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How Amazon Started

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Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon.com was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen and Ted Jorgensen who were married just over a year. His mother was a teenage mother who later married when Jeff was five to Miguel Bezos who legally adopted him. Miguel Bezos was born in Cuba immigrated to the United States alone at age 15, worked his way through the University of Albuquerque.
After the marriage, the family moved to Houston, Texas, and Miguel became an engineer for Exxon. Jeff attended River Oaks Elementary in Houston from 4th to 6th grade. His maternal grandfather was a retired regional director of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jeff Bezos spent most of his summer of his youth working with his maternal grandfather at the ranch where his grandfather retired to. He showed intense and varied scientific interests at an early age by rigging an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room as well as making the garage into a science laboratory for his projects.
Later his family moved to Miami, Florida where he attended high School at Miami Palmetto Senior High School. While in high school he participated in the student’s science training program at the University of Florida which helped him receive a Silver Knight Award in 1982. When he enrolled at Princeton University he planned to pursue a degree in physics which he later changed to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He graduated in 1986 as a summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
He worked on Wall Street in the computer science field and then worked on building a network for international trade for a company known as Fitel. Then he worked for Bankers Trust, becoming a vice-president. Later on he also worked in computer science for D. E. Shaw & Co. In 1994 on a cross country drive from New York to Settle he wrote up a business plan for Amazon.com. When he returned he set up a business in his garage. His current position as CEO of Amazon.com earns him a salary of $81,840 plus 1.6 million dollars in personal security and owns twenty percent of Amazons stock but does not take stock options.
He is the visionary leader because he comes up with new products and ways of getting them to the customer in the most efficient way. He is intuitive thinker. He is also is analytical because he is consistently analyzing data through spreadsheet and makes math based decisions. He makes no apology for his love of data. He makes database decision and once the math is in he wants it done his way. He can be hyper rational or full of faith. He supports finding small improvements in efficiency at all Amazons huge warehouses while still holding onto his larger vision of changing the world. Most important thing to him is using the latest technology available to run his warehouses in the most efficient way possible. He isn’t afraid to get in the trenches to get at the problems of Amazon.com. He wants projects done in half the time that it seems reasonable to get done. A lot of dotcom companies fell in the 1990s but Bezos didn’t because he was able to reorganize the company to recover and make it grow. The Amazon way seems to project an image of fun but inside it is higher smart, drive fast and above all bet on the numbers. He is the type of leader that takes risk based on knowledge and experience.
"Jeff Bezos - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos
Deutschman, Alan. "Inside the Mind of Jeff Bezos | Fast Company." FastCompany.com - Where ideas and people meet | Fast Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2011. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/85/bezos_1.html
Vogelstein, Fred. "Mighty Amazon Jeff Bezos has been hailed as a visionary and put down as a goofball. He's proved critics wrong by forging a winning management strategy built on brains, guts, and above all, numbers. - May 26, 2003." Business, financial, personal finance news - CNNMoney. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2011. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2003/05/26/343082/index.htm

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