In 2018, Forbes released the 2018 Forbes Global Rich List.
Jeff Bezos, 54, surpassed Bill Gates and Buffett to become the world's richest man with a personal net worth of $112 billion.
Since then until 2021, Jeff Bezos has been firmly at the top of the list, and his personal net worth has reached $177 billion.
After achieving such an impressive achievement, many sought after and praised followed.
Bradstone, a senior author of Bloomberg Businessweek, spent 12 years interviewing Jeff Bezos more than a dozen times, and interviewing Amazon executives and employees more than three hundred times, and finally completed a book, "One Net: Bezos and the Amazon Era".
The book not only details the process of Amazon's gradual development and growth, to glory,
It also unveils the jaw-dropping mystery of Jeff Bezos's life:
It turned out that he was abandoned by his biological father at the age of 1 and grew up under the cultivation of his stepfather;
In order to repay the favor, after the success of the career, he gave $100 billion worth of shares to his stepfather.
So why did his biological father cruelly abandon his young son? How did Jeff Bezos succeed in starting a business step by step?
(2018 Forbes Rich List)
First, the fate is uncertain At the age of one, he was abandoned by his biological father
Jeff Bezos's childhood was full of twists and turns, quite legendary.
In the spring of 1963, an 18-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl panicked and ran to the city of Albuquéque in central Mexico, where they quietly settled.
The two of them eloped, with a boy named Ted and a girl named Jacqueline.
At the age of 16, she is already four months pregnant. Seeing that his stomach was going to bulge day by day, because he was afraid of the punishment of his parents and the sneers of the people around him, he panicked and agreed to Ted's elopement plan.
Life without adult restraint is indeed free and romantic, they have a simple wedding on their own, and the days are simple and happy.
But the fetus in the womb is a conundrum hanging over their heads.
In October 1964, she finally gave birth to the child and named it Jogensen.
The child was born smoothly, and a stone in my heart finally fell to the ground.
But 16-year-old Jacqueline and 18-year-old Ted are still children themselves, where can they take on the responsibilities of parenting?
Jacqueline's parents were high-ranking intellectuals, and her father, a manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, was extremely disciplined;
And Ted grew up in a poor family at the bottom, lacking the correct family education, not thinking of making progress, eating and lazy, and can be described as useless except for being handsome.
After the birth of the child, Ted returned to his former temperament and began to be idle and idle.
Before eloping, no matter what bad habits there are, at least there are parents, a home, and a guarantee that can keep the body and mind safe forever.
But now that he has left his original home, has a wife, and even has children, and needs to hold up a piece of the sky for his family to cover, Ted does not take this as a thing at all.
Soon, their basic livelihoods are no longer secure, and jacqueline sometimes has to work hard to see the children while doing odd jobs to help Ted.
The difficulties that arise in material life have finally developed into the whole cause of daily quarrels and quarrels, and their feelings are about to come to an end.
(Jeff Bezos with mother Jacqueline)
Less than 18 months after the birth of the child, Jacqueline firmly handed in the divorce agreement in 1965 and broke up with Ted.
Ted said he didn't want the child and let Jacqueline take it with her to raise.
Jacqueline's thoughts were all gray, and she didn't want to believe that the man she had given up all her choices was such a man!
Her final request to Ted is to stay away from their mother and son and never want to see Jorgensen again.
Since then, Jacqueline has taken her one-and-a-half-year-old son to live with her, tasting unimaginable hardships and heartaches.
Fortunately, her son is smart and cute, which makes Jacqueline rekindle her courage again and again when she is on the verge of despair.
By 1968, when Jogensen was three years old, Jacqueline decided to remarry.
The other was a Cuban immigrant from the early '60s who worked for Exxon and was named Miguel Bezos.
So Jorgensen changed his name to Jeff Bezos.
Childhood experiences and family education can easily leave an unforgettable mark on a child's heart, and serious ones will affect a person's lifelong behavior habits and even life trajectory.
Jeff Bezos's childhood was unfortunate compared to most people.
His mother took him to remarry, and later had a younger brother and a younger sister.
But his truly glorious life seems to have awakened from such setbacks, and a business wizard who has attracted the world's attention is quietly brewing.
Second, the young Bezos is gifted and has a strong relationship with his stepfather
Jacqueline, who had been exposed to a good family education, knew exactly how much such a family change would affect the child's development, so she decided to hide it.
At this time, Jeff Bezos was just three years old and had not yet begun to remember.
So in Bezos's impression, he has lived with Miguel Bezos since he was a child.
Shortly after the marriage, Jacqueline discovers that Jeff Bezos often makes some perverse moves.
He always woke up in the middle of the night crying without warning, and sometimes he was sullen during the day, staring at his crib in a daze.
At this time, he was only three years old.
Jacqueline wanted to ask him if he was uncomfortable, but he couldn't express why.
One afternoon, jacqueline came home from work and found Jeff Xesos holding a screwdriver, lying under his crib, ready to remove it!
Jacqueline was momentarily stunned. She suddenly understood what the intermittent words coming out of her son's mouth meant.
Even so, she had no idea that a three-year-old child could think of dismantling the bed with a tool.
Perhaps Jeff Bezos's character was determined from an early age.
He is active and hands-on, and meticulously planned before implementation.
If such a person seriously studies one thing, he will certainly achieve great results.
Time flowed slowly, and little Bezos grew up day by day.
His mother, Jacqueline, was considering whether to bring her son to his grandfather to have a look, but she was afraid that the old man would cling to his own outrageous deeds.
After a long time of suffering, Jacqueline decided to take her son back to the old man to see.
Not to mention, I miss my parents very much.
So during the summer vacation of Bezos's first year, he met his grandfather for the first time.
Along the way, Jacqueline was still nervous, not knowing how to face her father after 8 years.
Unexpectedly, my father loved this grandson. It didn't take long for them to mingle and get along very happily.
(Jeff Bezos and maternal grandfather)
Jacqueline was therefore surprised.
Since then, every winter and summer vacation, he will take Jeff Bezos to his grandfather's house.
Because of her son's relationship, the cold war between her and her father for many years gradually melted and disappeared.
His maternal grandfather was a manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, and consciously or unconsciously fostered Bezos's interest in science and technology.
They do all kinds of experiments and research together on a farm in Texas, and Bezos slowly shows off his extraordinary talent for science.
By the river, in the fields, in the garage, everywhere there are Jeff Bezos experimental projects and results:
Hydrofoils made of vacuum cleaners, solar cookers made of umbrellas, spinning water wheels made of discarded engines, and so on.
Many times, his ideas even made his grandfather's eyes light up, and he constantly admired this smart child.
(Jeff Bezos as a child)
At the age of 14, Jeff Bezos aspired to be an astronaut or physicist.
By this time, he had attended junior high school at Pukui High School in Miami, with excellent grades, serving as a class president and a representative of graduates.
In his own home, his stepfather, Miguel Bezos, was very nice to him and he got along well with his younger siblings.
Although a restructured family, Jeff Bezos never felt uncomfortable.
When he was 10 years old, his mother solemnly told him that his father was actually a stepfather.
His performance was calm and steady, leaving no mustard in his heart.
(Jeff Bezos and stepfather Miguel Bezos)
In his mind, his biological father, Ted, was a man who had never appeared. Even if there is such a person now, there is no difference.
For a father who is born without support, there is no emotion to speak of.
Although the stepfather next to him is not related by blood, but treats him like a biological child, then what reason do you have to favor one over the other?
For stepfather Miguel Bezos, the mistakes of the parents, the mistakes of feelings, have caused he irreversible harm to the child.
As a result, Jeff Bezos later had a happy childhood, and his stepfather seduced him, taking him to live and learn, allowing him to thrive in a complete and healthy environment.
After high school, Jeff Bezos's mind became more active.
He can install windmills independently, use arc welders, and even sterilize and vaccinate bulls.
(Boy jeff Bezos)
For a time, he became extremely interested in the Celestial Mirror and begged his mother to buy one for him.
But the $20 price left my mother overwhelmed and unable to meet his demands.
Unexpectedly, he gathered several classmates to set up the "Dream" Association during the summer vacation to help the younger children develop their thinking and tutor their homework, and soon saved enough money.
He bought a bunch of cheap parts and assembled a sky-shooting mirror himself.
From this incident, the stepfather saw Bezos's business thinking and often took him to understand the relevant knowledge.
He never imagined that one day his children would become a bright star in the business world.
This knowledge played a big role in Jeff Bezos's studies. He loves to think and learn even more.
Before graduating from high school, Princius University handed him an early acceptance letter.
At the time of high school graduation, Bezos received the American Merit Scholarship, the highest honor for graduating from a high school in the United States.
(Princeton University)
At the age of 18, Jeff Bezos entered Princeton University in 1982.
At this time, computers are undergoing earth-shaking changes, and it is a hot industry in the hearts of young people.
Bezos chose a computer major.
Soon after, he was immersed in it and was convinced that computers would soon have a revolutionary breakthrough.
Four years later, with the same honors, he graduated from Princeton University with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science and became a member of the American College Of Honor.
In his speech at the graduation ceremony, he said that what he missed most was the summer vacation when he was a child with his maternal grandfather and grandmother.
At that time, they were repairing windmills, doing farm work, and watching TV dramas on farms in Texas.
Third, desperately set up Amazon, stepfather To help
After graduation, Bezos quickly found Fitel, a small company in its infancy, to work and write communication protocols.
Outside of his normal work, he humbly studied and carefully summarized the methods by which nascent network technology companies survived in a competitive environment.
With outstanding personal ability, Jeff Bezos wrote communication protocols that made Solomon Investments a huge profit.
A year later, he had become a vice president at Fitel.
Kunpeng's ambition was far from here, and writing communication protocols for the company was not his goal at all, so he offered his resignation to the company and turned around and joined a trust company.
He led one of the engineering departments to develop a completely new communications system, BTWorld.
This system allows users to remotely query the retirement fund and property profit distribution plan that the trust company invests and manages on its behalf.
As a result, it became so popular that the proxy fund quickly expanded to $250 billion.
Another year, Jeff Bezos was once again in the position of vice president of the trust company, and he was also the company's last vice president since its inception.
But his goal was refreshed again.
In the same environment, some people can be very keen to find new opportunities and momentum, and then resolutely abandon everything they already have, and work hard to achieve greater success.
(Jeff Bezos)
During this time, he was exposed to back-office data on hedging by numerous Internet users and funds.
When he found that Internet users were rapidly soaring at a rate of 2300% per year, he was instantly excited.
He remembered the idea that had existed in college: to start a bookstore!
But this time, he decided to start an online bookstore covering millions of books.
Nowadays, online shopping, e-books and other industries have become a part of our lives.
In much of the mainland, online shopping has replaced the dominance of brick-and-mortar stores. More and more young people are choosing to pick, compare and buy online.
But at this time in the early 90s, online shopping was impossible in the minds of most people.
After all, the Internet is virtual, and it is difficult for the physical industry such as bookstores to integrate with it.
If you think about it, there are also front-ends, terminals, markets, publishers, and transportation, which must be considered.
Easy success doesn't come with much fulfillment, and Jeff Bezos isn't someone who seeks satisfaction in the small things.
He was a natural doer and challenger, and his childhood experiences made him no longer afraid of failure and setbacks, and he had a strong sense of self-confidence to achieve seemingly impossible goals.
After several years of careful preparation, he finally quit the privileged job of the trust company in 1994.
He then went to the outskirts of Seattle and chose three garages as his company address.
Here, he founded cadabra, the world's first online book sales company.
At this time, Bezos had just arrived and had a family.
He poured out all his $300,000 savings into his career, fearing that his wife would be angry about it.
After all, it was a crazy decision, and quitting your job to start a business meant that there was no source of income for a long time, and even a loan to keep the company running.
(Jeff Bezos and wife McKinsey)
Unexpectedly, his wife agreed with his idea.
She believes that although many people will fail in entrepreneurship, fall into a bad situation from this family road, and even lose the courage to live, she believes in Bezos,
Since it was what he decided to do, he had the ability to do it well.
In contrast to his wife's attitude, it was his friends.
Friends persuaded him to give up a promising job to choose a long road, and if he failed, it would cause irreparable losses.
Bezos was worried about this.
He knew that this was a completely new industry and that there would be countless difficulties and setbacks waiting for him.
But what if it succeeds?
Jeff Bezos still firmly chose his inner love.
With three employees, he drove his Chevrolet Blazer desperately, ready to sweat and blood in the seattle land.
Fascinated by his career, he spent nearly a year building his official website and perfecting the database, and went out of his way to contact nearby book dealers.
His database was largely built in July 1995, and he changed the company's name to Amazon.
Using the name of the world's largest river to name his company, it is clear that Bezos wants his company to have a long history, continue to grow and become a large company that attracts the world's attention.
At this point, the company has entered the stage of formal operation.
