Amazon Bezos is the richest man in the world. How does the founder of Amazon live?
Before Jeffrey Preston Bezos became who he is, successful businessman with a billion-dollar fortune, he had to learn to learn the lessons that life presented to him.
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They tell one story. A little boy in the car with his grandparents, wanting to show off his knowledge of mathematics to them, he performs some calculations. His task is to get an answer to the question of how much the grandmother reduces her own life expectancy by smoking. He proceeded from the fact he had heard earlier that each breath takes two minutes. And then it’s simple: multiply by the number of puffs per cigarette, by the number of cigarettes per day, divide by minutes, so as a result you get first hours, then days, and then years. He announced the result - 9 years - and waited for recognition of his abilities. But grandma cried. And his grandfather told him the words that the boy remembered for the rest of his life: “One day you will understand that it is harder to be kind than smart.”
Many years later. The whole world knows this boy's name and his virtual retail empire, Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos built his business with the same determination and intelligence. But the lesson that his grandfather once taught him forced him not just to think about selling things, as many do, but to pay attention low prices, not to please customers, but to delight them. These are his business management principles.
So, Jeffrey Preston Bezos, or Jeff Bezos - the name by which he is much better known - is a billionaire, pioneer and king of cyber-commerce, founder of the world's largest online retail store.
Comes from childhood
He happened to be born on January 12, 1964 into a prosperous family in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The family story, as told by his mother, begins in San Antonio with Colonel Robie Hall, a six-foot-tall red-skinned giant. Thanks to his civil service, he managed to accumulate some capital and successfully placed it in a bank. Half a century later, his grandson Bernard Vesper used these funds to buy 25 thousand acres of abandoned land in the south of the state and turned it into a well-kept farm. It was here that Jacqueline (her family name was Zhu) brought her skinny, screaming, non-stop son to stay with his parents, Lawrence Preston Guise and Mattie. The grandson’s cries were stopped by the grandfather, who went to introduce him to his possessions. By the way, his family called him “general” behind his back.
Zhu became a mother early, at the age of 17, and biological father child - Ted Jorgensen - very soon disappeared. Jacqueline was a frivolous girl, she entrusted Jeff to her ancestors and went to look for new happiness.
His name was Miguel, or simply Mike. A Cuban emigrant, a peer, but already beaten and taught by life. Jeff met his new dad at the age of 4. Later he will say: “My father, my real father, was the guy who raised me.”
Young Master
Jeff learned to fight early, and he also learned how to build things. In his room, he dismantled and collected everything he could get his hands on. He was even once caught “dismantling” a child’s crib, where he used a screwdriver, turning it into a real bed. It was the grandfather who first aroused and then in every possible way supported his grandson’s interest in educational games. He helped the boy deal with Heathkits (that was the name of the kit for creating electronic products), which he dragged in large numbers to his garage, which served as Jeff’s laboratory. The boy even set up some kind of alarm to scare away his younger sisters and brothers from his possessions.
Dad and Mom didn’t try to interfere with him, they were too busy - they worked in a bank and studied at the university at the same time, giving Jeff first a sister, then a brother. From the age of five, the boy was told: “You are already big, you are our support, all hope is in you.”
School years and dreams
At the age of six he went to a school for gifted children. His dream then was archaeology, but it seems only because he was very proud of learning to pronounce the word “archaeologist.” But after the manned Apollo spacecraft landed on the Moon in 1969, he wanted to become an astronaut.
Only at the age of 10 did he learn that Mike was not his real father. However, the news did not make too much of an impression on him. The fact that he had to wear glasses hurt him much more. By the way, much later, when the whole world knew Jeff’s name, Ted Jorgensen, his biological father, had no idea who his son had become. He found out about it when Brad Stone approached him for an interview for the book “Store Everything.”
When Jeff was still a teenager, the family moved to Miami. Here he visited high school. And after that he wandered around the house with a screwdriver, looking for work for his inquisitive mind and dexterous hands. Or he would lock himself in his room to invent some fantastic contraption, like a solar panel made from tin foil with an umbrella, or a doorbell made from an old alarm clock.
