Jeff Bezos : From flipping burgers to Founder of Amazon

Jeff Bezos

Who doesn't know Jeff Bezos?

He is the founder and CEO of the eCommerce site “Amazon” from which you order probably every week. Or for the binge-watchers “Amazon Prime Video”.  also founded Blue Origin and owner of The Washington Post.

He is also the richest person in the world and is far ahead from Bill Gates who owns the 2^nd spot.

Let’s take a brief idea of the Huuuuuuuuuuge wealth of him -:

   

•     Jeff Bezos makes $2,489 per second. (Yes, you read that right. PER SECOND!)
•     Average person spending $1 is the same as Jeff Bezos spending $1 million approx.
•      Jeff Bezos is richer than the GDP of over 120 nations.

Let me ask you something.

How much money can you make in a lifetime?

-    According To SSA, the average American makes approx. $2.1 million in a lifetime.

Which Jeff Bezos makes in just about 15 minutes.

But That was not the case before.

He was not from the wealthy family. He achieved it all from his hard work and his long-term vision.

In an interview with Forbes, “Friends congratulate me for quarterly earnings and say Good Job! Great Quarter!” and I’ll say “Thank you but this quarter was baked three years ago. I’m working for the quarter that will happen in 2021 right now.”  

-    Jeff Bezos

Can you see? How long he plans for?

Now, let’s jump into the journey of Jeff Bezos from where did he started and where he is today.

Childhood

Jeff Bezos was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964, the son of Jacklyn (née Gise) and Ted Jorgensen.

 At the time of his birth, his mother was a 17-year-old high school student and his father was a bike shop owner. After his parents divorced, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel "Mike" Bezos in April 1968.

He was so interested in science and technology and experimenting new things that he got his own personal science laboratory in the garage.

(Reminds me of Dexter’s Laboratory)

He even made an electric alarm so that his siblings would not be able to enter in his room. (When I was a kid, I was also fighting with my siblings but FOR THE REMOTE!)

Early career

Jeff Bezos in his high school days even worked at McDonald’s. He states that he has learned many things in that job.

“My first week on the job, a 5-gallon, wall-mounted ketchup dispenser got stuck open in the kitchen and dumped a prodigious quantity of ketchup into every hard-to-reach kitchen crevice. Since I was the new guy, they handed me the cleaning solution and said, Get going!”

“The most challenging thing was keeping everything going at the right pace during a rush.” - Bezos in an interview 

Jeff Bezos learned many things from working in McDonald’s some of them are -:

“You can learn responsibility in any job if you take it seriously. You learn a lot as a teenager working at McDonald’s. It’s different from learning in school. Don’t underestimate the value of that.”

Jeff Bezos also learned the value of customer service and being a good manager.

Even today he added customer obsession in one of the Amazon’s leadership principles -:

 He stills wants to provide the best experience to his customers. He not only fulfills the present needs of the customers but also try to bring the innovation to solve the problem of future needs of the customers.

(Like I said before, He thinks way to far than others in time. That makes Amazon different from others in business.)

After graduating, He went for the jobs in Wall Street. He worked for many firms and also a got a job in a startup.

Later, He got a job in investment firm David .E .Shaw & Co.

And he became the senior vice president in such a short time. He was also the youngest to become the senior vice president in the company.

But, according to this he was well settled in his life then what happened that he decided to quit his current job and start an ecommerce store Amazon?  

The reason is -: INTERNET!

One day, while surfing the internet Bezos found out that the internet is growing by more than 2000%. He then easily predicted the future potential of selling the products online and its ease.

He then made his mind to quit his current job and was ready to start his business and take the advantage of the online world.

Many people tried to make him stay in his old job. But he had made his mind and said -:

“I knew that if I failed, I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.”

(This is what most of us do. REGRET NOT TRYING!)

The Making Of AMAZON

He had a very good career as a senior vice president in an investment firm D.E.Shaw and NOW, he was ready to open a new business of his own.

He decided to open the largest online bookstore by the name “Cadabra”.

(Yes, you guessed it right. “Amazon” was not the first name he chose for his business.)

And

(Earlier, “Amazon” was not the ecommerce store as today. It was an online bookstore.)

He started with setting up his office in his garage and also raised $1 million from his family and friends.

