Introduction
The topic of my biographical speech is the wealthiest person on our planet since 2017, Mr. Jeff Bezos, also known as the founder and CEO of Amazon.com. I have read his biography by Ann Byers and the three online articles about the influence of his business on the world. First, I will touch on Bezos’s life before the fame; second, retell the brief version of his success story. Finally, I will highlight his influence on today’s society.
Life Before Amazon.com
Today millions of people worldwide know Bezos’ signature smile and use his company’s products, but it has not always been like that. Jeff was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and raised in Houston, Texas. He got to spend much time on a family ranch, also known as “Lazy G.” There, the future billionaire learned to ride horses, tend to cattle, and repair anything that needed to be fixed. Young Bezos was very ambitious and motivated; in 1982, he graduated the school as a valedictorian and the top student of his class (Byers 11-17). Since then, his desire to study the world around him had only grown.
While attending Princeton, Jeff realized that his interests were more in the sphere of business and IT, and switched from the honors physics class to the computer science major. Bezos also made up his mind around that time to run his own business one day. Jeff worked at a telecommunications start-up Fitel, where he soon became the Head of the Development. Later, Bezos joined the team of the Banker’s Trust, quickly rising to the position of the Vice President (Martin). However, these jobs did not give Jeff the satisfaction of exploring.
Bezos then started working at a hedge fund D.E. Shaw, where his responsibilities included looking for new business opportunities online. His research led Jeff to believe that selling books via the Internet was the best opportunity available (Martin). D.E. Shaw did not get onboard with Bezos’s idea, so he decided to branch out, and that is how Amazon was born.
Jeff Bezos As We Know Him
1994 was the year when Jeff Bezos started selling books through the Internet. Since then, his business had developed into having over 600 million items from different spheres of our lives sold by 3 million vendors simultaneously. Bezos’s marketing team is doing an incredible job predicting what needs and services will be in demand among the sellers and the customers (Foer). Amazon.com is famous for its variety of goods, delivery services, packages, ratings, reviews, as well as functional design and convenient payment system. However, creating a successful technology company needed by millions of people was not the most ambitious goal of Bezos.
Jeff has always been a loyal fan of the Star Trek franchise. He dreamed that there would be “the day when millions of his fellow earthlings would relocate to colonies in space” (Foyer par. 12). Bezos founded another company, Blue Origin that is meant to build rockets and allow humans to explore and colonize other planets. Jeff calls this company “the most important work,” as he is genuinely concerned about the possibility of running out of resources on our home planet (Foyer par. 13). Another, less serious, contribution of Bezos to Star Trek is his small role as a Starfleet official in the Star Trek Beyond movie.
Success for the Amazon founder was not measured solely in the number of people using his services. According to Forbes, Jeff Bezos became “The First Person Ever Worth $200 Billion” (Ponciano 1). The amount of profit that Amazon makes regularly is measured in billions of dollars. Today Bezos controls over forty percent of all the e-commerce transactions taking place in the US. Twitch streaming service and The Washington Post are also part of his portfolio (Foer). People all over the world associate Bezos with success and incredible wealth. Jeff mostly chased his dreams, but the effect of that was his influence on our society and culture.
Importance to Society
Jeff Bezos can set clear goals and fulfill them despite the difficulties and obstacles. His mother taught him that “there aren’t any problems without solutions” (Byers 13). Bezos’s perseverance encourages innovators to bring their dreams into reality. However, Jeff also shows the amount of work and discipline that needs to be invested into any worthy project, as the changes in the world do not happen easily. Amazon.com has changed forever how we think about shopping by making it fast, convenient, and completely internet-based.
Conclusion
Jeff Bezos is one of the most famous and influential people of modern times. Living on a farm in Texas, rising to the top of his school class, graduating from Princeton, and having a head-spinning career in business, all these steps have made the Amazon.com founder who he is today. Jeff Bezos is a celebrity, a businessman, and a dreamer. He set a precedent for pushing the technological and business limits further than we have ever imagined.
Works Cited
Byers, Ann. Jeff Bezos: The Founder of Amazon.com. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2007.
Foer, Franklin. “Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan.” The Atlantic, 2011, Web.
Martin, Emmie. “Jeff Bezos Hasn’t Always Had the Golden Touch: Here’s What the Amazon Founder Was Doing in His 20s.” CNBC Make It, 2017, Web.
Ponciano, Jonathan. “Jeff Bezos Becomes the First Person Ever Worth $200 Billion.” Forbes, 2020, Web.