And returning to my grandfather on the ranch in another summer, was implementing his ideas. So together they improved a mini-harvester and a caterpillar tractor, and also windmill.
The first business called “Dream Institute” was also started here at the school. This is what Jeff and his girlfriend called an educational camp for fourth, fifth and sixth graders with an interest in science. The two-week session cost the children $150. Here we read Gulliver's Travels and The Watershed, studied black holes, wrote simple programs on an Apple computer.
And yet his biggest dream was about space. And now not in the role of an astronaut, but as an entrepreneur. In the 70s and 80s it looked like a fantastic dream. But the boy clearly outlined for himself: first he must “make a lot of money.” He told the teachers that the future of humanity is not on this planet. Today he is the owner of the space company Blue Origin.
Priston
In the meantime, he is considered the best at school, passes all exams successfully and, without much effort, enters the university in Priston at the Faculty of Physics (Department of Electronic Measuring Instruments and Computer Science). And although he was famous at school, here at the university he had to admit that there were guys much more gifted than him and better versed in the laws of physics than he was. Much of what Jeff did with diligence was easy for them. He soon realized that he would be a mediocre theoretical physicist, so he decided to focus his main attention on computer support issues. As he believed, there were fewer geniuses in this area, and the demand for such specialists was expected to increase in the very near future.
“Mediocre theoretical physicists do not advance. They spend all their time understanding other people's progress." Quoting D. Bezos
Jeff graduated with honors, a degree in computer science and electrical engineering, and a Phi Beta Kappa honors class in 1986.
Labor activity. First successes
The years of study are left behind. Certified specialist Jeff Bezos accepted an offer from the young enterprise Fitel, while refusing several offers (Andersen Consulting, Bell Labs, Intel). This company created a network for international trade. It was here, in a department specializing in the creation of transnational computer financial networks, that Jeff worked for almost two years, surrounded by endless conversations of stockbrokers and bankers, which he assimilated so quickly that the ability for great things and the thirst for them were already urgently looking for an outlet.
“I don’t want to use my creative energy on someone else’s user interface.” Quoting D. Bezos
Quite opportunely, he received an invitation to David Shaw’s investment company, which was rapidly developing at that time, and in 1990, at the age of 28, he was already the youngest senior vice president.
By the way, D. Shaw predicted a great future for the new employee only after interviewing him. And the prophecy came true.
It is here, delving into the specifics of the vertical circulation of money, that he to the fullest appreciated the opportunities provided by the Internet.
Digging a little from the topic, it is worth noting two names that have always been role models for Jeff. This is Thomas Edison, a brilliant inventor and not the best businessman, and Walt Disney, a not so good inventor, but a decent businessman. Bezos himself had no doubt at all about his genius and that he was a businessman, no matter what. Every year he visited Disneyland and hatched the idea of creating a virtual empire of no less magnitude.
Often a completely unexpected step becomes the only right one and decides future fate. This step for Jeff was his marriage to a young employee of the company, an aspiring writer at McKinsey in 1993.
Because it was she who made another life possible important step. This happened on May 1, 1994. Empire global scale gave no rest day or night. He persistently searched for a way to exploit the rapid growth of the Internet.
“I knew that I would truly regret not being involved in this thing called the Internet, which I thought would be a revolutionary event. When I thought about it... It was an incredibly easy decision to make.” Quoting D. Bezos
He always thought about it, turning over in his mind the most different variants for e-commerce: cars? medications? computers? His wife’s call made his thoughts flow in a different direction, how attentive his beloved wife is, how she finds time to take care of him despite being so busy, because the novel takes up all her time... It dawned on him! Books! Here's something worth doing! No traditional bookstore can afford such a huge selection. And storing on the Internet such a volume of information about this product, such as the author and a brief summary, will not present any particular problem. You simply cannot find a more ideal container for storing it.
