I said, Cadabra, as in abra cadabra. And he said, Cadaver? I knew then that was not going to be a good name. I would take as my third choice if I couldnt get Spock or Kirk I would take the computer. The first centibillionaire on the Forbes Real Time Billionaires Index and the second ever to have eclipsed the feat since Bill Gates in 1999,[8] Bezos was named the "richest man in modern history" after his net worth increased to $150billion in July 2018. I had some family role models. He believes that work and home life are interconnected, informing and calibrating each other. During his time at the University of Florida, Bezos participated in the Student Science Training Program. [92] Bezos has long expressed an interest in space travel and the development of human life in the Solar System. Yes, Jeff Bezos does have a degree and from a very prestigious university. Power of impressive SAT scores goes beyond college - MyCentralJersey.com So writing the business plan, the initial hiring, getting the company incorporated, all these are simple, almost pedestrian tasks, but thats how you start, one step at a time. He also developed intense and varied scientific interests, rigging an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room and converting his parents garage into a laboratory for his science projects. [22] Gise, her husband and her son left the area and asked Jorgensen to discontinue contact, to which he agreed. At a certain point in time the company has a much bigger influence over its future outcome, and it needs a lot less luck, and instead it needs the hard work. [64] On August 4, 2016, Bezos sold another million of his shares for $756.7million. Having already revolutionized the way the world buys books, Jeff Bezos is now transforming the way we read them as well. We would build cranes to lift the gears out. We Have 4 Guesses", "Jeff Bezos to fund schools where 'child will be the customer' with new charity", "Jeff Bezos to Create $2 Billion Fund for Homeless, Preschools", "Jeff Bezos Unveils Multibillion-Dollar Plans For Charitable Giving", "Jeff Bezos donates $33million to scholarship fund for 'dreamers', "Backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, Breakthrough Energy Ventures places first bets on power storage", "Jeff Bezos donates $10million to organization that helps veterans run for office", "Amazon founder Jeff Bezos commits $10bn to fight climate change", "Jeff Bezos: World's richest man pledges $10bn to fight climate change", "Bezos Earth Fund announces first grants totaling $791M of his $10B pledge to help planet", "Bezos Earth Fund gives nearly $800 million to climate groups in first round of grants", "Jeff Bezos names first recipients of his $10 billion Earth Fund for combating climate change", "Twitter boss pledges $1bn for coronavirus relief", "Why Jeff Bezos's $100 million donation to food banks won't satisfy his critics", "Jeff Bezos Pledges $2B for Nature Conservation as World Leaders Address Deforestation, Emissions", Jeff Bezos's tuition-free preschool is expanding to new locations in Texas and Florida. The family later moved to Miami, Florida, during Bezos High School days. For other people with the surname, see, All currency figures expressed in the United States dollar (US$) in, Many calculations of Bezos's wealth during the late 2010s were not, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors, 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, "Riding the Wild, Perilous Waters of Amazone.com", "Jeff Bezos Is Getting Astronaut Wings. You go home and you say to your wife you want to throw all that over and get in the car and go to Seattle. Youre grounded and you have to stay in your room. That was always fine with me. Well, that might even lead to more aggregate wealth. ", "Amazon will have a new CEO as Jeff Bezos transitions to executive chair later this year", "NBC News reports Jeff Bezos' intention to stand down as CEO of Amazon in the third quarter of 2021", "Former Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson leaves Jeff Bezos' space venture", "Buzz in West Texas is about Jeff Bezos space craft launch site", "Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think", "Taking the long view: Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owes much of his success to his ability to look beyond the short-term view of things", "Unplugged: Richard Branson's otherworldly space quest", "Three Billionaires Are Racing to Space. He incorporated the company. Jeff Bezos: I was a very nerdy and good student. Undergraduate students with a 3.0 or higher GPA were eligible to join this fraternity. This news implied Jeff Bezos was worth $171.6 billion in 2020; as