At first, to motivate himself and his employees, he installed an electric bell on the wall.
Every time a customer places an order on Amazon's website, the bell rings once.
During this time, Bezos did not rest, running out day and night.
Sometimes it is to contact the book distributor or publisher, hoping to put more books on the shelves and expand the customer's choice;
Sometimes he runs market research to understand the problems or feelings that customers encounter when using Amazon;
Sometimes he ran back and forth between the post office and the dealership. Because, his car is the only means of transport for the company.
After returning to the company, he began to improve the website construction, from the customer's point of view to carefully speculate on the results of the research, so that the web page looks more humane, more innovative, or include more practical functions.
As a result of this effort, Amazon quickly gained wide acclaim, and more and more book lovers began to buy the books they wanted on Amazon.
People find this amazing site more and more relevant to real needs, with more and more books to choose from.
In addition to this, one of Amazon's great tools to attract customers is the price concession.
Bezos decided to buy books through Amazon, you can enjoy a 40% discount, for the current number of best-sellers, you can enjoy a 30% discount, the rest of the unpopular books can also enjoy a 20% discount.
In addition, no matter how many books you buy, you can enjoy the delivery service.
Such prices and services quickly attracted a large number of loyal users, and also led more book dealers to join the Amazon platform.
In less than two years, Bezos had fulfilled his original wish.
His website already has 1.1 million titles, reaching the scale of the market.
His stepfather, knowing that he had started his business, had given up almost all his fortune and bought $100,000 worth of stock, hoping that his son would be more successful.
As the site's visibility grew, Jeff Bezos's gaze shifted once again.
He thought: Since people are willing to buy books on the Internet, is it also acceptable to buy some other daily necessities?
He sent random emails to a wide range of users, and then received a considerable number of replies: toolboxes, cups, car wipers, and so on.
As a result, Bezos expanded its business scope.
From home accessories to electronics to fresh produce, people can buy almost everything they need on Amazon.
Fifth, Bezos rose to the throne of the richest man to give back to his stepfather
In 2000, The number of Amazon customers exceeded 15 million, and the market value reached $21 billion.
There are 3.1 million books in this category alone, at least 15 times more than any bookstore on the market.
Coupled with hundreds of millions of other goods that cover every aspect of life, Amazon's business empire has begun to take shape.
Today, Amazon has companies and industries all over the world, and its stock price has reached more than $950 per share.
That's more than a hundredfold compared to the $9 per share you started with.
In 2018, Jeff Bezos became the world's richest man, surpassing Bill Gates, who has been the richest man for 7 consecutive years.
Moreover, for four consecutive years since then, no one has been able to shake it.
On the eve of the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, Bezos's value reached a peak of 199 billion US dollars, about 990 billion yuan!
After becoming famous, Bezos did not forget his stepfather who taught him as a child, and his generosity in the early days of entrepreneurship, so he gave his stepfather $100 billion worth of stock.
Bezos is not so proud of his position as the world's richest man, and successful people can always calmly think about the next goals and plans in the midst of flowers and applause.
Bezos, who is nearly a year old, now has a new goal.
He indulged in a career in the physical sciences and invented an unmanned lunar spacecraft named Blue Moon.
Bezos plans to send the device to the moon in 2024, and then use the moon as a base to travel through the solar system...
At this moment, his biological father, Ted, even though he already knew that his own son had achieved such a brilliant achievement, did not look at him with a face.
Perhaps Bezos himself never wanted to find his biological father.
Whether a person has made a career or achieved anything, he or she needs to have at least a sense of responsibility.
Ted blindly chooses to elope, and after the birth of the child, he chooses to escape as much as possible, to be born without support, and to let his wife and one-year-old son fend for themselves.
Such an act of his cannot be condoned by anyone.
Although the influence of the family environment on a person is important, in the final analysis, people live for themselves, and they need to overcome difficulties and work hard for themselves.
Therefore, for Bezos, who has firm goals, is good at thinking, is not afraid of hardship, and dares to think and dare to do, having a lot of wealth is also a natural result.
Resources:
E-Commerce World. "Who is Jeff Bezos"[J], High-end Dialogues. 2007(07)
get married. Jeff Bezos: Creating a Myth of the Internet[J], Chinese Business, 1999.(08)
Wen Xuan. "Jeff Bezos: Changing the World with Dreams"[J], China Publishing Media Business Daily Central Level.2020.11.13
EDIT: Everyday
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