This is the secret of Jeff Bezos
From a nerd who smashed cookies to a sculpted billionaire. "What has actually happened in the last 25 years is far above my expectations," said Jeff Bezos.
The second richest man in the world, Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos decided to step down from a management position after running the company for nearly three decades.
He helped Amazon profile itself into one of the largest companies around the world and thus expanded its wealth. But his business trip was full of struggles, something Bezos himself has talked about in the past.
In one of the interviews, he admitted that he used to deliver packages himself. Today, it is hard to imagine that the company's CEO brings orders to customers with his own car, but Bezos was not a problem at the time.
"What has actually happened in the last 25 years is far above my expectations. I delivered the packages myself, we sold the books. I was hoping to build a company, but I didn't hope to build a company like the one you see today," he said at the time.
Online bookstore launched from the garage
Amazon.com started as an online bookstore back in 1994 from his garage, where he and several employees began developing software for the site. Within a year, they had expanded to a two-bedroom house. The Amazon test site was launched in July 1995 and was a phenomenal success right after its launch. Amazon shipped the books across the U.S. and 45 countries in just 30 days of launch.
And then the growth just continued. In another 1997 interview, Bezos explained why he chose the books. He said books and music were the most traded things on the internet at the time. About 3.5 million items worldwide were in the book category, including all world languages.
Since Amazon did not have enough resources at the time, Bezos became not only a director but also a delivery man. Amazon’s continued success prompted him, at the age of 34, to expand his offering to electronics, toys, and even clothing. Since then, Bezos' company has witnessed unprecedented growth in all categories.
A fast delivery revolution
In 2005, Bezos launched Amazon Prime, a loyalty program that was the first of its kind. For $ 79 a year, customers thus get access to free shipping that arrives in two days for more than a million products. Amazon Prime was launched at a time when most retailers were delivering packages within four to six days. So Prime quickly changed the standard - not just for customers, but for the entire retail industry. It was Amazon Prime that made retailers consider offering free and fast shipping. Today, Amazon Prime has more than 150 million subscribers worldwide and is so popular that its subscribers also have their own ‘holiday’, Prime Day.
Eight years later, Bezos met that goal by launching Amazon Logistics or AMZL. In 2019, they were on track to deliver 3.5 billion packages globally or about half of their orders worldwide. The company has so far most likely exceeded that threshold, given the rise in popularity of online orders during the coronavirus pandemic.
Conflict with Trump
Amazon's CEO also found himself in the spotlight when he became a direct target of former US President Donald Trump. Their quarrel happened in 2015 when Trump posted a series of tweets criticizing Bezos ’ownership of The Washington Post and claiming without evidence that Bezos was using the media if a“ big tax haven ”for Amazon. Bezos retaliated with a joke, offering to send him into space.
Tensions between Trump and Bezos only intensified during Trump's four-year presidential term, and Trump blamed Amazon for everything from tax evasion to unfair exploitation of the postal service. After numerous quarrels with Trump, Bezos became increasingly popular. So his name was also mentioned at the Oscars, and a photo of his biceps turned into a ‘meme’ on social media.
