EAE News
Jeff Bezos: A story of expectation and innovation
24 de January de 2020
Who is Jeff Bezos? How did he become one of the world’s richest men? Find out more about his story and the origins of Amazon
Jeff Bezos, the King of Cyber-Commerce
If there is anybody who personifies the concept of success, it is Jeff Bezos. Born in Albuquerque in 1964, he decided to give up his comfortable job at a Wall Street investment bank at the age of 30 to invest all his and his parents’ money in an idea. What was it? To start an online bookshop. Did it work? Well, you could say that! Today, Amazon generates sales of over 177 billion dollars a year, with more than 560,000 employees. The founder has amassed a fortune in excess of 130 billion dollars.
How did it all start? Who is Jeff Bezos and what is the secret behind his success story? To begin, he is a hardcore fan of Star Trek, technology and space. Bezos has always dreamed big. However, he never imagined that the idea that came to him after reading a report on the rise of the internet in 1994 would, over the next few years, go on to become a commercial empire that, as well as shipping to all five continents, would revolutionize the industries of trade, entertainment and technology.
Thanks to his innovative spirit, long-term vision and determination, at 30 years old, Bezos decided to move to the city of Seattle with his wife. When choosing a name, he considered Cadabra and Relentless, but the name that struck him as the right option for the recently founded company was Amazon. As well as its symbolic power as the name of one of the world’s largest rivers, it began with “A”, which meant it would rank among the top spots in the internet search results, which organized the www directory alphabetically in the early 1990s.
In the early years, the computing and electronic engineering graduate of Princeton worked 15 hours a day and sent the books himself using the postal service. His wife, McKenzie Tuttle, from whom he separated in 2019 in what has become known as “the most expensive divorce in history”, took charge of the accounts while her husband looked for new markets. They lived in a small room in a very delicate financial situation, as they had invested almost all their savings in the project.
Within a matter of two months, Amazon was already selling in 45 countries and generating 20,000 dollars per week. This enabled him to reach a certain degree of stability. However, Bezos knew that this was just the beginning and decided to stick with his 1996 Honda Accord and his desk made from an old door so that he could continue with his plan: to invest all the revenue into expanding the company.
As a result, 3 years later, when Jeff was 33, Amazon was floated on the stock exchange and expanded its commercial range to include CDs, DVDs, software, video games and clothing. In 1999, Bezos was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and he became known globally as the King of Cyber-Commerce. Despite having to deal with various severe crises, such as the dotcom bubble and the 2008 recession, Bezos continued to embrace innovation as a tool for achieving success. Not only did his philosophy enable Amazon to keep going, it made it one of the most important companies in history.
Bezos now has 4 children, and mansions all over the United States. He wants to conquer space with his company Blue Origin. He also boasts an impressive car collection, including a Bugatti Verona and a Lamborghini Diablo. He has dabbled in the media industry, with the acquisition of The Washington Post, and even bought himself a role in his favourite film, Star Trek Beyond (2016).
As well as being fascinating, his story is a clear example of how innovation, vision and lifelong learning are crucial when it comes to launching an entrepreneurial venture. At EAE, we are fully aware of this fact, which is why the objective of our Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation is to equip our students to manage resources and develop the executive skills required to launch a business project.
Moreover, EAE has a startup incubator and, through the EAE Entrepreneur initiative, we accompany current and former students throughout the launch of their ventures onto the market, and even help finance their projects through our open investment platform, EAE Investor.