He decided everything for himself. The next day, he was already convincing the “paper sharks” at the annual congress of US book business leaders of the prospects of a virtual bookstore. And he convinced me. And for a couple of days, Chief D. Shaw had his resignation letter in front of him. The boss tried to convince his interlocutor that it would be a good idea to spend at least a few days and develop a detailed action plan. He planted the seed of doubt, but did not diminish his determination.
Jeff Bezos put it all on the line. And I was right. The success story of the future billionaire has begun.
Famous projects of Jeff Bezos
1. Amazon
A check for $300,000 from my parents was only 6% of the amount required. The rest was scraped together.
Soon Jeffrey and his wife were negotiating with a lawyer in Seattle about registering a new company. By the way, they called her “Kadabra,” which the lawyer really didn’t like. After a week of thought, the young couple settled on the name Amazon: streams flow into rivers, rivers into rivers, rivers rush water into the endless ocean.
In the company's office, set up in a rented house with two bedrooms and a garage where they managed to place three computers, work began in strictly secret conditions on the website of a new online store. McKinsey took over personnel and accounting.
In June 1995, the first version of the store was launched at www.amazon.com:99. The database contained millions of titles of various book products. Testing took place with the participation of company employees and three hundred volunteers who swore an oath not to disclose the secret until hour “X”. On July 16, the website www.amazon.com was revealed to the world.
The testing was so successful, without a single glitch, that the first days showed that this was a victory! A year later, Wall Street Journal presented Amazon as the most successful online business of the season. Work to improve the site did not stop for a minute, new functions appeared, hitherto unheard of:
- one-click purchase;
- customer reviews;
- Possibility to check your order by email.
Today no one doubts the success and brilliant prospects of the project. Stable growth of shares has been ensured since 1997, multi-billion dollar turnover, investors don’t even have to be persuaded. When did Amazon become a member? stock market, its shares were valued at $1.50. After 19 months, their value rose to $242.75, and after another three weeks - about $400.
Now Amazon is not just a chain book supermarket. This business has become multifaceted. The company is worth more than $245 billion. Here you can order any goods: music and movies, games and programs, even furniture and lunches. That's more than 150,000 employees around the planet. The company's profits are rarely returned to shareholders; Bezos reinvests the profits. Amazon is one of the ten most valuable companies in the world.
“There are two types of companies: those that work to try to charge more, and those that work to try to charge less. We will be second." Quoting D. Bezos
When news of the company's move from "Earth's Largest Bookstore" to "World's Largest Store" became known, there were those who believed that the company's growth was unreasonably rapid. But there were others who called Bezos' strategy one of the smartest in business history.
“There are six core values: customer obsession, ownership, action bias, frugality, high level hiring and innovation." J. Bezos
Amazon presents:
- 2007 - electronic reading device - Kindle, using "E Ink" technology to visualize text in printed form, allowing you to purchase, download, read and store complete books and various documents via a wireless Internet connection.
- 2011 - Kindle Fire mini tablet computer with color touchscreen, competing with iPad.
- 2012 - Amazon Studios, which allows you to present television programs through an online video service; Kindle Fire HD is the next generation of tablet.
Here you can learn more about the history of Amazon and its creator.
2. Blue Origin
Thanks to the success of Amazon, Bezos has realized his dream, which has been central to him for many years since childhood. He founded an aerospace company. And this happened in 2004. The company is testing the New Shepard multi-deck rocket engine at its own research campus outside Seattle and at a rocket plant in West Texas. The tests are being conducted as part of NASA's Commercial Command Program (CCP).
Blue Origin's goal is to launch spaceship called New Shepard. it contains a module for a crew of three or more astronauts and a power section. The company's long-term plans include orbital flights.
He is even called a space junkie. As a teenager, he told the local newspaper about humanity evacuating Earth. In another interview with the Miami Herald in 1982, he stated that he intended to build colonies, hotels, and amusement parks in space for two or three million people who would end up on space orbit. His idea is to save the Earth.
