Jeff Bezos: The Amazon Emperor

The story behind the world's richest man.

Jeff Bezos, everyone knows his name. He needs no introduction. The ultra-famous Amazon Emperor rules over a multibillionaire dollar global enterprise, which pioneered the all-too-familiar world of Internet commerce. 

Amazon has managed to extend its reach into nearly every pocket of human civilization, due largely to its owner’s unparalleled business acumen. One of humanity’s richest individuals, Jeff’s iconic image—his smooth bald head, affable pinched smile, and spidery thin, pencil-like stature—is etched in the minds of billions of people around the world. 

Whether he is regarded as a titan of technology or a multimedia megalomaniac, none can cannot the enormity of Bezos’ power and influence over the modern world. 

Texas ranch

Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico on January 12, 1964. His mother was a 17-year-old junior in high school at the time of his birth. She married his biological father, but then divorced and remarried another man, this time an immigrant named Mike Bezos in 1968. Jeff’s last name changed when he was aged 4.

As he grew up, from the age of 4 to 16, Jeff spent his summers at a ranch owned by his grandfather in Texas. There, young Bezos was deeply impressed by the self-sufficient lifestyle of his grandpa. It taught him how to think for himself and actively attempt to solve challenges. 

Going into his early teens, Jeff displayed a deep interest in science and technology. The youth used his gifted abilities for various mundane tasks, such as building an alarm to keep out his noisy siblings. The garage was a mecca of scientific discovery and exploration. He won a Silver Knight Award for his leadership skills in school. He was also his high school’s valedictorian upon graduating in Miami. 

Throughout his high school years, at the age of 16, Jeff got his first job at McDonalds, earning a laughable $2.69 an hour. Despite enduring this boring and unglamorous job, the bright Bezos still managed to glean powerful insights into the business world. For example, it introduced Jeff to the process of automation. The McDonalds job taught him the value of customer service, as well as the need to focus on a single task. This obsessive focus would become an essential entrepreneurial skill for the future Amazon emperor. But of course, Bezos had much bigger ambitions than selling burgers.

Princeton years

The academically gifted Bezos took up his studies at Princeton University, hoping to break into the wonderful world of physics. He quickly switched his degree to something that better suited his personality, namely electrical engineering and computer science. He graduated magna cum laude. 

Upon graduation, Bezos received a plethora of job offerings from many prestigious companies, including Intel, Nokia, and Accenture. He declined those offers, in favor of a financial tech job at Fitel. Soon after, the 26-year-old Bezos moved to New York City to work for a hedge fund. Although all of these jobs were high-paying and prestigious, it was the life lessons that mattered most to Jeff. It taught him important skills about HR and recruiting. 

Before taking off on a venture, however, the nerdy Bezos had more important business to handle in the woman department. With the help of his friends, Jeff went on all kinds of blind dates. He meticulously listed out the criteria for the perfect woman. It is funny to think that Bezos would approach girls with the same dispassionate rationality as his business problems. 

Jeff had many unorthodox expectations of his future wife. He wanted a woman who could save him from a Third World prison. In other words, he sought out a wife that would be as resourceful as him. 

Jeff went on so many blind dates that, by the end, he considered himself a professional. None of them worked out. Finally, he found the right woman, Mackenzie Scott, whom he married in 1993. They dated for three months, were engaged for three months, and then married three months later. 

Amazon Empire

By the 1990s, the Internet was becoming the wave of the future. Bezos sought to catch on to it by selling books online. He left New York for Seattle to restart his life. He wrote up a business plan during the car trip from the East Coast to the West Coast. Jeff founded his company, which he called Cadabra, out of his garage. He used his parents’ savings of $300,000 and invested it all in his new company. Three months later, he changed the name to Amazon, named after the famous Amazon River of South America. 

Despite having sizable capital from his parents, Bezos’ company had an uphill battle. He warned investors of a 70% chance of failure or bankruptcy. Jeff had to deliver the books himself through the post office, and he couldn’t afford even the most basic machinery. Books were packed on the floor, since he didn’t even have tables. His wife was the company’s accountant, despite her total lack of experience. 

Nevertheless, Bezos’ company became shockingly successful. In the first 30 days, orders came from all 50 states and 45 different countries. He did this all without spending a penny on advertising. All of the growth came from word of mouth and media exposure. This was because Jeff’s online platform had numerous advantages against his brick-and-mortar competitors. The convenience factor would be Bezos’ winning formula. 

Amazon’s initial success sparked an influx of a million dollars from 22 different investors. From 1990 to 1997, the percentage of American households owning a company rose from 15% to 35%. Computers went from a luxury to a necessity of modern life. 

