The Story of Jeff Bezos

00:26:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a171hw91QjI

Sintesi

TLDRThis video chronicles the life and career of Jeff Bezos, from his birth in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to becoming the richest man on earth. Born to a 17-year-old mother and experiencing poverty early on, Bezos grew to be academically gifted, earning accolades and eventually enrolling at Princeton University. His career began with tech startups and, most notably, a hedge fund, before he pursued his vision and founded Amazon. The video highlights his entrepreneurial journey, including challenges like the dot-com bubble where Amazon's stock fell significantly. Despite setbacks, Bezos' focus on innovation and customer satisfaction propelled Amazon to success, transforming it from a simple online bookstore to the world's largest retailer. Bezos also ventured into space exploration with Blue Origin and acquired The Washington Post, showcasing his diverse interests and business acumen. His life story is a testament to resilience, hard work, and focusing on long-term goals, marking him as a prominent figure in business history.

Punti di forza

  • 👶 Jeff Bezos was born to a teen mother in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
  • 📚 Founded Amazon initially as an online bookstore.
  • 🏆 Focused on customer satisfaction and innovation.
  • 🚀 Founder of Blue Origin, aiming for space colonization.
  • 📉 Amazon survived the dot-com bubble spike and fall.
  • 📰 Purchased The Washington Post, transforming it into a profitable online media.
  • 🎓 An academically gifted individual who graduated from Princeton University.
  • 👔 Quit a hedge fund job to start Amazon.
  • 💡 Utilized a regret-minimization framework to guide life decisions.
  • 🌟 Became the richest person on the planet by 2018.

Linea temporale

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The video begins by introducing Jeff Bezos as a teenager working at McDonald's and eventually becoming the richest man on earth. His journey was filled with challenges and rewards, focusing on self-reliance, hard work, and academic excellence from a young age.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Bezos excelled academically from a young age and showed an early interest in technology. After high school, he went to Princeton University but switched from physics to computer science and electrical engineering. Following graduation, he worked at various companies before joining the hedge fund D.E. Shaw.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Bezos quickly excelled in his career but felt unfulfilled. He decided to minimize future regrets by quitting his job and pursuing a new opportunity on the internet. His wife supported this decision, leading to the creation of Amazon, initially funded by his parents' life savings.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Despite early challenges, Amazon quickly took off with great customer response, leading to rapid growth without advertising. Bezos focused on customer obsession, which was pivotal for the company’s initial success. This eventually led to the expansion of Amazon’s product range through customer insights.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:26:28

    After weathering the dot-com bubble, Bezos learned resilience, focusing on company improvement rather than stock fluctuations. Innovations like Amazon Web Services helped Amazon bounce back, and Bezos continued his vision of expansion, leading to ventures like Blue Origin and purchasing The Washington Post.

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Mappa mentale

Mind Map

Domande frequenti

  • Who is Jeff Bezos?

    Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon and was once the richest man in the world.

  • Where was Jeff Bezos born?

    Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

  • What was Jeff Bezos' first job?

    His first job was as a line cook at McDonald's.

  • What company did Jeff Bezos start?

    He started Amazon, initially an online bookstore.

  • What significant personal milestone did Bezos achieve while working at D.E. Shaw?

    He met his future wife, Mackenzie Scott.

  • When did Amazon go public?

    Amazon went public in 1997.

  • How did Jeff Bezos fund Amazon initially?

    His parents invested approximately $300,000 in Amazon.

  • What other major company does Bezos own besides Amazon?

    He owns Blue Origin, a space exploration company, and The Washington Post.

  • How did Bezos react to Amazon's stock falling during the dot-com bubble?

    He focused on internal business improvements instead of worrying about stock prices.

  • What is Bezos' long-term vision for Blue Origin?

    He aims for millions of people to live and work in space.

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    my mom had me when she was 17 years old
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    and she was still in high school levels
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    of
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    fame and wealth that are hard to
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    comprehend
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    our stock peaked somewhere around 113
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    our stock went down to six as a result
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    of going up 70 percent this year
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    you have become the wealthiest man in
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    the world
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    is that a title the year is 1980 a 16
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    year old high school student shows up to
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    a small mcdonald's located in
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    albuquerque new mexico for his first
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    shift as a line cook
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    after beginning his shift he will be
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    given the job of cleaning the restaurant
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    corner to corner considering he was
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    branded as the new guy
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    his manager co-workers and customers
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    didn't think much of him at the time but
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    only because they had no idea as to who
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    this kid would eventually become
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    the name of that 16 year old mcdonald's
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    newbie happened to be jeffrey preston
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    bezos
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    and exactly 38 years after cleaning that
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    albuquerque mcdonald's corner to corner
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    he would take on the title as the
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    richest man on planet earth
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    however it's safe to say that such a
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    journey would be no walk in the park
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    a journey full of risk reward ups downs
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    successes
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    failures and a load of hair loss this is
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    from mcdonald's to multi-billionaire
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    becoming jeff bezos
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    [Music]
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    jeffrey preston jorgensen was born in
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    albuquerque new mexico on the 12th of
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    january 1964.
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    at the time of his birth jeff's mother
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    jacqueline was still extremely young and
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    was yet to graduate from high school
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    i was two weeks past my 17th birthday
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    and a junior in high school
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    when i gave birth to my first son jeff
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    she was a
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    pregnant 16 year old in albuquerque new
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    mexico in high school which was not cool
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    at the time jeff's mother jacqueline was
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    so poor that she ruled out the idea of
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    owning the most basic
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    household items such as a telephone i
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    figured out that jeff and i could move
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    into our own apartment
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    if we just didn't have a phone
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    jacqueline had been married to a man
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    named
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    theodore jorgensen at the time of jeff's
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    birth who she later divorced and soon
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    remarried immigrant mike bezos in 1968
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    resulting in a name change from geoffrey
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    jorgensen to jeffrey bezos at the age of
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    four
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    as jeff bezos began to grow up he would
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    start spending his summers at a ranch
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    owned by his grandfather in catoala
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    texas
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    spent three months every year from the
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    age of four to age of 16
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    working on the ranch with my grandfather
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    which was just an incredible
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    incredible experience this fact by
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    itself is of no value however this ranch
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    in south texas would be the location
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    at which jeff's grandfather would begin
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    to teach him the basics of self-reliance
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    he was incredibly self-reliant he did
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    everything
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    himself you know he didn't call that if
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    one of the animals was sick he figured
