Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest man, with a whopping net worth of more than $130 billion. How did he make all that money? And what does he spend it on? Well, we’re glad you asked!
The 50-year-old founded Amazon when he was 30.
Bezos’s story is one of the most inspirational in business history. He founded Amazon when he was 30 years old, and it has since grown to become the world’s largest online retailer. In fact, Bezos is often referred to as “the richest man on Earth.”
In 1994, when Bezos started out with his online book store (which he called Cadabra), its launch was not as smooth as it could have been. The name had to be changed after its attorney misheard Bezos saying “cadaver” instead of “cadavar,” which means corpse in Spanish—not exactly a word you want associated with your brand! But even this hiccup didn’t deter him from making Amazon what it is today: an entire universe of products that can be ordered online and delivered right to our doorsteps within 24 hours!
He’s often asked about his work-life balance.
While many people might think they have a better work-life balance than Jeff Bezos, he doesn’t. The Amazon CEO often says that he doesn’t consider what he does to be work, even though his net worth is more than $120 billion.
“I don’t feel like I’m working hard,” Bezos told the Academy of Achievement in 2016. “I’m actually having fun.”
While some would find it difficult to call working at one of the world’s biggest companies—which has over half a million employees—a fun activity, Bezos’ answer may just come down to perspective: His definition of success comes from results rather than time spent in an office or at home with family.
He is the third richest person in history.
Listened to the audio clip again and again, trying to understand the content. Then you may find that his voice is very calm and mild, even slightly hoarse. The most impressive thing is that Bezos has never been promoted in life. He said that he did not want a promotion before 1997. At that time, Amazon was still struggling with profitability and was almost bankrupted because of some wrong decisions made by executives at Amazon. Bezos had just graduated from Princeton University with an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer science when he started working on Wall Street as a financial analyst for D.E. Shaw & Co., where he spent over four years building up a portfolio of stocks before leaving his job in 1986 at age 25 to launch an online bookstore called “Amazon.”
The founder and CEO owns 75 million shares of Amazon, or 16 percent of the company.
Since its founding in 1994, Amazon has grown to become one of the most valuable companies in the world. The company’s market cap is $1.6 trillion and its founder Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $100 billion.
Bezos owns 75 million shares of Amazon, or 16 percent of the company. These shares are worth $179 billion as of May 13th, 2019—that’s more than twice his fortune from last year ($81 billion).
He married his wife MacKenzie, a novelist, in 1993.
Bezos married his wife MacKenzie, a novelist, in 1993. They have four children together. The couple announced their divorce on January 9, 2019.
When he was growing up, his mother told him she’d divorced his father in part because of adultery on his part.
When Jeff Bezos was growing up, his mother told him she’d divorced his father in part because of adultery on his part. She said she didn’t want to be married to a man who cheated on her and would therefore never trust him again.
She also said that instead of getting angry about what had happened, she decided to focus on raising Jeff herself so that he could experience a happy childhood—one filled with love and kindness from both parents.
Bezos has not signed on to the Giving Pledge, a commitment by the world’s wealthiest people to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.
Bezos is one of the world’s most generous philanthropists, with a track record that includes donating $100 million to help fight the spread of coronavirus in Saudi Arabia and donating $10 billion to combat global warming.
Yet he has drawn criticism from fellow billionaires who have signed on to The Giving Pledge and said Bezos should be giving more. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Inc., said earlier this year that he had told Bezos that his donations were “not at all” on track with where they should be given his wealth.
His wealth has come under scrutiny amid growing inequality in the United States and around the world.
- Bezos has faced criticism for not giving away more of his fortune.
- In April 2018, a worker at an Amazon warehouse in the U.K. died after being hit by a truck carrying goods for delivery to customers. The death came just weeks after another employee was crushed by a forklift in similar circumstances.
- Earlier this year, Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation that would tax companies like Amazon and Walmart if they pay their workers less than $15 per hour—a policy he said would help fix the growing wealth gap in America (and pave the way for more generous wages).
Bezos is also owner of The Washington Post newspaper and aerospace company Blue Origin.
It’s not just Amazon that Bezos owns, however. He also owns The Washington Post newspaper, as well as an aerospace company called Blue Origin. Blue Origin aims to make space exploration cheaper and more accessible for the average person.
Bezos represents one of the new types of billionaires being created in this digital century
If you were to ask the internet about Jeff Bezos, it would tell you that he’s a bit of a bad boy. The Amazon CEO is said to have slept with his personal assistant and fired her when she wouldn’t leave him alone. He’s also been accused of being “abusive” toward his employees and has admitted that he has an “obsession” with data collection. All these things make for fun tabloid fodder (and may actually be true), but they don’t tell us much about what makes Bezos tick as a businessman or why he’s so successful.
When we look at Jeff Bezos’ rise to become one of the world’s wealthiest people—a position that only six men hold—we can see how the digital revolution has reshaped our world economy and created new kinds of billionaires like him who are both powerful and vulnerable at once.
Conclusion
Jeff Bezos’s rise to the top is unprecedented in modern history. With a net worth of over $140 billion and counting, he has shown that hard work, perseverance and a crazy amount of dedication can make anyone rich. But his incredible success would not be possible without the support of his wife MacKenzie and their four children: Preston, Elliot Reed, Teddy Richard, Zora Joyeuxette. They are truly his biggest fans
