How Jeff Bezos became a $100 billion man
He went from working at McDonalds to becoming the richest man in the world. Here is his timeline, including a very important lesson.
👋 Hello, this is your weekly dose of inspiration and practical guidance. Every Friday you will receive a captivating visual timeline that charts the rise of a successful individual + lessons derived from that.
Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen was born on 12 January 1964. His stepfather adopted him at 4 years old and he became Jeffrey Bezos.
Before graduating as a valedictorian from Miami Palmetto High School, Jeff worked for a summer at McDonalds. He then went on to graduate from the University of Princeton.
He spent his early twenties working at a fintech start-up, then as a product manager at Bankers Trust. At 26 he started climbing the ranks at D.E Shaw & Co and was made the youngest Vice President.
When he was 30 years old, he quit his 6 figure job and started an online bookstore called Cadabra.
Luckily, a few months later he changed the name to Amazon.
Just 3 years later he took the company public and became a multimillionaire.
He went on to start a spaceflight startup and then survive a helicopter crash.
Under his leadership, Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Prime, Amazon Kindle, and Alexa.
He also acquired the Washington Post and Whole Foods before eventually stepping down as Amazon’s CEO.
Voting & Results
Jeff Bezos won last vote with 272 votes. Louis Vuitton came in second with 243.
Please vote the next ones:
You can vote multiple times. One click = one vote.
One Lesson from Jeff Bezos
Effective resource distribution
Bezos knows how to distribute his resources effectively. His first desk at Amazon was made out of a door and four-by-fours for legs. The employees had the same desk-door as him. Rumour has it he still used his desk-door as a billionaire.
Some might get this wrong. This is not about living a frugal lifestyle for the sake of it. This is about effective resource distribution and delayed gratification.
Jeff knew this, and now he owns a $500 million yacht with nice desks.
You need to realise that a fancy $500 desk does the same job as a desk-door. We like rewarding ourselves for our hard work with nice things. But would a fancier desk really make you more productive?
Next time you want something, ask yourself if it would either:
Improve your life.
Make your life easier.
Save you time.
If you cannot tick any of these, then it’s likely you can do without it for now.
Here’s what Jeff did his money instead:
In the beginning he spent everything on the things that mattered to build Amazon.
Once he took the company public and became a multimillionaire, he started investing in other companies.
He was one of the early investors in Google, Uber, Airbnb, Twitter(X) and others.
Delayed gratification is the act of resisting an impulse to take an immediately available reward in the hope of obtaining a more valued reward in the future.
Until next Friday,
The Chronicler
Want more timelines?
WOW this is amazing
Super