Bezos is confident and has no doubts about it that only in space are the fastest and largest profits and the most high-profile startups now possible. There are those who believed that this was just a toy, a funny, expensive one, but a toy, and they predicted ruin for him along the way. And after some 3 years Jeff was already ranked 35th on the list richest people Forbes magazine. Today his fortune is more than $87 billion.
3. The Washington Post
Bezos' name appeared in headlines around the world on August 5, 2013, when he acquired The Post for $250 million. Reign of four generations of the Graham family over Washington Post Co. ended.
This is not an easy business. This newspaper is a "public trust" whose value goes beyond profit and loss. Bezos ensured that the newspaper would remain the same for readers. In addition to the leading newspaper The company Washington Post, published daily in the capital, the deal included the acquisition of several local Washington DC newspapers.
By the way, the purchase was made by Bizes as a principal of Amazon. According to his own statement, this is not the result of an intention to turn into a newspaper magnate, but only a one-time purchase. It was a personal suggestion from Don Graham, whom Jeff had known for 15 years. The newspaper had fallen on hard times, and Bezos didn't try to be particularly careful; he simply paid the price.
“In my personal investments, I mainly do what interests me. And passionate. In many cases, I don't necessarily expect them to be good investments." Quoting D. Bezos
This is not to say that Jeff was an absolute success. There were also failures in his life. The main ones:
- $175 million investment deal with LivingSocial;
- Amazon Fire phone.
But successes outweigh everything. Bezos calls Prime, Marketplace and AWS his most enduring inventions.
- Prime is a membership club where customers, for an annual fee, have access to Amazon services ranging from one-hour delivery to... unique programs, like Ripper Street, from streaming music to borrowing Kindle books;
- Marketplace is an opportunity for anyone to sell their products on the Amazon site or supply Amazon products to international markets;
- AWS (Amazon Web Services) is the company's business-oriented cloud computing platform.
Jeff insists that each is more innovative than the other, but Prime calls it the most important, although some describe it as a loss leader.
Jeff Bezos is not called the king of the New Economy for nothing. For the first time he became one of the three richest people in the world in terms of Forbes version with a fortune of 72.8 billion dollars, and was second only to Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, who remains first, and Jeff was only 3 billion short of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett with 75.6 billion in 2nd place.
As of July 19, 2017, Bezos's fortune was already estimated at $87.3 billion. And this puts him in second place in the world.
And he and his wife Mackenzie continue to live in the Seattle area, increasingly engaged in philanthropic activities.
Jeffrey Preston Bezos (Jeff Bezos) was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque (New Mexico, USA).
Education
In 1986, he graduated from Princeton University with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science.
Labor activity
He began his career on Wallt Street in his specialty, developing networks for international trade.
Then he took the post of vice president at D. E. Shaw & Co, which he left in the summer of 1994.
At the end of 1994, traveling from New York to Seattle, he founded the online store Amazon.com with an investment of $300 thousand. The Amazon website launched on July 16, 1995, as an online bookstore. The company grew and in 1997 Amazon.com went public. Over time, it has expanded to become the world's largest online retailer, and its range now includes a huge number of products and services, including video and audio broadcasts. Today it is also the world's largest cloud service provider through Amazon Web Services.
In 2000, already a successful businessman, he founded the aerospace company Blue Origin. In 2015, it began test flights into space, and by the end of 2018, Blue Origin had plans for commercial suborbital flights with people.
In 2013, the billionaire made a purchase for $250 million - he acquired an American Publishing House The Washington Post.
He manages his other business investments through the Bezos Expeditions venture fund.
In 1999 the American Time magazine was named man of the year. In the ranking of the most influential people world 2018 according to Forbes ranked fifth.
Personal condition
On November 24, 2017, he became the richest person in the world with a fortune of $100.3 billion. In 2018, he became the richest person according to Forbes, taking first place with a fortune of $150 billion.
Interesting Facts
He starred in one of the scenes in the film “Star Trek Beyond” as an alien.
