Jeff Bezos, one of if not the most successful entrepreneurs the world has ever seen, was born in 1964 as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen to a teenage mother Jacklyn Gise (16 years old at the time), and a teenage father Ted Jorgensen (barely 18 years old), in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jeff was challenged in his life from a very early age when his parents divorced when he was just 17 months old. That was the last time Jeff ever saw his father, and in 2015, following his biological father’s passing, he revealed he has no memory of him. Jeff was raised by his mother and stepfather Mike Bezos. It is hard to believe that Jeff Bezos is now the richest man in the world with a staggering estimated net worth of 200 billion dollars. In this essay, I will talk about how Jeff achieved this true his traits, attitudes, and behaviors.
Jeff has clearly always been determined and self-driven. He first showed his passion and willpower when, in his final year of university, he turned down some of the most lucrative job offers that could be offered. These included Intel and Bell. Instead, Bezos decided to join a startup known as FITEL, where he learned how to run startups. Soon he became the customer service director of the company. He was also equipped with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering. He then moved on to join Bankers Trust. He worked there for a couple of years before joining D.E. Shaw & Co., where he later became senior vice president. This showed his determination and drive to be the best and get there quickly.
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However, it was when he noticed how much Internet usage had risen (2300%), we started to see the innovative side of Bezos. He then studied the most profitable mail businesses and decided to start selling books on the web. It was at D.E. Shaw & Co. he met a woman by the name of Mackenzie Tuttle. She helped Bezos and was instrumental in the formation of the new e-commerce business. Bezos decided to quit his top wall street job and move to Seattle to set up Amazon. This showed Jeff was a risk-taker, but it was well and truly a risk that paid off.
Like many top businesses in the United States and all around the world, Amazon started from a garage. As any parent would be, Bezos’ parents were concerned about him leaving his post at a capital market job to start selling books from his estranged garage. It was then that Bezos made clear to his parents his passionate attitude towards this dangerous adventure and got them on board with him. Amazon experienced unbelievable success from the very beginning. Within 6 months he was selling in all 50 states of America and various locations across the globe. In the year 2001, Amazon made profits of 5 million dollars, and Bezos’ life changed forever.
Personally, I believe that a successful entrepreneur must be a generous individual. Jeff Bezos has always shown his generosity throughout his success. In 2018, Bezos pledged 2 billion dollars to homeless families and to expand the network of preschools in the United States. Jeff is also a keen supporter of same-sex marriage and is known to have made many donations to support this cause.
Every successful entrepreneur must be intelligent and able to identify opportunities. This is vital for profits and long-term success. Bezos has always been a smart investor. In 2013, he purchased the Washington Post Group for a staggering 250 million us dollars. He also showed his knowledge when investing 1 million dollars in Google in 1998, which now equates to 1 billion dollars. Netflix used to distribute its content to millions of American households around the clock when Bezos founded Amazon Web Services. Bezos signed a contract allowing businesses to utilize Amazon servers for this reason. He lowered the fees for businesses that use his servers. When told that he would be losing money over an extended period, he remarked: “More profit means attracting more competition”.
As I touched on earlier, every single entrepreneur must be willing to take risks to gain success. Without risk-taking, entrepreneurs face an uphill battle to pass their rivals. It is often the case that it must be a new idea that grips and attracts potential customers. This is emphasized by Jeff Bezos who has previously stated: “Let me assure you, I can guarantee you that none of these ideas are guaranteed to work. All of them are gigantic investments and they’re all risks... The only way to get above-average returns is to take risks and many won’t pay off. Our whole history as a company is about taking risks; many of which have failed and many of which will fail, but we’ll continue to take big risks”. This shows just how important taking risks is for multimillion-dollar entrepreneurs to be the best.
An entrepreneur who has risen to the top of the business world must also have a ruthless streak and must not take accept any complacency. Jeff Bezos’ tolerance for complacency is again a prime example of this. He simply doesn’t have any. He accepts only the best from his employees, and anything less than the best is sanctioned accordingly. Jeff also is a highly competitive entrepreneur and loves the competition. In fact, his end goal is to eliminate the competition, even if it comes at an initial cost to his company. An example of this is, of course, when Amazon had once targeted a fellow competitor dealing with child products; they dropped their prices dramatically to eradicate the rival from standing in the competition altogether, and eventually, the rival company collapsed. As usual, Jeff came out on top as a winner. Jeff Bezos is a serial winner. This is an essential characteristic and personality to be the best.
I must also state how vital it is for entrepreneurs, especially up-and-coming entrepreneurs, to always put the customers first. Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty are so important for every business. Jeff Bezos has gone to new levels to satisfy his customers. He has even created his own public email so every customer can email their complaint directly to him. He has also previously stated that “the best customer service you can offer is if the customer doesn’t need to call you or talk to you it just works”. This show that Bezos tries to prioritize customer satisfaction so there isn’t any negative backlash on his company.
To conclude, I feel Jeff Bezos is a prime example of what every young and aspiring entrepreneur should aim to become. He has all the right principles, and his principles didn't change, even though his wealth did. He has all the traits and personalities needed to become a successful entrepreneur.
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