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    out
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    what to do himself as well as the
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    importance of taking on tasks that he
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    didn't know how to solve
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    he would take on major projects
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    that he didn't really know how to do and
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    then figure out how to do it as jeff
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    continued to grow into his early teens
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    he began to display an interest in
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    science and technology he would begin to
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    use his guards to make various pieces of
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    tech such as an alarm to keep his
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    brother and sister out of his room
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    you know our garage was basically you
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    know science fair
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    central possibly based on this interest
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    jeff bezos would be accepted into
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    the gifted program at his elementary
  • 00:03:19
    school displaying his cognitive ability
  • 00:03:21
    from a young age
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    early age were you a pretty smart
  • 00:03:24
    student and your teachers tell you
  • 00:03:26
    this oh you were good or i have always
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    been
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    academically smart as jeff entered into
  • 00:03:32
    high school he would win a silver knight
  • 00:03:33
    award which was presented to
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    outstanding individuals and leaders who
  • 00:03:37
    have applied their knowledge and talents
  • 00:03:38
    to serving their school and communities
  • 00:03:40
    also being named valedictorian upon
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    graduation you were
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    the valedictorian of your high school uh
  • 00:03:46
    in miami which hopefully gives everyone
  • 00:03:48
    a good idea of who jeff was becoming by
  • 00:03:50
    his late teens
  • 00:03:51
    i was a good student i always worked
  • 00:03:53
    really hard i was nerdy
  • 00:03:56
    you were nerdy i was nerdy i was um
  • 00:03:59
    in the goody goody uh class of students
  • 00:04:02
    however despite having gifted cognitive
  • 00:04:04
    skills jeff was far from being well
  • 00:04:06
    off throughout his high school years at
  • 00:04:07
    the age of 16 jeff would get his first
  • 00:04:09
    job at mcdonald's earning 2.69 per hour
  • 00:04:13
    while it didn't pay all that well and
  • 00:04:14
    was far from glamorous jeff saw the
  • 00:04:16
    positives in the situation
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    claiming that the job got him interested
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    in the process of automation taught him
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    the basics of customer service and the
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    importance of staying focused on a
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    single task
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    she couldn't get me to switch tasks so
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    she would have to just pick up my chair
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    and move me
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    and by the way i think that's if you ask
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    the people who work with me that's still
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    probably true
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    and jeff never had a problem working at
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    mcdonald's back at the age of 16
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    because he would later explain that it
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    was never about the present for him it
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    was all
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    about the future the same way i do they
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    work in the future they live in the
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    future
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    none of the people who report to me
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    should really be focused on the current
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    and as mentioned in the beginning what
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    the future had in store for jeff was
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    undoubtedly something that he was unable
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    to predict
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    jeff's early life successes would
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    continue after being accepted into the
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    prestigious princeton university where
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    he would begin his studies with the goal
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    of getting into the field of physics
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    i went to princeton primarily to because
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    i wanted to study physics
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    uh which and and was it and it's such a
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    fantastic place to study physics
  • 00:05:14
    however jeff would change his degree
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    after realizing that physics wasn't
  • 00:05:17
    really for him
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    switching to electrical engineering and
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    computer science
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    i changed my uh major very quickly to
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    electrical engineering and computer
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    science
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    jeff would then graduate summa laude
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    which similar to his experience in high
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    school