Going public

Soon enough, Jeff was ready to go public. After just under three years in business, Amazon went public on May 16, 1997. Shares went for $1.73. Today, such a share would be worth more than $3,000. Amazon generated $54 million, turning Bezos into an overnight millionaire. A year after going public, stocks rose to $6 a piece, an increase of 300%. This exploded Bezos’ net worth by nearly fourfold. 

Bezos realized that the Internet was the answer key to life. He became keenly aware of its unfathomable, untapped potential. The multi-millionaire mogul started asking his customers by email about what they wanted to buy off the Internet. It quickly became clear to Jeff that anything—virtually anything!—could be sold online. The Amazon mastermind knew that the Internet was something more akin to a revolution, or a paradigm shift, in commerce. 

Electronics, toys, and many other items were added to Amazon’s products. This transformed the company from an online bookstore to an unbounded online empire. More products meant more sales. Stocks blew up from $6 to $60 within the span of a year. Nothing like this had been seen before! 

Within just two years, by 1999, Bezos became a billionaire. He was now in Forbes. But Jeff deliberately cultivated a public image of humility. He continued to drive his three-year-old Honda Accord. He kept an old desk that was made out of a door. For Jeff, these were tangible symbols of how he focused all of his funds on improving the lives of the consumers. 

Dot com bubble

Bezos’ empire would not grow indefinitely, however. The stock market soon came to a historic crash. From March of 2000 to October of 2002, the NASDAQ dropped by a whopping 78%. Tech companies were wiped off the face of the Earth. At the peak of the dot com bubble, stocks were around $113 apiece. By the end of it, Amazon stocks dropped down to less than $6. This was a 95% drop. 14% of Amazon’s staff were laid off. By 2002, Bezos’ once flourishing empire nearly imploded into bankruptcy. Bezos’ net worth dropped from $10.1 billion in 1999, to $1.5 billion by 2002. 

Amid this turmoil, Jeff remained steadfast. Amazon continued to make internal improvements. In 2002, the company rolled out its web services, which allowed other businesses to digitize themselves. After a couple of years of pain, Amazon finally made a rebound. Stocks rose up again to $50, a gain of 500% per year. Amazon introduced the innovative Kindle feature in 2006. Jeff’s net worth blossomed again to $8 billion. 

Blue Origin

Despite the recovered success of Amazon, Jeff refocused his attention to a new issue: outer space. He had a lifelong interest in space, going back to at least his high school years. Much of this love was kindled by watching the Moon landings as a five-year-old. 

Bezos had the idea for the Blue Origin company as far back as 2000, but he shelved it until it became financially feasible for him by 2006. He bought up a large plot of land in Texas, where his company could experiment with rockets. Bezos’ Blue Origin had a similar goal to that of Elon Musk. Both entrepreneurs sought to create reusable rockets in order to ensure humanity’s future existence. 

King Bezos

Bezos’ Amazon kingdom continued to prosper unabated, even amid the Great Recession. By 2013, Bezos was worth an impressive $29 billion. Amazon had emerged as the world’s largest online retailer, with Jeff as its ruling monarch. Bezos rose up to the rank of the 19th richest person on planet Earth. 

That same year, in 2013, Bezos purchased the Washington Post for $250 million. This was an unusual decision, given the decrepit state of traditional media in the wake of the Internet Revolution. But the Post was filled with industry experts, with an advanced knowledge of media and world affairs. 

Bezos was determined to revive the Post as a profitable business. He lifted the online paywall, and completely restructured the newspaper into a modernized media site. By 2016, only three years after his purchase, the Post had become profitable again. Bezos seemed to have the Midas touch. 

In July of 2015, after releasing some good-looking financial reports to the public, Bezos earned $7 billion in a span of 60 minutes. By 2016, he was the world’s fifth richest person alive, with a net worth of $50 billion. 

Bezos only grew his empire of riches, hiring another 130,000 employees across the globe in 2017. By March of 2018, as Amazon expanded into India and the unprecedented success of Amazon Prime, Jeff Bezos overtook Bill Gates as the world’s richest man. His net worth was $112 billion. In 2019, that number jumped up to $131 billion. With the COVID pandemic, it rose even higher to $182 billion by the end of 2020. 

Bezos lost his imperial title to Elon Musk, who overtook him as the world’s richest man in January of 2021. But for better or for worse, the Amazon Emperor continues to reign supreme over his digital dominion, which forever and irreversibly changed the trajectory of human history, commerce, and Internet-based interactions. 

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