: "What really
matters is, companies that don't continue to experiment, companies that
don't embrace failure, they eventually get in a desperate position where
the only thing they can do is a Hail Mary bet at the very end of their
corporate existence."
Jason Redmond / REUTERS
Get the latest Google stock price here.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Becomes Richest Man in The World - CAREER HISTORY - Business Insider

Încărcat de

Informații document

Titlu original

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Becomes Richest Man in The World - CAREER HISTORY - Business Insider

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

7/28/2017 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos becomes richest man in the world: CAREER HISTORY - Business Insider

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the new richest

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon,

Today, his "Everything Store" sells more than

Here's how the former hedge funder got his

Jillian D'Onfro and Eugene Kim contributed

Jeff Bezos became the world's richest person on Thursday.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Not Jeff Bezos' father.

Source: The Everything Store

Bezos showed signs of brilliance from an early age. When he was a

Source: The Everything Store

From ages 4 to 16, Bezos spent summers on his grandparents' ranch in

Flickr / Big Grey Mare

Source: The Everything Store

Source: Business Insider

Source: The Everything Store

In school, Bezos told teachers "the future of mankind is not on this

After spending a miserable summer working at McDonald's as a teen,

Flickr / Jessie Moore

Bezos eventually went to college at Princeton and majored in computer

A young Bezos at an early computer.

Source: The Everything Store

Source: The Everything Store

Meanwhile, Bezos took ballroom dancing classes as part of a scheme to

Source: The Everything Store

He married MacKenzie Tuttle, a D.E. Shaw research associate, in 1993.

Source: The Everything Store

Source: The Everything Store

Source: The Everything Store

Bezos started Amazon.com in a garage with a potbelly stove. He held

Flickr / James Duncan Davidson

Learn more about some of Amazon's early employees here.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

When the dot-com crash came, analysts called the company

Amazon shares have continued to go up since the crash (until the

Jeff Bezos was a demanding boss and could explode at employees.

Bezos is known for banning PowerPoint presentations at Amazon.

Source: The Everything Store

In 1998, Bezos became an early investor in Google. He invested

Bloomberg Game Changers

Source: All Things D

David Ryder/Getty Images

Source: The Washington Post

The Long Now Foundation / Facebook

Source: Business Insider

Flickr / Mike Licht

Source: The Washington Post

Source: Business Insider

This isn't Bezos' helicopter.

Source: Business Insider

Bezos is said to own a 5.35-acre estate on Seattle's Lake Washington

Source: Curbed Seattle

He also bought a seven-bedroom, $24.5 million mansion in Beverly Hills

Bezos' house in Beverly Hills.

Dream Homes Magazine

In January 2017, Bezos bought the Textile Museum, a pair of mansions

Source: The Washington Post

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Source: Markets Insider

In July, Bezos became the world's richest person, surpassing Microsoft

Source: Markets Insider, Forbes