Family status
Since 1993, he has been officially married to Mackenzie. Over the years life together(25 years old) the couple had three sons and stepdaughter from China.
On January 9, 2019, the billionaire announced that he was getting a divorce. As the media write, marriage contract the couple did not enter into a contract, so the entire fortune of the richest inhabitant of the planet will be divided in half. In addition, the couple owns 400 acres of land, which makes the Bezoses second largest landowners in USA. It is not yet known how the value of the land will be assessed.
Books about a businessman
0 July 28, 2017, 5:29 pmThe Forbes rating, released the other day, greatly pleased the 53-year-old founder of the company Amazon Jeff and Bezos: the magazine named him the richest man in the world. However, he did not last long in first place: just a few hours later, Bezos lost to the head Microsoft to Bill Gates, whom he overtook first. Now Jeff is "only" the second richest man in the world. the site talks about an ambitious billionaire who created one of the largest Internet services and is now interested in space.
Childhood
Jeffrey Preston Bezos was born on January 12, 1964. His mother, Jacqueline, was only 17 years old at the time and still in school. But pregnancy forced the girl to change her plans: she got married and focused on her family. The marriage lasted only a year.
A couple of years later, Jacqueline got married again, and this time successfully: she got along with her second husband, Cuban immigrant Miguel Bezos. strong relationships. Miguel adopted Jeffrey and gave him his last name.
The only important thing is that I treat him like a real father. And I remember that he is not my biological father only when I need to fill out medical documents. And it’s great that everything turned out this way. I'm not at all ashamed of this
— Jeff said in an interview with Wired magazine in 1999.
Bezos spent his entire childhood on a farm with his maternal grandparents in Texas. His grandfather, Lawrence Preston "Pop" Geese, worked regional director in the Commission on atomic energy USA and became a role model in Jeff's eyes.
My grandfather taught me that being kind is more difficult than being smart.
Since childhood, the future billionaire valued his freedom very much: at the age of six, he made an alarm that would go off if anyone tried to enter his room without permission - Bezos grew up as a gifted child
Education and work
Jeff Bezos did well in school and passed all final exams excellently. He decided to enroll at Princeton University, where he realized that his field of activity was information Technology. In 1986, he successfully graduated from the university and immediately began working.
Where did Amazon start?
Bezos's first job after university was on Wall Street. The graduate worked as an IT specialist. Soon Jeff began to study international trade and developing a network for it. Until 1994, Bezos was vice president of the prestigious D.E. Shaw & Co. However, at some point, Jeff realized that the future belonged to online trading, and decided to open his own store. He quit his job and started own project. And he was right: within a month after opening, his Amazon online store was delivering books throughout the United States and to more than 40 countries. Every year the company grew and became more and more successful, and more and more new items appeared in the assortment. Amazon is now one of the most successful online stores in the world, selling almost everything under the sun.
There are two types of companies: those that strive to charge more from their customers, and those that demand less from them. We belong to the second type,
— the billionaire says about his company.
State
According to analysts, Bezos's fortune is now $89 billion. He is the second richest person in the world after Bill Gates.
I think frugality drives innovation, just as much as other inhibitors do. There are only a few ways to get out of a difficult situation, and one of them is to invent your own way of doing it.
Expensive hobby
Jeff Bezos is a science fiction lover and also has a passion for space. He proved the first by starring in one of the scenes of the film Star Trek Beyond as an alien, and the second by financing the Blue Origin project, which specializes in launching private spaceships.
Jeff's plans are to create a large reusable orbital ship and finally conquer space.
Construction of a production facility for the New Glenn heavy launch vehicle is full on the move,
— Bezos wrote on his Instagram account.
Jeff, of course, is also interested in sports: he plays tennis very well. And I even know Anna Kournikova!
Personal life
The billionaire’s personal life is also fine: he has been married to writer Mackenzie since 1992. The years of marriage turned out to be fruitful for both: Jeff founded an online store, and his wife published two books - "The Trial of Luther Albright" and "Traps", one of which received an American literary prize. The main achievement of the couple is their four children - three natural sons and an adopted daughter from China.
