Jeff Bezos is my favourite billionaire not because he is the second wealthiest person in this world nor because I am an executive in his company but because he is a humble person, still down to the earth, donates lots of money to charity and for the upliftment of education. But if we compare him to the likes of Bill Gates & Warren Buffet, he falls short in the category of philanthropy. He donates from time to time for different causes but not like Buffet and Bill gates who contribute significantly towards the development and growth of society. Although it’s his money, in my opinion, since he has the resources and assets to uplift the lives of millions, without even comprising his personal needs and desires, he should donate more and set out an example for others.
CHALLENGING CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION OF A BRILLIANT STUDENT
Everybody knows that Jeff Bezos was a worthy son of a worthy father but nobody knows that his childhood was very challenging. Today’s Jeff Bezos was Jeffery Preston Jorgensen initially. He is the son of Jacklyn and Theodore Jorgensen. Born on 12.01.1964, his mother was only 17 years old and studying in high school and his father was 19-year-old at that time. Jorgensen’s forefathers were from Denmark but he was born in Chicago to a Baptist family. After his birth, both of them separated soon for unknown reasons. Jacklyn continued her study in night classes and completed her studies, and eventually got married to a Cuban immigrant Mike Bezos in 1964. After the wedding, Mike Bezos adopted 4-year-old Jeffery whose surname was legally changed from Jorgensen to Bezos.
Jeff Bezos started his early education at Montessori school ln Albuquerque in New Mexico when he was just 2-year-old, followed by River Oaks elementary school, Houston. Jeff Bezos also attended the Students Science Trainings program at Florida. He completed his schooling at Miami Palmetto School and received accomplishments namely, the National Merit Scholarship and the Silver Knight award. He was a bright student in school and the same followed in graduation, where he graduated from Princeton University in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering with above 4.2 GPA.
END OF EDUCATION AND FOUNDATION OF AMAZON
Before “AMAZON” came into existence, Bezos was offered jobs in Intel, Bell Labs and Anderson Consulting. He worked on Wall Street in different capacities from 1986 to early 94 before the foundation of the giant e-commerce company Amazon in late 94. Very few people know that Bezos, as a teenager in school, was working as a cook for McDonald’s during his breakfast time when other students was busy playing games, for which Bezos was paid less than 3 U.S. dollars
COMPANY PROFILE OF JEFF BEZOS
Jeff Bezos is an entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor and computer science and electrical engineer. The company profile of Jeff Bezos is remarkable. Jeff is the founder of several companies Amazon, Blue Origin, and Bezos Expedition but his first company Amazon has always been his first love. Amazon can be identified by Jeff Bezos and Jeff can be identified by the name of Amazon.
Blue Origin and its company profile *****
Blue Origin LLC was founded on September 8, 2000, by Jeff Bezos. It’s a privately funded American aerospace manufacturer and suborbital space flight services company, & its Head Quarters are situated in Kent, Washington. CEO of this company is Bob Smith, with a workforce of almost 3500 employees. It’s functioning along with the collaboration of NASA. The American air force is also helping this program by giving 500 million U.S. Dollars.
URL is www.blueorigin.com
Bezos Expedition and its profile *****
This firm is also owned by Jeff Bezos, and this investment firm was established in 2005 at Mercer Island in Washington U.S. Its net assets were approx. 10780 cr. US dollar until 2020. The firm has made numerous high-profit investments in extremely successful companies like Twitter, Airbnb, Uber, Business insider etc. The firm also supports funding to the Innovation centre at Seattle, Museum of History and Industry, as well as the “10,000-year clock” URL, is www.bezosexpdition.com
AMAZON AND ITS PROFILE
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1994, with the present CEO Andy Jessy. Amazon is the second mother of Jeff Bezos. If Jaclyn is his biological mother who gave birth to Jeff then Amazon gave wealth and fame to Jeff Bezos. Anyone who knows Amazon will know Jeff Bezos, and if anyone knows Jeff Bezos he will know Amazon. It’s an American multinational technology company focused on e-commerce, artificial intelligence, digital streaming, cloud computing etc. It is one of the most influential companies in the world. It secures its place in the BIG 5 technology companies in America namely, Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft. Amazon has several subsidiaries like Amazon Alexa, Amazon music Amazon prime, Amazon prime video, Amazon Web Services etc.
JEFF BEZOS BUSINESS MODEL
Jeff Bezos’s business model is dependent upon three things.
1* THINK BIG
2* EARN TRUST
3* DELIVER RESULTS FAST.
Amazon initially earned most of its money through its e-commerce platform for selling its products as well as others too. He earns a greater part of his revenue from the sales of products of other sellers. Now Amazon is earning from selling its brand name worldwide. In Las Vegas, Mr Bezos was told to advise something to become a successful businessman. He has not done an MBA but his advice speaks volumes about his extraordinary business acumen. His advice was:
1* Bring passion to your business.
2* Take risks all the time.
3* Learn from your mistakes.
4* Being right.