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    meant he graduated amongst the highest
  • 00:05:32
    achievers in the year
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    and while his ability to excel in school
  • 00:05:35
    was impressive this was really only the
  • 00:05:37
    beginning for jeff he had finished
  • 00:05:38
    universally was about to get out into
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    the real world where he would begin to
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    turn his potential into reality
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    unsurprisingly jeff would receive
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    numerous job offers upon the completion
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    of his degree at prestigious companies
  • 00:05:55
    such as intel nokia and accenture
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    however would decline these offers and
  • 00:05:59
    instead take a job at a financial tech
  • 00:06:01
    startup by the name of fytel but a
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    financial tech startup simply wasn't
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    good enough for a genius like jeff bezos
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    so he would eventually take his skills
  • 00:06:08
    to a hedge fund by the name of d
  • 00:06:09
    shaw in 1990 at the age of 26. i went to
  • 00:06:13
    new york city and i ended up working at
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    a quantitative hedge fund run by a
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    brilliant man named david shaw
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    d.e shawn co despite now being in this
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    extremely prestigious high-paying job
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    rather than valuing the money he was
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    being paid it seemed as though jeff
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    bezos preferred to value the lessons he
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    was being taught by his bosses
  • 00:06:30
    i learned so much from him i used a lot
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    of his ideas and principles on things
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    like hr and recruiting and
  • 00:06:36
    what kind of people to hire and jeff was
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    going to need all of the lessons he
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    could possibly learn
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    because jeff was already thinking about
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    leaving the hedge fund with the
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    intention of taking on the biggest
  • 00:06:45
    adventure he could possibly think of
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    however before taking on
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    another big venture he made what seemed
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    to be somewhat of an impulsive decision
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    he wanted to get married at a certain
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    point i decided i wanted to
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    get married and i had all my friends
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    setting me up and i had my list of
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    criteria
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    and this was like good old-fashioned
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    blind dates i went on dozens of blind
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    dates as mentioned jeff began to go on
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    blind dates
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    stating to have gone on so many that he
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    became somewhat of a professional blind
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    data i had all my friends set me up on
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    blind dates none of them worked out very
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    well perhaps the reason jeff went on so
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    many blind dates without successfully
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    meeting someone was because of his
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    bizarre criteria when it came to finding
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    a partner when i was telling
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    my friends my criteria one of the ones
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    that i would list
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    was that i wanted a woman who could get
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    me out of a third world prison he stated
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    that this was a requirement not because
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    jeff planned on landing himself in a
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    third world prison but rather because he
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    wanted a wife who was resourceful and i
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    said no it's just a visualization for
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    somebody really resourceful because
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    i think that you don't want to go
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    through life with teammates who aren't
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    resourceful
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    this requirement would eventually be
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    fulfilled when jeff would meet mackenzie
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    scott in 1992 who he would then marry
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    only six months later in 1993.
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    we dated for three months were engaged
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    for three months and then got married so
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    our whole kind of dating engagement
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    period was only six months long
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    jeff's life seemed somewhat perfect at
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    this point on the outset
  • 00:08:05
    a job at a hedge fund in one of the most
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    prestigious cities in the world
  • 00:08:08
    newly married to a beautiful resourceful
