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CLOSE-UP: Jeff Bezos, book seller, son of teenage parents, the world’s richest man

 

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, on Thursday overtook Microsoft’s Bill Gates to become the world’s richest person as the rise in the value of Amazon leapfrogged his fortune to $91bn compared with Gates’ wealth of $90bn.

But how much do you know bout him?

SON OF A CHILD BRIDE

Bezos was born as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, the largest city in the US state of New Mexico. His mother, Jacklyn Gise was in high school and 17 years old at the time of his birth.

The marriage between his father, Ted Jorgensen, and mother lasted less than a year. They were both teenagers. When Bezos was four years old, his mother remarried to Miguel Bezos, a Cuban who immigrated to the United States alone when he was 15 years old. He later changed his surname to his stepfather’s name.

Bezos grew under his stepfather, who worked as an engineer for Exxon. He later attended the prestigious Princeton University and bagged a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in electrical engineering and computer science. After graduating from Princeton in 1986, Bezos worked on Wall Street in the computer science field. He then worked on building a network for international trade for a company known as Fitel. He also worked at Bankers Trust and later joined Internet-enabled business opportunities at a hedge fund company.

‘DESTRUCTIVE CHILD WITH COMPUTER BRAIN’

Bezos was quite handy. As a child, he loved to dismantle and fix mechanical and electronic devices.  When he was a toddler, he dismantled his crib with a screwdriver. His interest in scientific and technological proficiency continued to grow as he once rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. He turned his parents’ garage into a laboratory and engaged in other scientific activities around the house. Even at the university, he continued his scientific exploits as he was elected the President of the Princeton chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.

THE GOOSE THAT LAYS THE GOLDEN EGG

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Bezos started his first business, the Dream Institute, an educational summer camp for fourth, fifth and sixth graders when he was in high school. But not until 1994 when he quit his job and moved to Seattle to start Amazon.

He started Amazon from his garage with a few employees and he began developing software. They expanded operations into a two-bedroom house, equipped with three Sun Microstations, and eventually developed a test site. After inviting 300 friends to beta test the site, Bezos opened Amazon.com, named after the meandering South American River, on July 16, 1995. He sold books before its business lines expanded into a wide range of other products such as clothes, electronics, toys and more through major retail partnerships. Amazon captured the global mood for online shopping as Amazon now accounts for 43% of everything sold online in the US.

A BILLIONAIRE WHO WRITES THE SAME LETTER EVERY YEAR

As Amazon’s success soared, the company went public in 1997, leading many market analysts to question whether the company could hold its own when traditional retailers launched their own e-commerce sites but Bezos had his faith in the bigger future and put it in a letter to the shareholders.

According to Guardian UK, in each annual financial report, Bezos reprints the letter he sent to shareholders in 1997, when Amazon floated on the stock market.

“The letter lays out Bezos’s approach to business and running Amazon. He pledges to focus on the long term and being the market leader, ‘rather than short-term profitability considerations or short-term Wall Street reactions’. He knows those reactions well, having worked on Wall Street for a hedge fund before founding Amazon.”

Bezos has repeatedly told shareholders, analysts and staff that it is still “Day One” for the company, despite the fact that it accounts for 43% of all online sales in the US, and his office at Amazon’s headquarters is located in a building called “Day One”.

His 2017 letter began with an explanation of what “Day Two” would be for Amazon. “Day Two is stasis,” he wrote. “Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day One.

“To be sure, this kind of decline would happen in extreme slow motion. An established company might harvest Day Two for decades, but the final result would still come. I’m interested in the question ‘How do you fend off Day Two? What are the techniques and tactics? How do you keep the vitality of day one, even inside a large organisation?’”



The best way to protect the company, he said, is “obsessive customer focus”.

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INVESTING HIS AMAZON’S FORTUNE IN OTHER BUSINESSES




     

     

    Bezos made headlines worldwide on August 5, 2013, when he purchased The Washington Post and other publications affiliated with its parent company, The Washington Post Co., for $250 million. During the US election campaign, Donald Trump accused Bezos of using the Washington Post for “political influence” and said Amazon was “getting away with murder, tax-wise”.

    Bezos has also invested in space travel through Blue Origin, a company he founded in 2000. He invests in businesses through Bezos Expeditions, an investment fund that has bought shares in other successful internet startups, such as Airbnb, Business Insider, and Uber.

    GAY SUPPORTER

    Bezos believes in gay marriage. Together with his wife, MacKenzie, Bezos pledged $2.5m to supporters of gay marriage in Washington State as part of a referendum campaign in 2012.

     

    Chikezie can be reached at comeje@icirnigeria.org. Follow him on Twitter: @KezieOmeje

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