TOTAL ASSETS OF JEFF BEZOS
Counting the total assets of Jeff Bezos is like a child counting stars in the sky. For a person whose wealth is changing every second, it’s practically impossible to calculate his wealth but his predicted assets are 185.5 billion US dollars as of February 4, 2022, by the Forbes Billionaire index. This is the number after what he did to his ex-wife Mackenzie Scott in a settlement of the divorce case in 2019. Most of the wealth Bezos earns comes from investments in different fields. Jeff Bezos has made several investments through Amazon.com in real estate, Technology, Media, Travel, Charitable trusts and donations.
SUCCESS MANTRA OF JEFF BEZOS
Jeff used to say this to his employees in the early days “success is like an iceberg floating in the sea, you have to see the tip of the iceberg which is shining not the part that is dipped under the water and facing the actual difficulties”. Amazon is amazing because of experiment, invention, innovation, creativity and customer satisfaction.
Following are the success mantras of Bezos **
1* There should be a work-life balance.
2* Business ideas always have some element of risk.
3* Always delight your customer.
4* Fear your customer, not your competitors.
5* Create more than you can consume.
6* Do more than discuss.
FAMILY BACKGROUND OF JEFF BEZOS
Jeff was not born into a very rich family. His father was an average-earning man, who worked at a retail shop barely making more than a dollar an hour. In Jeff’s family, there were 4 children, three sons and a daughter. His father and mother were separated from each other, right after his birth. Their maternal grandparents looked after Jeff soon after the divorce. His maternal grandfather was Mr Lawrence Preston, who was regional director of atomic energy commission US in Albuquerque, who retired early. Bezos spend many of his summers with his maternal grandparents in his youth. After the divorce, his mother got married to a Cuban and fled to Cuba. Most of Bezos’s childhood was gone in wandering hither and thither. These adverse situations can easily impact a child’s education but Jeff was not affected due to his extraordinary brilliance. Jeff completed his graduation between these challenging years and joined a job at a start-up instead, although he had offers from the top technology companies like intel.
WHAT MOTIVATED AN ENGINEER TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN?
Soon after his appointment in the company, Bezos became the vice president. This was the time when the internet was growing by 2000 % per year. Bezos was in charge of examining investment possibilities on the Internet. Users were growing at a rapid pace, and this sparked the mind of young Jeff toward business. He was well aware of the fact that if you want to become a successful businessman then you must be passionate, ready for risk, to be customer-friendly, and always willing to fail. Young Bezos was ready to go head-to-head with these challenging circumstances, and this is how an engineer transformed into a successful businessman. It was well-known to him that Roam is not built in a day.
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF -STIGMA OF DIVORCE
In January 2019 the couple announced their separation that
“After a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends “
That’s why I say history repeats itself. We have to remember that almost 56 years back his father divorced his mother and that he has committed the same mistake. Whether the decision was either of the father or the mother, the sufferer was an innocent lady. His father was not as rich as him. Everybody should remember a Sanskrit shloka written below before giving divorce to their wife:
Triya charitram purushashya bhagyam.
Devo na jati auto manushyah .
The meaning of this Sanskrit shloka is that the character of a lady and the luck of a man is unknown to anybody. If God is unable to predict it, then how can a man do so. Therefore, never divorce a pregnant lady or a lady having a son in their lap. Today everybody knows about Jeff Bezos’s mother but nobody wants to know about their biological father of Jeff Bezos.
That day his father was unknown the fact that he is giving divorced, would be a billionaire‘s mother. I can say divorce is a heinous crime if given to either side without any major cause, marriage is a nice compromise, and should be carried forward.
BEZOS IS NOT A GREAT PHILANTHROPIST
Jeff Bezos is not an extremely charitable person like other billionaires in the USA but he donates to different causes from time to time. According to US media, he has donated less than 1% of his income to charity keeping in mind what he earns is humongous.
Some useful donations from Bezos are **
1* Ten million dollars to the history and industry museum Seattle in 2011.
2* Fifteen million to Princeton Neuro Sciences institute in December 2011.
3* Two fifty Million for same-sex marriage promotion July 2012.
4* Five lac dollars to World Readers Group
Jeff has also donated huge amounts to the reporter’s committee of the USA for freedom of the press, a well-known cancer hospital, college scholarship, miliary and work on climate change. After all, Jeff is a great fighter, who is never afraid of failure, and takes risks. The fire phone project was his great failure but he never looked back. He is the only billionaire whom either you hate or love but can’t ignore, he is in your home.
SOME KNOWN AND UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUT JEFF BEZOS LIFE
* In 1990, he became the youngest vice president at the firm D.E. Shaw.
* In 1999, Bezos declared Times magazine person of the year.
* In 2003 Mr Bezos survived a major helicopter crash in southwest Texas.
* He has donated lots of money to cancer hospitals and research institutes in the US.
Except for the stigma of divorce and not being a top charity man, he is a billionaire of households, he is the only billionaire who was zero yesterday but a hero today.