  • 00:08:10
    wife it seemed like jeff couldn't have
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    had it any better at the time but as he
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    said
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    when everything gets too perfect the
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    first thing we want to do is break it
  • 00:08:18
    apart so we can have a challenge
  • 00:08:20
    and a challenge was certainly what jeff
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    bezos was preparing for
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    what propelled you to say i'm quitting
  • 00:08:29
    this i'm going to start a company
  • 00:08:30
    selling
  • 00:08:31
    books over the internet i'm going to do
  • 00:08:32
    it from seattle where'd that idea come
  • 00:08:34
    from in early 1994
  • 00:08:36
    after recently becoming the fourth hedge
  • 00:08:38
    fund senior vice president at d
  • 00:08:40
    shaw and co jeff bezos began to think
  • 00:08:42
    heavily about what he wanted from
  • 00:08:44
    life eventually deciding that he was
  • 00:08:45
    going to focus on a phenomena called a
  • 00:08:47
    regret minimization framework with the
  • 00:08:49
    goal of having no regrets during his
  • 00:08:51
    later years in life
  • 00:08:52
    when i'm 80 years old i want to have
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    minimized the number of regrets that i
  • 00:08:56
    have
  • 00:08:56
    i don't want to be 80 years old in a
  • 00:08:59
    quiet moment of reflection
  • 00:09:00
    thinking back over my life and and
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    cataloging a bunch of major regrets
  • 00:09:05
    at around the same time jeff found out
  • 00:09:06
    about this new thing by the name of
  • 00:09:08
    the internet internet is uh
  • 00:09:11
    that massive computer network the one
  • 00:09:14
    that's becoming really big now
  • 00:09:15
    an online network called internet alison
  • 00:09:19
    can you explain what internet is now
  • 00:09:20
    that i've gotten on the internet
  • 00:09:22
    i'd rather be on my computer than doing
  • 00:09:24
    just about anything the internet itself
  • 00:09:26
    however is
  • 00:09:27
    definitely exploding it hit and within
  • 00:09:29
    like two years
  • 00:09:30
    it just it's become so powerful the
  • 00:09:33
    internet gave us a whole world of
  • 00:09:34
    exciting new possibilities
  • 00:09:36
    so i guess this is a story of how it
  • 00:09:39
    changed our lives
  • 00:09:40
    [Music]
  • 00:09:48
    when it came across the startling
  • 00:09:50
    statistic the web usage was growing at
  • 00:09:52
    2300
  • 00:09:53
    a year so i decided i would try and find
  • 00:09:56
    a business plan that made sense in the
  • 00:09:58
    context of that growth
  • 00:09:59
    jeff realized that he could sell
  • 00:10:00
    products through the internet and
  • 00:10:02
    decided that creating an online
  • 00:10:03
    bookstore might work as a business model
  • 00:10:05
    i picked books because there were more
  • 00:10:08
    items in the book category than any
  • 00:10:10
    other category and so you could build
  • 00:10:13
    universal selection there were three
  • 00:10:14
    million in 1994
  • 00:10:16
    this desire to minimize regret combined
  • 00:10:18
    with the genuine plan of selling books
  • 00:10:19
    through the internet
  • 00:10:20
    ultimately led jeff bezos to quit his
  • 00:10:22
    prestigious headphone job and venture
  • 00:10:24
    out into the unknown of the business
  • 00:10:26
    world
  • 00:10:27
    you had a great job you had i remember
  • 00:10:30
    you had a great apartment on the upper
  • 00:10:31
    west side
  • 00:10:32
    working on wall street and a year after
  • 00:10:35
    we got married i went to her and said i
  • 00:10:36
    want to quit my job
  • 00:10:37
    thankfully jeff's wife was supportive of
  • 00:10:39
    the dream which would lead them to leave
  • 00:10:40
    new york city and head to seattle where
  • 00:10:42
    the company would begin
  • 00:10:43
    even before she could say what's the
  • 00:10:45
    internet she said great let's go
  • 00:10:47
    because she wanted to support it we're
  • 00:10:49
    about to take off
  • 00:10:50
    driving across the country to start
  • 00:10:52
    amazon go to seattle with jeff
  • 00:10:54
    literally writing the business plan for
  • 00:10:56
    the company in the car trip over i
  • 00:10:58
    wrote the first draft on the car trip uh
  • 00:11:01
    from
  • 00:11:01
    you know from from the east coast to the
  • 00:11:04
    west coast shortly after arriving in
  • 00:11:05
    seattle the company which was originally
  • 00:11:07
    called kadabra was stereotypically
  • 00:11:09
    started out of jeff's new garage
  • 00:11:11
    the movers packed their things and were
  • 00:11:13
    already on the road when
  • 00:11:15
    bezos phoned them to say he had decided
  • 00:11:17
    on seattle jeff bezos then accepted his
  • 00:11:19
    parents life savings of approximately
  • 00:11:21
    three hundred thousand dollars
  • 00:11:23
    and instantly invested it into the
  • 00:11:24
    company initial startup capital for
  • 00:11:26
    amazon.com came primarily from my
  • 00:11:28
    parents and they invested
  • 00:11:30
    a large fraction of their life savings
  • 00:11:33
    uh in what became amazon.com also
  • 00:11:37
    changing the name from cadabra to amazon
  • 00:11:39
    named after the amazon river in south
  • 00:11:40
    america
  • 00:11:41
    and he said cadaver and i knew then that
  • 00:11:45
    was not gonna be a good name
  • 00:11:46
    we changed it about three months later
  • 00:11:48
    however despite having this three
  • 00:11:50
    hundred thousand dollars worth of
  • 00:11:52
    funding the future of amazon was far
  • 00:11:54
    from
  • 00:11:54
    certain jeff would warn his early
  • 00:11:56
    investors that there was a 70
  • 00:11:58
    chance that amazon would either fail or
  • 00:11:59
    go bankrupt and i told them that i
  • 00:12:01
    thought there was a 70
  • 00:12:03
    chance that they would lose their whole
  • 00:12:05
    investment which was a few hundred
  • 00:12:06
    thousand dollars
  • 00:12:07
    i thought i was giving myself triple the
  • 00:12:09
    normal odds it's only about 10
  • 00:12:11
    here i was giving myself a 30 chance
  • 00:12:13
    jeff had to deliver the books to the
  • 00:12:14
    post office himself and didn't have
  • 00:12:16
    enough money for basic machinery i was
  • 00:12:18
    driving the
  • 00:12:19
    packages to the post office myself and
  • 00:12:23
    hoping one day we could afford a
  • 00:12:24
    forklift jeff and his team were
  • 00:12:26
    literally packing books on the floor as
  • 00:12:28
    they didn't even have
  • 00:12:29
    tables we were so inefficient with our
  • 00:12:32
    operations and logistics in those early
  • 00:12:34
    days when there were just
  • 00:12:35
    10 of us that i didn't have
