Courage and strong determination
By Kelly Miller
He was just an ordinary boy, but nourished great ambitions in accomplishing success in life. Many of you might be surprised to know that the boy never knew that he had a stepfather until he was ten years old. That was a bitter part of his life, but the boy with extreme interest in science set his goal straight to become a successful entrepreneur in life from the early stage of his life.
Born in New Mexico, he had a normal life like every regular kid, but what made him stand out is his determination and dedication. With a dream in his eyes to become a successful person, he has the audacity to make that dream a living and breathing reality.
His mother, his support system and inspiration
On January 12, 1964, his single teenage mother gave birth to him and never knew that her son was born with a spark. Mrs Jaclyn Gise Jorgensen and Mr Ted Jorgensen have parted their ways with a divorce before the birth of their son. She was a 17-year-old girl studying in high school when she gave birth to her son, and since then, she has dedicated her life to him.
School authorities expelled her. But she was a tough woman. She fought back until she made the administration take her to the school again. She not just gave birth, but also stood by her son's side and helped him in every up and down of his life. To complete her education, she used to go to a night school with an infant and worked during the day. After a few years, she met Mike Bezos, who was a Cuban immigrant and married him. That is how he got his last name, Bezos.
An average student with a keen interest in science
During his school days, he was an average student with a keen interest in science and computers. The tech-savvy has converted his father's garage into a computer lab to learn how things actually work. Later on, he pursued electrical engineering and worked at Wall Street. His proficiency helped him become the youngest Senior Vice President at D.E.Shaw. That time, he had money, glory, and respect, but he was not satisfied with it. Because he knew that he had to achieve a lot more than what he already has.
The dream came true
His disaffection with his current job told him that it is the perfect time for this young man to follow his dreams. His mother and stepfather chose to be on their son's side and helped him achieve what he wanted. By putting their faith in their beloved son, Mr and Mrs Bezos invested $250,000, all of their savings. With all the money, he opened an online bookselling website by the name ‘Amazon.com.’
Although, at first, he wasn't much sure with the name of the website, however, later on, he thought the name of meandering South American river is the best, and that is how he finally named the website as 'Amazon.' He and his few friends used to operate the website from his garage. Yes! From a small garage.
Birth of Amazon.com
He was aware of the risk involved in the business. The monetary risk and responsibility to protect the interest of the stakeholders, which is none other than his parents, he had put his best effort to make sure that nothing would go wrong. So, he made his 300 friends to beta test his website before launch to make it bulletproof. He and his employees started working from the garage and gave a bug-free look to Amazon. He was aware that his hard work would bring success, but didn't realize that the day would come so soon.
In the very first month of launch, Amazon sold books in 45 foreign countries, across the United States and that too without any press promotions. The first sale of Amazon was Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies. During the initial days, whenever they got a confirmed deal, a bell used to ring at their Amazon office. Soon, the alarm started ringing uninterruptedly, and that is when he and his friends realized that they are getting a phenomenal growth, and that it was a time for them to remove that bell.
Expansion of the Ideas
Being an energetic youngster, he was full of hope and enthusiasm. He knew he had a whole lot of time to nurture and nourish Amazon. His concept was new and different, and hence from the very first month, he started receiving astonishing responses from the buyers. Slowly and carefully, he made Amazon grow from a tiny seed to a tender plant, and later on into a strong tree. However, the biggest challenge in front of the founder was his own company. Being an entrepreneur, he has to grow and expand the company matching to the growth potential and market response.
With his belief in innovation and creativity, the founder knew that rather than just selling goods, he has to do a lot more to meet the expectations of his customers. He used his mind and efforts to cope with the customer’s demand and started selling CDs, videos, electronic products, clothes, toys, and many more items along with the books. In short, we can say, he rapidly increased the inventory for meeting customer’s ever-growing expectations.
He came up with strategies like sales, discounts, different viewing platforms, and devices to make Amazon stronger than ever. He launched devices like Kindle, Amazon Echo, and Amazon Fire TV and found his customers appreciating his efforts. He also launched Amazon Prime, a platform where one can play music and watch videos, and this has also received an astonishing response from the viewers.
Today, Amazon sells almost everything everywhere and has become the biggest e-commerce company by registering a total revenue of US$232.89 billion in 2018, which is more than 30% of the 2017 net global sales. Its 2018 revenue statistics showed a registered net income of $10.07 billion, which is again 3.0.3% more than last year’s net income.
Jeff Bezos, a man with visionary ideas
Yes, we have been discussing Mr Jeff Bezos. The person who wrote history in online business by adopting innovative sales tactics, inspiring many people to invest time, energy, and money on novel business ideas by utilizing the immense potential of internet marketing.
It seems like Mr Jeff Bezos always knew how to satisfy all the requirements and demands of his customers. His courage to pursue innovative business ideas and expand the business, meeting customer expectations and his strong determination, has made him the richest man in the world and one of the inspirational entrepreneurs and role models to the new generation.
世界上有这么一家企业：它让全球最大的零售业者沃尔玛，至2011年第二季为止，连续九季度单店营收下滑；它拥有云端服务产业最大市场占有率，将是云端时代的 “微软”；它在金融海啸期间逆势成长近八成。这家业绩非凡的企业，就是全球最大的线上零售商亚马逊。而贝佐斯(Jeffrey Bezos), 正是它的创办人。他被CNN、《彭博商业周刊》与《连线》称为“乔布斯后第一人”。
贝佐斯的人生履历也很精彩。1964年，他出生于美国新墨西哥州阿尔布奎克。1986年于美国普林斯顿大学毕业，进入了纽约的一家高新技术开发公司FITEL，主要从事计算机系统开发。1988年， 贝佐斯进入华尔街的Bankers Trust Co，担任副总裁。1990年至1994年，并与他人一起组建套头基金交易管理公司D.E. Shaw & Co，于1992年成为副总裁。1995年7月16日成立Cadabra网络书店，后将Cadabra更名为亚马逊，于1995年7月重新开张。1997年5月股票上市，亚马逊成为了世界上最成功的电子商务网站之一。
作为全球最成功的企业家之一， 他有很多优点值得我们借鉴。和很多企业家不同的是，他每天都保证自己有充足的睡眠：贝佐斯从未在早上安排会议， 他每天都要睡够八小时。同时，他也是一个敢于承担责任的冒险者。当看到互联网发展的势头时，他毫不犹豫地投入到了这一行业中，并开始在网上卖书，亚马逊就这样诞生了。与此同时，他非常了解如何长期发展自己的产品。除了卖实体书之外，他还有意识的发展了电子书，Kindle就这样出现在了我们的面前。本文有更多细节等待你的发现。