indicated by Bloomberg, he accumulated $56.7 billion in 2020 alone. [169][170] Bezos maintains the email address jeff@amazon.com[171] as an outlet for customers to reach out to him and the company. [32][33] While Jeff was in high school, he worked at McDonald's as a short-order line cook during the breakfast shift. Bezoss employers werent prepared to proceed with such a venture, and Bezos knew the only way to seize the opportunity was to go into business for himself. His one line consisted of a response to an alien in distress: "Speak Normally." . When Bezos was in high school and college, he had his heart set on becoming a theoretical physicist. Alumnus of the Phi Beta Kappa organization at Princeton, Bezos was a Phi Beta Kappa member. But, there was a stack of manuals and me and a couple of other kids stayed after class and learned how to program this thing, and that worked well for maybe about a week. What gives you the greatest sense of satisfaction about it? That happens to also be a very effective way of deploying an economy so that you get an economy which mostly makes sense. [65] A year later, Bezos took on 130,000 new employees when he ramped up hiring at company distribution centers. In fact, we quickly expanded. How do you get something like Amazon.com started? [27] Jeff would later purchase this ranch and expand it from 25,000 acres (10,117ha) to 300,000 acres (121,406ha). So, you pick whatever you think the biggest problems are, and you try to eliminate them one at a time. Here's who's eligible to attend and why Bezos says 'the child will be the customer. The great teachers somehow convey in their very attitude and their words and their actions and everything they do that this is an important thing youre learning. I was five and six years older than them. They set up shop in a two-bedroom house, with extension cords running to the garage. So, that is a very interesting fact, I think, that a free market economy which by necessity involves a lot of liberty just happens to work well in terms of allocating resources. [300][301], In January 2018, Bezos made a $33million donation to TheDream.US, a college scholarship fund for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors. [314], In November 2022, Bezos granted a $100-million Courage and Civility Award to singer Dolly Parton in recognition of her charity work focused on improving children's literacy around the world. )", "America produced the largest number of billionaires in the world", "Jeff Bezos moves to top spot on Forbes' annual billionaires list", "Here's Why Jeff Bezos Is Not Truly The Richest Person in History", "Jeff Bezos Had a Record-Breaking One-Year Net Worth Jump", "Forbes Billionaires 2018: Meet The Richest People on the Planet", "Jeff Bezos world's first centibillionaire: Amazon boss' journey to beat Bill Gates to the top of Forbeslist", "Jeff Bezos Is Worth $112 Billion, Overtaking Bill Gates as the Richest Man in the World", "Bezos' Billions: The Wealth of a 'Centi-Billionaire', "Jeff Bezos Is Making an Insane $230,000 a Minute Right Now", "Here's How Much Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Would Be Worth if He Never Sold a Single Share", "Jeff Bezos is rich enough to buy many of the world's stock markets outright", "Is Jeff Bezos's Massive Wealth Becoming a Problem? In 1986, Jeff graduated with honours from Princeton University with a 4.2 GPA. Mind-boggling", "If You Invested in Amazon at Its IPO, You Could Have Been a Millionaire", "The electricity metaphor for the web's future", "How Jeff Bezos was selected for, but never joined, the Defense Innovation Board", "Bezos Jeffrey P.: Insider Trading Transactions", "Amazon posts quarterly profit of $1.9billion, its highest ever", "Bezos is putting $1billion a year into rocket-maker Blue Origin by selling Amazon stock", "Billionaire Jeff Bezos Will Star in Amazon's Super Bowl Ad", "Amazon posts largest profit in its history on sales, tax boost", "After losing China, Jeff Bezos really wants to win in India", "Jeff Bezos Is $1.8 Billion Richer As Amazon's Market Cap Briefly Hits $1 Trillion", "Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day", "Forget Zuckerberg: Why Trump Is "Obsessed" with Breaking Bezos", "The World's Richest Man Just Lost $10.7 Billion as Trump Tweets About Amazon", "Why a Trump-Led Antitrust Case Against Amazon Is a Long Shot", "Congress demands Jeff Bezos explain Amazon's face recognition software", "Bernie Sanders introduces 'Stop BEZOS Act', "Bernie Sanders introduces 'Stop BEZOS' bill to tax Amazon for underpaying workers", "Bernie Sanders's BEZOS bill takes aim at how Amazon pays workers", "Bernie Sanders targets Amazon, Walmart with 100% tax", "What the Bernie Sanders Amazon welfare fight is really about", "Amazon to raise minimum wage to $15 for all U.S. workers", "Why Amazon really raised its minimum wage to $15", "Amazon.com Announces Financial Results and CEO Transition", "Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon C.E.O. Author of Book on Amazon", "What Is Jeff Bezos's Religion? He had help from others, but he was the architect, he engineered them, and just did a fantastic job. Jeff Bezos: I dont think so. Jeff Bezos | lev radin / Shutterstock.com This is great. Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964, the son of Jacklyn (ne Gise) and Ted Jorgensen. When he disclosed his intention to go from being Earths biggest bookstore to Earths biggest anything store, skeptics thought Amazon was growing too big too fast, but a few analysts called it one of the smartest strategies in business history. Through each round of expansion, Jeff Bezos continually emphasized the Six Core Values: customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, frugality, high hiring bar and innovation. Our vision, he said, is the worlds most customer-centric company. He went to work at Fitel, a start-up company that was building a network to conduct international trade. [86], In February 2021, Bezos announced that in the third quarter of 2021 he would step down from his role as CEO of Amazon to become the Executive Chairman of the Amazon Board. How come you didnt grow up to be a cowboy? Most regrets, by the way, are acts of omission and not commission. Did Elon Musk Finish High School? - CLJ Did Jeff Bezos Finish High School? - FAQS Clear I always did my homework on time. [98] After the crash, Bezos has been superstitiously wearing his "lucky" Texas Cowboy boots to all rocket launches. It certainly matters online, where word of mouth is so very, very powerful. [290], Bezos donated to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center several times between 2009 and 2017. That early stage, by the way of Amazon.com, when we were so unprepared, is probably one of the luckiest things that ever happened to us, because it formed a culture of customer service in every department of the company. Jeff Bezos was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen in Albuquerque, N.M., on Jan. 12, 1964. We moved to Houston, Texas. Shortly after getting married to Jeff's mother, Mike adopted Jeff as his son and changed his last name to Bezos. It wasnt like what people think of today. His wealth surpassed $100billion for the first time on November 24, 2017, and he was formally designated the wealthiest person in the world by Forbes on March 6, 2018, with a net worth of $112billion. He should pay his workers first", "If Jeff Bezos wants to help low-income people why not just pay them better? Before starting off Amazon, Jeff Bezos served as the Senior Vice President at D.E.Shaw. All of this eventually led you to Princeton? And, a lot of these discoveries tend to have two uses. [149] His physical transformation has been compared to the transformation of Amazon; he is often referred to as the metonym of the company. Bezos and his investors found their shares in the company worth billions. Despite this interview question, Jezz Bezos' SAT score is undisclosed but we do know that he graduated as valedictorian from high school and had a 4.2 GPA in college. When he married Jeffreys mother, the family moved to Houston, where Mike Bezos became an engineer for Exxon. [131][132] The engines are currently on display at the Seattle Museum of Flight. That was 1999 and that was the weird year for us. We need knee pads! Jeff Bezos Just Revealed How the 'Smartest Guy at Princeton' Radically From the start point of 2020 to July 1, the day this sum was reported, 182 days had passed. [94] Rob Meyerson led Blue Origin from 2003 to 2017 and served as its first president. Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle reached space in 2015 and afterwards successfully landed back on Earth; he flew into space on Blue Origin NS-16 in 2021. With a grade point average of 2.50 and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree (B.S. [114] To execute the sale, he established limited liability company Nash Holdings to serve as a holding company through which he would own the newspaper. What was her reaction? I would like to point out this was before Indiana Jones. [20], After his parents divorced, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel "Mike" Bezos in April 1968. We tried to get a lot of the little housekeeping details done even before we arrived in Seattle. His mother was still in her teens, and her marriage to his father lasted little more than a year.