  • 00:12:38
    packing tables we were packing on the
  • 00:12:40
    floor on our hands and knees
  • 00:12:43
    and on top of everything jeff had to get
  • 00:12:45
    his wife mackenzie to do the accounting
  • 00:12:47
    despite the fact that she was extremely
  • 00:12:48
    inexperienced in the area
  • 00:12:50
    she did our accounting um
  • 00:12:53
    for like the first year was it the first
  • 00:12:55
    year something like that however despite
  • 00:12:58
    these areas of inexperience on the part
  • 00:12:59
    of jeff and his team
  • 00:13:00
    the business idea actually worked
  • 00:13:02
    surprisingly well we were
  • 00:13:04
    shocked at the customer response
  • 00:13:08
    literally in the first 30 days we had
  • 00:13:12
    orders from all 50 states and 45
  • 00:13:16
    different countries
  • 00:13:17
    i was shocked at how many books we sold
  • 00:13:20
    we were
  • 00:13:20
    ill prepared better yet they did it
  • 00:13:22
    without having to spend a dollar on
  • 00:13:24
    advertising
  • 00:13:25
    in the first year of opening amazon.com
  • 00:13:28
    to the public we didn't do any paid
  • 00:13:29
    advertising
  • 00:13:30
    and all of our growth was fueled by word
  • 00:13:32
    of mouth and media exposure and this
  • 00:13:34
    initial success made sense really as
  • 00:13:36
    previously mentioned amazon had the
  • 00:13:38
    ability to sell as many different titles
  • 00:13:40
    as they wanted without the inventory
  • 00:13:41
    problems that a normal bookstore would
  • 00:13:43
    have
  • 00:13:43
    all while saving their customers the
  • 00:13:45
    time of having to physically go to their
  • 00:13:46
    local barnes
  • 00:13:47
    noble it was perfect plus jeff focused
  • 00:13:50
    on what he described to be the
  • 00:13:51
    absolutely most important part of any
  • 00:13:54
    business
  • 00:13:54
    the number one thing that has made us
  • 00:13:56
    successful by far
  • 00:13:58
    is obsessive compulsive focus on the
  • 00:14:01
    customer
  • 00:14:02
    as opposed to obsession over the
  • 00:14:05
    competitor
  • 00:14:06
    this initial success led to a range of
  • 00:14:07
    investment from various individuals
  • 00:14:09
    totaling a further one million dollars
  • 00:14:11
    to put into the growth of the company
  • 00:14:13
    i raised a million dollars from 22
  • 00:14:15
    different investors
  • 00:14:17
    50 000 at a time and they got 20
  • 00:14:20
    of the company for a million dollars
  • 00:14:22
    between 1990 and 1997 the percentage of
  • 00:14:25
    households in the u.s owning computers
  • 00:14:27
    increased from 15
  • 00:14:29
    to 35 because owning a computer was less
  • 00:14:31
    of a luxury and more of a necessity
  • 00:14:33
    increased computer usage as well as
  • 00:14:35
    further funding led up to a point where
  • 00:14:36
    the amazon company would make their next
  • 00:14:38
    big move
  • 00:14:39
    the initial public offering today
  • 00:14:42
    amazon.com went public and it seems to
  • 00:14:44
    be trading
  • 00:14:45
    well a little under three years after
  • 00:14:47
    beginning the company jeff bezos would
  • 00:14:48
    take
  • 00:14:49
    amazon public 1.73 per share
  • 00:14:52
    not a bad price considering that same
  • 00:14:54
    share would be worth more than 3
  • 00:14:56
    000 today the ipo raised amazon a total
  • 00:14:59
    of 54 million dollars and bezos would
  • 00:15:01
    officially receive the title of
  • 00:15:03
    millionaire for the first time
  • 00:15:05
    exactly one year after the ipo at 1.73
  • 00:15:08
    per share
  • 00:15:08
    the stock price had climbed to 6 an
  • 00:15:11
    increase of
  • 00:15:12
    350 percent this almost quadrupled
  • 00:15:15
    jeff's net worth but more significantly
  • 00:15:17
    began to spark new ideas for what jeff
  • 00:15:19
    could do with the company ultimately
  • 00:15:20
    leading him to email his customers
  • 00:15:22
    asking what it was that they wanted to
  • 00:15:24
    buy off the internet
  • 00:15:25
    i wish you sold windshield wiper blades
  • 00:15:27
    because i really need windshield wiper
  • 00:15:29
    blades
  • 00:15:30
    and i thought to myself we can sell
  • 00:15:32
    anything this way
  • 00:15:33
    and and then so then we launched
  • 00:15:36
    electronics and toys
  • 00:15:38
    and many other categories over time it
  • 00:15:40
    was through this market research that
  • 00:15:42
    amazon would go from an
  • 00:15:43
    online bookstore to more of an online
  • 00:15:45
    marketplace
  • 00:15:46
    supplying any product that the general
  • 00:15:47
    consumer had a demand for
  • 00:15:49
    edible glitter inflatable sloths taco
  • 00:15:52
    sleeping bags
  • 00:15:53
    whatever you wanted there was a good
  • 00:15:54
    chance that amazon would stock it and
  • 00:15:56
    with an increase in products came an
  • 00:15:57
    increase in revenue
  • 00:15:58
    leading the stock price to go from six
  • 00:16:00
    dollars as previously mentioned to sixty
  • 00:16:02
    dollars only one
  • 00:16:03
    year later it went up almost a thousand
  • 00:16:06
    percent
  • 00:16:06
    last year when have you seen anything
  • 00:16:08
    comparable nothing and as one of the
  • 00:16:10
    greatest old sayings goes
  • 00:16:12
    it takes years to become an overnight
  • 00:16:13
    success no exception for jeff
  • 00:16:15
    bezos because despite only becoming a
  • 00:16:17
    millionaire in 1997 after amazon's ipo
  • 00:16:20
    only two years later in 1999 he would be
  • 00:16:23
    registered in forbes world's
  • 00:16:24
    billionaires list with a net worth of
  • 00:16:27
    10.1 billion dollars despite having a
  • 00:16:30
    multi-billion dollar net worth
  • 00:16:32
    bezos remained humble and committed to
  • 00:16:33
    his customers by continuing to drive his
  • 00:16:35
    three-year-old honda record you yourself
  • 00:16:37
    are worth somewhere
  • 00:16:39
    in the vicinity of nine or ten billion
  • 00:16:41
    dollars today what's with the honda
  • 00:16:45
    this is a perfectly good car as well as
  • 00:16:47
    keeping an old desk that had been made
  • 00:16:49
    out
  • 00:16:50
    of a door now i've heard a lot about
  • 00:16:52
    your desk it's a door with four by fours
  • 00:16:54
    i mean you can afford a better desk than
  • 00:16:56
    that it's a symbol
  • 00:16:58
    of spending money on things that matter
  • 00:17:00
    to customers
  • 00:17:01
    and not spending money on things that
  • 00:17:03
    don't however saving as much money as
  • 00:17:05
    possible was exactly what jeff
  • 00:17:07
    needed to commit to because unbeknownst
  • 00:17:09
    to him one of the biggest stock market
  • 00:17:11
    crashes in history was already underway
  • 00:17:16
    at the peak of the internet bubble our
  • 00:17:19
    stock peaked somewhere around 113
  • 00:17:21
    dollars
  • 00:17:22
    and then after the internet bubble uh
  • 00:17:25
    you know
  • 00:17:25