He also thought that there are higher chances of “Cadabra” to go bankrupt.

“I thought maybe one day we would be able to afford a forklift.” 

He said in an interview 

“And it is very, very different from today” 

Later, they changed the name to “Amazon” as we know today because of the letter ‘A’ which comes first in alphabet order and also by going with the similarity of “Amazon” being the largest river and his “Amazon” will be the largest Bookstore.

He offered 300 people to beta test the website to see if it was running well on every computer platform.

Now, after the tests, they finally launched amazon’s website.

Amazon sold books in USA and also in 40 plus foreign countries within a month.

And also, by the end of second month sales jumped to $20,000 per week.

In 1996, Amazon was making sales worth more than $15 million per year.

Meanwhile, Amazon was facing true competition from the rivals as one of the rival company “Barnes & Noble” filed a lawsuit against Amazon for falsely claiming them as “Earth’s Largest Bookstore.”

As Jeff Bezos was always thinking about long-term plans and future goals. He wanted to add more items for his customers.

In 1997, He then decided to add Music and Video after books. So, He decided to change “Earth’s Largest Bookstore.” To “Books, Music & More”

In the same year 1997, Amazon went public and was priced at $18 per share.

Amazon was up and was running well.

Expansion of Amazon

After this huge success, He was named TIME’s Person Of The Year in 1999.

He was always thinking of new and innovative ways to serve his customers. So, one day Amazon sent emails to his customers in which they asked them about what else they can provide as an online retailer.

“I sent an email message out to customer base, actually a thousand randomly selected customers and I said beside books, music and video, what would you like to see us sell? And the list came back incredibly long.”

-Bezos in an interview

(You see what he did there? He literally asked the customer to know how he can improve in the business and they answered.)

Then after getting the idea that the customer is ready to buy almost anything online from them.

Amazon then added clothing line as their product. And went on adding and experimenting new product lines.

And as we can see now Amazon is selling almost everything online from books to music, to groceries to furniture or even electronics.

Was Jeff Bezos satisfied with all this success? Or he wanted more?

Of course, YES. He wanted to bring innovative products for the customers. Due to his desire for technology, He brought many innovations in business and also in lives of the people.

Innovation brought by Amazon

Blue Origin

In 2004, Jeff Bezos founded an aerospace company named Blue Origin. They want to make the spaceflight available to the general public also with cost being reduced.

They want to give general public an opportunity to travel into space.

It’s the childhood dream of Jeff Bezos to explore space.

“This is a childhood dream,I fell in love with the idea of space and space exploration and space travel when I was 5 years old.” 

“ I watched Neil Armstrong step onto the moon. You don’t choose your passions, your passions choose you. So I am infected with this idea. I couldn’t ever stop thinking about space. I have been thinking about it ever since then.”

Amazon Prime

In 2007 Amazon launched Amazon Prime, in this they offered customers with guaranteed one day delivery of the products. It was unlimited with an annual membership.

Amazon Kindle

In November 2007, Amazon launched Kindle. From where they started by selling books. Now, they were selling e-readers. A new innovation brought by amazon in reading books.

Alexa

In 2014, Amazon launched a smart speaker Alexa. Now, this has changed the way people search or order something. It serves as a perfect voice assistant.

Prime Air

Still in the making, the idea behind this is, your order will be delivered in hours rather than a day or two and that also at your doorstep with the help of drones.

Key takeaways from the journey of Jeff Bezos 

In an interview Bezos said that

The biggest secret of Amazon’s success has been hiring people that are smarter than himself.“Make sure you are hiring people that are also going to teach you things and they can be your tutors.”

His customer obsession

The way he wants to fulfill every present need of his customers and also want to find and fulfill their future needs is the key for his business.

He self-audits from the feedback of the customers.

Thinking far too long

The way he thinks so far into the future and brings new ideas and innovation in the lives of people is just amazing. Founding Blue Origin is the perfect example of this.

And

His love for technology from the childhood’s time, which makes him what he is and will be.

“If I’m 80 years old, looking back on my life and the one thing I have done is make it so that there is this gigantic entrepreneurial explosion in space for the next generation. I will be happy, happy man.”

-    Bezos talking about Blue Origin

The share that was priced at $18 in 1997

Now, in 2020 is running at more than $2,280

Hope you have enjoyed the journey of the world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos.