Jennifer Landau - Jeff Bezos and Amazon

INTRODUCTION

I n July 2011, the New York Times reported that profits for Amazon.com, the largest retailer in the world, fell by 8 percent in the second quarter of 2011. Yet in the same time period, revenuethe total amount of money coming in to the companyrose 51 percent, to $9.9 billion. Amazon explained the dip in profits by pointing to its continuing investment in technology and warehouses, including a 900,000-square-foot (83,612.7-square-meter) warehouse in Indiana.

As the New York Times put it, The company is apparently selling so many things to so many people that it can make sizable investments and barely feel the pain. Jeff Bezos, Amazons founder and chief executive, remarked in a statement at the time that [l]ow prices, expanding selection, fast delivery and innovation are driving the fastest growth weve seen in over a decade.

Bezos has always emphasized growth over profit for Amazon. His willingness to take risks and delay profits in his constant quest for innovation are some of the qualities that have made himand the company he builtsuch a phenomenal success.

Jeff Bezos holds Amazons first sign while standing in the companys Seattle headquarters in 1995. The sign was quickly spray-painted before Bezos gave an interview about his company with a Japanese television station.

O n the morning of November 13, 2006, a test spacecraft named Goddard was launched 285 feet (86.9 m) into the west Texas sky and then safely returned to the launch pad. The aerospace company responsible for this flight was Blue Origin, founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos. Bezos is the founder of Amazon.com, which is listed on its Web site as Earths most customer-centric company.

According to Blue Origins Web site, the goal of the company is to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system. What is the motto of Blue Origin? The Latin phrase Gradatim Ferociter, which translates roughly as step by step, fiercely.

This motto could easily sum up the life and career of Jeff Bezos. With drive, optimism, and great faith in his ability to make his mark on the world, Bezos has transformed not only how people shop, but also how they interact with technology. From a young age, he has held tight to his dreams and his belief that well-planned, incremental steps are the best way to achieve long-lasting results.

According to Robert Spectors Amazon.com: Get Big Fast, Ursula Uschi Werner, Bezoss high school girlfriend, believed that Bezos founded Amazon so that he could eventually earn enough money to build a spaceship. Certainly, as a youth Bezos thought of becoming an astronaut. In his high school valedictory speech, he talked about how the colonization of space was a way to secure the future of the human race in our fragile world. Bezos was a Star Trek fan and truly believed in space as being the final frontier.

Whether Bezos viewed spaceflight as his ultimate goal is debatable. What is not debatable is that from an early age, Bezos has been on a path toward greatness. This path has been powered by his instinct for where the latest innovation would lead the United States and his determination to be at the forefront of that innovation.

A CLOSE-KNIT FAMILY

Jeff Bezos was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964. His mother, Jackie Gise Jorgensen, was a seventeen-year-old high school student when Jeff was born. Jackie and Jeffs father, Ted Jorgensen, split up soon after Jeffs birth, later divorcing. While working at a bank after community college, Jackie met Miguel Mike Bezos, and they married in 1968. Jackie and Mike went on to have two more children, Jeffs sister, Christina, born in 1970, and brother, Mark, born in 1971.

Mike adopted Jeff, who had no contact with his biological father. When Jeff was told of the adoption at age ten, it didnt disturb him. He later said that finding out that he needed glasses was more of a blow than discovering that Mike Bezos wasnt his biological father, as he considered Mike his dad. The only time Ted Jorgensen entered Jeffs mind was when he was filling out a form at the doctors office and wondered about his medical history.