    busted open our stock went down to six
  • 00:17:28
    it went
  • 00:17:29
    from 113 to six in less than a year the
  • 00:17:31
    dot-com
  • 00:17:32
    bubble a dark cloud was looming on the
  • 00:17:34
    horizon for every
  • 00:17:36
    online tech business and it's safe to
  • 00:17:38
    say that amazon was about to be put to
  • 00:17:40
    the test
  • 00:17:41
    amazon had serious crisis in 2002 you
  • 00:17:43
    went almost
  • 00:17:45
    bankrupt so what went wrong and what did
  • 00:17:47
    you learn from that
  • 00:17:48
    between march 2000 and october 2002 the
  • 00:17:51
    nasdaq would drop by
  • 00:17:52
    78 causing multiple large online
  • 00:17:55
    businesses such as pets.com to fail and
  • 00:17:58
    shut down
  • 00:17:58
    pretty strong fear about losing it all
  • 00:18:02
    are you afraid of that i know we can
  • 00:18:04
    lose it all it's not a fear
  • 00:18:06
    in 1999 just before the crash would
  • 00:18:08
    begin amazon's stock price would hit a
  • 00:18:10
    high water mark of 113
  • 00:18:12
    per share the dotcom bubble would begin
  • 00:18:14
    to burst in march 2000
  • 00:18:16
    and it would be less than a year after
  • 00:18:17
    hitting 113 that the share price would
  • 00:18:19
    drop to only 15
  • 00:18:21
    by late 2001 the stock had fallen
  • 00:18:23
    further to 5.51 per share
  • 00:18:26
    a total drop of approximately 95 percent
  • 00:18:28
    since its peak
  • 00:18:29
    my annual shareholder that year starts
  • 00:18:31
    with a one word sentence
  • 00:18:33
    and that one word sentence is the word
  • 00:18:35
    ouch amazon had to lay off
  • 00:18:37
    14 of its staff indicating that the
  • 00:18:39
    company was
  • 00:18:40
    absolutely on the ropes jeff's personal
  • 00:18:42
    net worth had dropped from 10.1 billion
  • 00:18:44
    in 1999
  • 00:18:45
    to 6.1 billion in 2000 then 2 billion in
  • 00:18:48
    2001
  • 00:18:49
    finally dropping to 1.5 billion by 2002
  • 00:18:52
    and if you follow that trend all the way
  • 00:18:54
    along the eventual outcome could have
  • 00:18:56
    been zero for jeff bezos however
  • 00:18:58
    jeff wasn't going to give up that easily
  • 00:19:00
    he was a fighter
  • 00:19:01
    [Music]
  • 00:19:02
    in fact he wasn't even gonna see it as a
  • 00:19:04
    negative he had such a strong mindset
  • 00:19:06
    that it was simply a learning experience
  • 00:19:08
    the whole point of of moving things
  • 00:19:11
    forward is you
  • 00:19:11
    run into problems you run into failures
  • 00:19:14
    things don't work you have to back up
  • 00:19:15
    and try again
  • 00:19:16
    despite the stock dropping by 95 jeff
  • 00:19:19
    explained that the stock wasn't the
  • 00:19:20
    company and the company wasn't the stock
  • 00:19:22
    because despite the massive plunge
  • 00:19:23
    things weren't looking all that bad
  • 00:19:24
    internally at amazon
  • 00:19:26
    every single thing about the business
  • 00:19:28
    was getting better and fast
  • 00:19:29
    and so as the stock price was going the
  • 00:19:32
    wrong way everything inside the company
  • 00:19:34
    was going the right way
  • 00:19:35
    and while the company had to lay off 14
  • 00:19:37
    of its staff there was still extensive
  • 00:19:39
    innovation going on behind the scenes
  • 00:19:41
    amazon would announce amazon web
  • 00:19:43
    services in 2002 which took data from
  • 00:19:45
    website traffic and helped third-party
  • 00:19:47
    retailers build their own web stores
  • 00:19:49
    perhaps it was just good timing in
  • 00:19:51
    relation to the end of the dot-com
  • 00:19:52
    bubble but around this time amazon's
  • 00:19:54
    stock began to rise in value once again
  • 00:19:56
    eventually reaching 50 approximately two
  • 00:19:58
    years after its low point during the
  • 00:20:00
    dot-com bubble representing a gain of
  • 00:20:02
    500 per year but this total stock price
  • 00:20:05
    rebound of a thousand percent was
  • 00:20:07
    nothing in comparison to what was coming
  • 00:20:08
    for jeff bezos and it wouldn't be long
  • 00:20:10
    before he would take his life to the
  • 00:20:12
    next level
  • 00:20:13
    by 2006 after innovative introductions
  • 00:20:15
    at amazon such as the kindle jeff's net
  • 00:20:17
    worth had once again increased back up
  • 00:20:19
    to around the 8
  • 00:20:20
    billion mark at this point jeff decided
  • 00:20:22
    that he wanted to help humanity in more
  • 00:20:23
    ways than simply shipping products
  • 00:20:25
    worldwide on amazon and
  • 00:20:26
    as a result began to focus on a
  • 00:20:28
    different company
  • 00:20:29
    if you could just take a minute or two
  • 00:20:31
    and sort of
  • 00:20:33
    help us understand what is blue origin
  • 00:20:35
    up to jeff bezos had always had an
  • 00:20:37
    interest in space
  • 00:20:38
    his valedictorian speech focused on the
  • 00:20:40
    exploration of space and had claimed to
  • 00:20:41
    have gotten interest in other planets
  • 00:20:43
    after watching the moon landings for the
  • 00:20:44
    first time
  • 00:20:45
    space is like that for me i watched neil
  • 00:20:47
    armstrong step under the moon when
  • 00:20:49
    i was five jeff bezos created the
  • 00:20:51
    company blue origin all the way back in
  • 00:20:53
    2000
  • 00:20:54
    however had kept it on the down low
  • 00:20:55
    until around 2006 when it was considered
  • 00:20:58
    financially feasible at which point a
  • 00:20:59
    large plot of lane in texas would be
  • 00:21:01
    purchased for launching and testing the
  • 00:21:03
    company's rockets the vision for blue
  • 00:21:05
    origin is millions of people living and
  • 00:21:06
    working in space
  • 00:21:07
    the goal of the company was very much
  • 00:21:09
    similar to another well-known and loved
  • 00:21:10
    entrepreneur by the name of elon musk
  • 00:21:12
    i learned that the fundamental issue is
  • 00:21:15
    actually the cost of access to space
  • 00:21:17
    with both entrepreneurs attempting to
  • 00:21:19
    produce cheap rockets while ensuring the
  • 00:21:20
    future of human existence
  • 00:21:22
    we're now big compared to the size of
  • 00:21:24
    the planet we can fix that problem
  • 00:21:26
    my role in that is i want to build
  • 00:21:28
    reusable space vehicles
  • 00:21:30
    that's the heavy lifting and while bezos
  • 00:21:32
    was working on blue origin as a passive
  • 00:21:34
    side project amazon was still churning
  • 00:21:36
    away in the background
  • 00:21:37
    barely being touched by the global
  • 00:21:38
    financial crisis making bezos richer
  • 00:21:41
    and richer and richer 12 billion 18
  • 00:21:44
    billion
  • 00:21:45
    29 billion by 2013. by this point amazon
  • 00:21:49
    had become the largest online shopping
  • 00:21:51
    retailer in the world and jeff bezos had
  • 00:21:53
    become the 19th richest person in the
  • 00:21:55
    world but these weren't the only
  • 00:21:56
