Net Worth
Jeff Bezos is Also Known as the Founder of One of the world’s largest online selling platform Amazon. He is an entrepreneur, an e-commerce businessman, and one of the extraordinary people who received the title of the world’s richest Businessman. His estimated Net Worth is 192.6 Billion as per 2021. Such an exemplary businessman comes with a rare business mind and approach. So let’s dig deeper into his life to find out how Jeff Bezos became who he is today.
Family
On 12th January 1964, Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His mother was a teenager at that time married to his father Ted Jorgensen. After a year their marriage ended. His surname comes from his second father Mike Bezos a Cuban Immigrant who his mother married when he was 4 years old.
Education
Bezos was a passionate electrical engineer with a keen interest in computer science as well. During his childhood, he had clarified his interest by turning his parents garage into an electrical laboratory and used to tell his schoolteachers that “the future of Mankind is not on this planet”. When he was a teenager he moved to Miami with his family where he graduated high school. He was an extraordinary child who had an eye for business from an early age as he had set up an educational summer Camp for Fourth, fifth and sixth graders during his high school.
He graduated from Princeton University in 1986. After graduating he gained experience by working in different firms such as Bankers Trust, Wall street, Fitel, DE Shaw investment Firm. He even turned down offers from well-established companies to work with start-ups. Initially, he launched a news-by-fax service company with Hasley Minor, the founder of CNET but it failed. Regardless, He became the youngest Vice President of D.E Shaw.
One crucial Decision of a Lifetime and Journey of Amazon
With a blooming career at a young age, Bezos had something else in mind. He had found out that the internet was growing at a rate of 2300% annually and could see the digital future ahead. His boss who had a very traditional approach tried to talk him out of it but In 1994 he resigned from his job and moved to Seattle to start his own E-commerce company. It was then when he risked everything and stepped into the complex world of E-commerce by opening an online Bookstore. He started by making a list of 20 possible product categories to sell online and finalized his decision for books. Bezos invested $10,000 into his own company and worked with two programmers and his wife. Most of the company meetings were conducted at the neighbourhood Barnes and Noble. His strategies were so powerful that after the launch in July 1995, Amazon had sold books in all the U.S along with 45 countries around the world.
Due to the sudden sales, Bezos predicted around $74million in sales by 2000, but in reality, gained only $1.64 billion in 1999. After using the investments from his family and parents, He continued to work on the cause and gathered $1million from Angel Investors. For 1% stake 20 investors put in $50,000 each. Today each investment would be worth $16.71 billion with a return of 334,200 roughly that is if the investors had held to their entire stakes. Later in June 1996, Amazon raised $8million in Series A.
In May 1997 Amazon was made Public. It was one of the few start-ups that survived the dotcom bust. By 2001 the sales escalated and reached $3 billion from $511,000 in 1995. In 2013, Bezos planned an expansion of Amazon with Amazon Prime Air that would use drones for deliveries.
Investment Interests
Somehow, Bezos always had a futuristic mindset about start-ups he even invested in Google in 1998. Then in 2004, he invested another $250,000 in Google which would be worth billions today.
In 2013, Washignton Post was bought by Bezos in $250million. By October 2015 the traffic exploded in Washington Post and surpassed The New York Times.
More than a million shares of Amazon were sold and the rest were used in Bezos divorce proceedings. Bezos owns about 11% of shares by 2021 it means over 70million shares making it the largest source of his wealth.
He also invests in real estate. To make a base for his aerospace company operations he bought 165,000 Acre Corn Ranch in Texas. His personal includes both East Coast and West Coast. He has two Multimillion-Dollar homes in Beverly Hills, an apartment in Century Tower, a lake side property in Washington, South Lake Union Headquarters building in Seattle. Amazon possesses nearly a dozen buildings and is the largest office space in Seattle.
Bezos also invests in Medis, high Tech, Glass and travel, etc if he sees it to be a profitable investment. He has invested in Twitter.Inc, Business Insider, Zocdoc Inc, and Nextdoor.
Bezos has invested $30million in Uber, workday Inc. and Glass Baby.
He has also made some out-of-the-way investments like the F-1 engine retrieval Project and 10,000 year Clock. Due to which enough artifacts could be recovered to put on display out of two F-1 engines.
During his childhood, Bezos also wanted to become a Space entrepreneur. He invests $1 Billion in Blue Origin every year and in July 2018 the New shepherd spacecraft was tested and it worked. On July 20, 2021, it completed its first flight with Bezos, his brother, and staff.
Donations
Apart from his investment history, he has donated to educational projects, the Seattle Museum of History and Industry. He also has donated to Princeton his former University.
In June 2018, Bezons and his Ex-Wife donated $33million to TheDream.US. It will provide college scholarships to 1000U.S high school graduates.
His estimated Net worth Fell in July 2021 because of a fall in profit through Amazon which made him lose his title of the World’s Riches Businessman. However, from his early career, interests, and developments to his life achievements, Jeff Bezos’s life is undoubtfully an inspiration for start-ups all over the world.
