Jeffrey Preston Torgensen was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in January 1964. His mother, Jacklyn Gise, was 17 years old and his father, Ted Jorgensen, was 18. Just as the Amazon was the longest river in the world, Bezos dreamed of creating the largest bookstore in the world, hence the name Amazon.
Taken from the Semana website
His father was an artist and worked in a circus, where he was known for his unicycle riding skills. He also had a fondness for alcohol. After learning of the pregnancy, the couple decided to marry. However, the marriage lasted no more than a year, and Bezos's mother decided to separate from him.
Like many single mothers, Gise took responsibility for her son and did everything she could to raise him. In fact, she studied at a night school where she was allowed to carry Bezos in her arms, and later she got a job at a bank in Albuquerque. There she met Miguel Bezos Pérez, who arrived in the United States from Cuba at just 16 years old, with only a few clothes and no knowledge of English.
Miguel Bezos studied engineering at the University of Albuquerque on a scholarship. Some time after meeting Gise, they married, moved to Texas, and once Jeff turned four, he was adopted by Miguel.
From a young age, Bezos demonstrated a passion for and thirst for knowledge. Besides enjoying summers with his maternal grandparents on their Texas ranch, the now-entrepreneur would take advantage of his time there to visit the city library, where he dedicated long hours to reading, especially science fiction. His favorite authors included Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein, among others. And along those lines, he was a huge Star Trek fan, spending hours role-playing characters from the series.
At his school he was known as a nerd, as he always ranked at the top of his classes and was also recognized as the best student at his graduation.
He studied electrical engineering at Princeton University, and several biographies of the entrepreneur indicate that once Bezos graduated, he considered starting his own company. However, he decided to pursue a career that would allow him to develop a business idea in the future.
That's how he started working on Wall Street and quickly rose through the ranks at the investment firm DE Shaw, where he met his ex-wife Mackenzie Tuttle, with whom he has four children, and who later became a support in bringing forward what is now Amazon.
His entrepreneurial life began in Seattle, Washington. Although he had a bright future in the financial world, Bezos was captivated by the world of technology at a time when internet use was growing exponentially. And there he found a gigantic opportunity.
In 1995, Bezos created his first company in a garage: the now-famous online bookstore Cadabra.com . He founded it with $300,000 in capital, and the company's success was such that within a month of launching operations, they were shipping books to 50 states and 45 countries, and within two months, they were reaching sales of $20,000 per week. Later, the company changed its name to Amazon, because just as the Amazon is the longest river in the world, Bezos dreamed of creating the world's largest bookstore.
By then, he was involved in the company's operations. Sitting on the floor, he was responsible for packing many of the orders they received. In fact, he remembers that something happened at that moment that marked a turning point in the company's productivity.
One day, exhausted, he told his four workers that they couldn't continue working like that, that they needed knee pads. And one of them looked at him in astonishment and said, 'Knee pads, no. What we need are packing tables.'
For Bezos, it was one of the best ideas he heard at that time and one of the lessons that has most marked him in life: always listen to your employees.
Once the company's success was proven, it began diversifying its products, evolving from the world's largest online bookstore to a one-stop shop for everything. Today, they have business lines encompassing cloud services, technological devices, entertainment, and more.
Thus, step by step, it became what Amazon is today. A company that reported revenues of $66.1 billion in 2020, a 72 percent increase compared to 2019, in the midst of one of the greatest economic crises in human history. It is also a company with more than 1.5 million employees worldwide.
A company with a market value of $1.6 trillion and whose brand is considered one of the most valuable, valued at $200.667 billion according to Forbes.
This effort has led him to occupy the top spot as the richest man in the world, and although today this place is occupied by one of his main adversaries, Elon Musk, he has a fortune estimated at 188 billion dollars.
This Tuesday, the businessman announced his retirement from Amazon, where he is currently the largest shareholder with a 75% stake. He will now dedicate himself to his other businesses and philanthropic organizations, following in the footsteps of other founders of major companies like Bill Gates.
“Keep inventing and don’t despair when the idea seems crazy at first. Remember to wander. Let curiosity be your compass. It’s still day 1,” Bezos concluded in the letter to employees announcing his retirement as CEO of the company.