    significant events that happened in 2013
  • 00:21:59
    jeff was about to make his next big
  • 00:22:01
    business purchase
  • 00:22:02
    the post at the time um had was kind of
  • 00:22:05
    financially upside down
  • 00:22:06
    had a lot of work to do no fault of
  • 00:22:08
    their own the internet had really
  • 00:22:10
    taken the wind out of newspaper
  • 00:22:12
    companies by this point it had become
  • 00:22:14
    somewhat obvious that jeff wasn't really
  • 00:22:15
    into conventional businesses
  • 00:22:17
    an online bookstore before the internet
  • 00:22:19
    was populated a company creating cheap
  • 00:22:21
    rockets to be sold for space travel
  • 00:22:23
    hardly the type of businesses you'd
  • 00:22:24
    expect a local mum and dad to be running
  • 00:22:26
    this trend of purchasing unconventional
  • 00:22:28
    businesses would continue into 2013
  • 00:22:30
    at which point bezos would purchase a
  • 00:22:32
    newspaper company by the name of the
  • 00:22:34
    washington post for a price of 250
  • 00:22:36
    million dollars
  • 00:22:37
    i asked him how much he wanted he said
  • 00:22:39
    250 i said fine i didn't negotiate with
  • 00:22:41
    him and i did no due diligence by 2013
  • 00:22:44
    the internet had completely taken over
  • 00:22:46
    the traditional newspaper business model
  • 00:22:48
    the problem was
  • 00:22:48
    a secular one the internet was just
  • 00:22:50
    eroding all of the traditional
  • 00:22:53
    advantages that local newspapers had all
  • 00:22:55
    of them and jeff's rationale for
  • 00:22:56
    purchasing the washington post was
  • 00:22:58
    actually extremely smart the washington
  • 00:23:00
    post already had a load of talented
  • 00:23:01
    people who knew a lot about news and
  • 00:23:03
    media and jeff had become a master of
  • 00:23:05
    online businesses
  • 00:23:06
    so jeff would mix his knowledge of the
  • 00:23:08
    internet with washington post knowledge
  • 00:23:09
    of news media with the goal of making
  • 00:23:11
    the company profitable once again
  • 00:23:13
    inside the washington post we have so
  • 00:23:14
    much talent that understands newspapers
  • 00:23:18
    that wasn't what the problem was what
  • 00:23:20
    they needed was somebody who had an
  • 00:23:22
    understanding of the internet bezos
  • 00:23:23
    lifted the online paywall while
  • 00:23:25
    completely restructuring the newspaper
  • 00:23:26
    into more of an online media site and by
  • 00:23:29
    2016 only three years after making the
  • 00:23:31
    purchase
  • 00:23:32
    the washington post had become
  • 00:23:33
    profitable once again showing that
  • 00:23:34
    almost
  • 00:23:35
    anything bezos touched would turn to
  • 00:23:37
    gold the turn to profitability at the
  • 00:23:39
    washington post was around the same time
  • 00:23:41
    that profitability over at amazon was
  • 00:23:43
    starting to get to absolutely stupid
  • 00:23:45
    levels which brings us to one of the
  • 00:23:47
    most iconic events in amazon's history
  • 00:23:50
    july 2015
  • 00:23:52
    amazon releases its quarterly earnings
  • 00:23:54
    report which surprised its investors by
  • 00:23:56
    reporting a net profit that outperformed
  • 00:23:58
    the top
  • 00:23:58
    quarterly estimates this incredible
  • 00:24:00
    earnings report caused the stock to
  • 00:24:02
    surge
  • 00:24:02
    18 during after hours trading and when
  • 00:24:05
    the market opened
  • 00:24:06
    jeff bezos would earn 7 billion
  • 00:24:09
    in the space of 60 minutes taking him to
  • 00:24:11
    the spot of the fifth
  • 00:24:12
    richest person in the world by 2016 with
  • 00:24:14
    a net worth of 50 billion dollars and
  • 00:24:17
    it's not like jeff began to hoard this
  • 00:24:18
    money or blow it on excessive luxury
  • 00:24:20
    rather he just continued to make amazon
  • 00:24:22
    even bigger hiring a hundred and thirty
  • 00:24:25
    thousand new employees
  • 00:24:26
    by this point it was barely a matter of
  • 00:24:28
    if he was going to become the richest
  • 00:24:30
    person in the world but more a matter of
  • 00:24:31
    when he was going to become the richest
  • 00:24:33
    person in the world and that time was
  • 00:24:35
    not far away
  • 00:24:36
    at all in march 2018 after expressing
  • 00:24:38
    the possibility of expanding amazon into
  • 00:24:40
    india combined with the extreme success
  • 00:24:42
    of
  • 00:24:42
    amazon prime jeff bezos would overtake
  • 00:24:45
    bill gates to become the richest man in
  • 00:24:47
    the world with a net worth of 112
  • 00:24:49
    billion dollars
  • 00:24:50
    as a result of going up 70 this year you
  • 00:24:53
    have become
  • 00:24:55
    the wealthiest man in the world is that
  • 00:24:57
    a title that you really wanted or
  • 00:25:00
    not i is it i couldn't assure you i have
  • 00:25:03
    never sought that title
  • 00:25:05
    and um it was fine being the second
  • 00:25:07
    wealthiest person in the world
  • 00:25:09
    that actually worked fine this jumped to
  • 00:25:12
    131 billion in 2019
  • 00:25:14
    and due to the pandemic increasing the
  • 00:25:16
    demand for online shopping bezos ended
  • 00:25:18
    2020 with a net worth of 182 billion
  • 00:25:21
    dollars
  • 00:25:22
    bezos lost the title of world's richest
  • 00:25:24
    man to elon musk in january 2021
  • 00:25:26
    however each billionaire claims to have
  • 00:25:28
    the same goal of making life
  • 00:25:29
    multi-planetary so at the end of the day
  • 00:25:31
    a bit of healthy competition at the top
  • 00:25:33
    might not be such a bad thing for the
  • 00:25:34
    human race
  • 00:25:37
    from a 17 year old mother to a child
  • 00:25:39
    genius to valedictorian to mcdonald's to
  • 00:25:41
    hedge fund senior executive to online
  • 00:25:44
    book salesman to millionaire to
  • 00:25:45
    billionaire to news magnate to space
  • 00:25:47
    explorer to the richest man
  • 00:25:49
    in human existence it's certainly been a
  • 00:25:51
    bumpy ride for the risk
  • 00:25:52
    reward ups downs but jeff bezos has
  • 00:25:55
    shown that perseverance is king
  • 00:25:57
    focus on the customer not the competitor
  • 00:25:59
    and never give up until you get what you
  • 00:26:01
    want
  • 00:26:02
    jeff bezos has shown that it doesn't
  • 00:26:03
    matter where you come from doesn't
  • 00:26:05
    matter that your stock might drop by 95
  • 00:26:07
    during your crisis and it doesn't matter
  • 00:26:09
    how much hair you have on your head you
  • 00:26:11
    can still succeed if you don't give up
  • 00:26:12
    when
  • 00:26:13
    everyone else feels like doing so this
  • 00:26:15
    has been from mcdonald's to
  • 00:26:16
    multi-billionaire becoming
  • 00:26:18
    jeff bezos
  • 00:26:24
    [Music]
  • 00:26:27
    you
Tag
  • Jeff Bezos
  • Amazon
  • entrepreneurship
  • success
  • dot-com bubble
  • Blue Origin
  • The Washington Post
  • innovation
  • perseverance
  • billionaire