We all have been shopping through Amazon now and then. Amazon is one of the most dominant, thriving and never-failing online shopping marketplace. Amazon was visualized and brought into being by Jeff Bezos. Jeff is the CEO of Amazon and founding father of the space research organization named Blue origin. He is the possessor of The Washington Post. No doubt that with all the smooth running ventures, he is considered the wealthiest man on the planet.
Early Life
Jeff Bezos came into the world on the 12th of January in the year 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His birth name was Jeffery Preston Jorgensen. His mother, Jacklyn, was merely 17 years old studying in high school when she gave birth to Jeff. His father, Ted Jorgensen owned a bike shop. Things got ugly with the time between Jeff’s parents and eventually, they got separated. Later in the year 1968, Jeff’s mother remarried Mike Bezos. Mike decided to foster Jeff and changed his last name from Jorgensen to Bezos.
Mike was employed as an engineer at the Exxon in Houston, Texas. The family got shifted here soon which was very close to Jacklyn’s parents. Her parents possessed a cattle farm in San Antonio. Jeff studied at the River Oaks Elementary School till grade six. Jeff used to conduct his science experiments in the garage belonging to his parents. His summers were spent working with his grandparents at the farm. Later, he went on to purchase the farm and outstretched it from 25,000 to 300,000 acres.
As Jeff was about to enter high school, his family moved to Miami. Jeff got enrolled at the Miami Palmetto High School. While studying, he joined McDonald’s and started working as a short-order cook. Despite working, his focus on studies was untouched and he was always the top student in the class. Jeff went on to become a National Merit Scholar. While presenting his valedictory speech, he shared his dream about people settling in Space.
Jeff got enrolled at Princeton University for studying Physics. However, he was more inclined towards computers. This caused him to pursue studies in Bachelors of Science and Computers. He graduated summa cum laude from the same university and earned a 4.2 GPA. He was one of the members of Phi Beta Kappa.
Jeff’s Physic
Jeff is 56 years old as of now. He is 1.71 tall and weighs around 70 kg.
Personal
Jeff met MacKenzie Tuttle while working at the D.E. Shaw. She was an author and worked as a research partner with the firm. They both married in the year 1993. They have been blessed with four children. Among the four children, three are sons and one is an adopted daughter from China. Their call for separation after 25 years came as a shock for everyone. They officially got divorced in the year 2019. MacKenzie got 25 percent of the Amazon Stock as alimony.
The National Enquirer published an article revealing Jeff’s extramarital affair with Lauren Sanchez. Jeff immediately launched an investigation against the firm. Later, he accused them of threatening him to publish all personal photos if he does not back off the investigation.
Jeff has been an active philanthropist and been doing donations from time to time. Even today, when the world is going through the COVID-19 crisis, Jeff has donated $100 million to food banks.
Career
When Jeff was done with his graduation, he started working at Fitel which was a fiscal firm. Banking Industry was where Jeff shifted to and gained a production management job. Later, he was selected as a financial analyst for a hedge fund in 1990. It was for D.E Shaw. This firm existed on the idea of using a mathematical model to increase market profits. By the time Jeff turned 30, he got promoted as the 4th senior vice president for the company. In 1994, Jeff left the company.
Jeff’s interest in computers and technology always called for doing something on the World Wide Web. That’s when Jeff decided to sell books online. This was how Amazon took birth. While having a drive from New York to Seattle, Jeff’s mind made the business plan for Amazon. The official foundation of Amazon happened in the year 1994 which was set up in his garage. By the year-end of 1988, Jeff diversified into the online sale of many products such as music, video, consumer goods. He took another big step in the year 2002 when he launched Amazon Web Services. This was a compilation of weather data and website traffic. In 2007, Amazon launched Kindle that is a digital handbook.
Jeff was always fascinated by space travel. In the year 2000, he established the Blue Origin Company and kept it masked. This company works with a desire to develop amusement parks, colonies, hotels in the space. The world got exposed to this company in the year 2006. It was when Jeff went on to purchase a substantial aggregation of land in west Texas to carry out the launching and testing.
In the year 2013, Jeff took ownership of The Washington Post.
Jeff Bezo’s Net Worth
Since the launch of Amazon, Jeff has sold around $70 billion of his shares. Jeff became a billionaire merely after 3 years of launching Amazon. He reached $50 billion within 20 years. With all the experience he gained in these years along with the taken risks, he managed to create another $50 billion in just 2.5 years. The latest was in just 7 months making him the richest person with an asset of $150 billion. However, he had to give up $36 billion in the total to his ex-wife as alimony.
Jeff has earned a consistent yearly pay of $81,840 at Amazon since 1988. But if we count on his shares, then Jeff takes around $260 million every day.
To date, Jeff’s net worth is predicted to be $111,000,000,000 ($111 billion). Jeff stood first in Forbes’s list of wealthiest people in the year 2018 and 2019.
Awards
Jeff has earned innumerable awards and recognizations, some of which are shared here. Jeff made a position for himself in the Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in the year 1999. He has also been awarded the Honorary Doctorate in Science and Technology from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008.
In 2018, Jeff’s hard work towards space research was recognized at the Explorers Club. He was awarded the Buzz Aldrin Space Exploration Award.