Photo Gettyimages.ru
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has overtaken Bill Gates to become the richest person in the world, Forbes Real Time data shows. As of 17:00 Moscow time, his fortune is $90.5 billion, which is $500 million more than the founder of Microsoft.
Bezos' rise to the top was helped by the growth in the stock price of the Internet giant he founded (the businessman now owns 17% of the company's shares) - on July 27, Amazon shares rose in price by 1.6%, increasing Bezos' fortune by $1.4 billion. This was enough to surpass Gates, who last year was displaced from first place by the owner of the Inditex holding, Amancio Ortega, for two days.
Forbes began counting the fortunes of billionaires around the world in 1987. Bezos became the seventh person to become the world's richest person and the third American to lead a global Forbes rating. In addition to Bezos and Gates, the first place in the ranking was occupied by the head of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett.
Bezos first appeared on the Forbes 400 in 1998, a year after Amazon went public. At that time, his fortune was estimated at $1.6 billion. In the ranking of the richest people in the world according to Forbes in 2017, he took third place with $72.8 billion.
But Bezos would not have become the richest man in the world if Gates had not donated a significant portion of his fortune to philanthropy. In June 2010, Gates and Buffett launched the philanthropic campaign The Giving Pledge. All who join it undertake to give most of his fortune to charity. Throughout my life founder of Microsoft donated $32.9 billion for these purposes. At the same time, Bezos did not join this campaign, but at the end of 2015 he donated about $100 million to charity.
Bezos studied at Princeton and then worked at a hedge fund before launching Amazon in Seattle in 1994. Since then, Amazon has grown from an online bookstore into one of the world's largest online retailers. He also offers cloud services through Amazon Web Services. Bezos' other assets include the aerospace company Blue Origin and the Washington Post.
Gates' wealth came from Microsoft, which he founded in 1975 with his friend Paul Allen. Gates sold most of his stake in Microsoft but still owns about 2% of the company, worth $12.4 billion, just under 14% of his fortune. His investment company Cascade Investments invests in a wide variety of assets, including government stocks, real estate, etc. Gates owns stakes in companies such as Canadian National Railway, Ecolab and Mexican Coke bottler Femsa.
Jeff Bezos has surpassed Bill Gates Jeff Bezos is the richest person in history CNN TV channel. By January 10, Bezos's fortune, according to the BBI index The Bloomberg Billionaires Index(Bloomberg billionaire ranking) reached $106 billion.
Bezos is not only a successful person, but also a multifaceted one. In addition to the famous online platform Amazon, he owns the equally famous publication The Washington Post and the aerospace company Blue Origin. And he is modest: interviews with him can be counted literally on one hand. However, a couple of months ago, Jeff Bezos spoke candidly with TechCrunch and revealed several important secrets success.
1. Choose your wife or husband carefully
Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos have been married for 24 years. Before meeting Mackenzie, Jeff tried more than once to improve his personal life. Even on the recommendation of friends, I went on blind dates. However, to no avail. Only later did it become clear that he was looking for very specific traits in women - the ability to be a muse and ingenuity.
I needed a woman who could pull me out of the category of second-class people, give me an idea, help me implement it,” explains Jeff. - With Mackenzie, it only took me just a couple of sentences to understand that she is inventive, and that’s exactly what I was looking for. No options.
2. Stop multitasking
I try to take turns doing things. If I have lunch with friends or family, I have lunch. If I read email- I am reading. “And I don’t want to be distracted by anything else,” says the billionaire.
I like maximum concentration on what I'm doing.
Jeff Bezos
By the way, multitasking is real, so Bezos is absolutely right here.
3. Prefer risk and adventure to comfortable inaction.
Each of us has two plots according to which our life can develop. life story. The first is a safe and comfortable life. The second is risky, full of experiments, ups and downs. Bezos clearly chooses the second option.
In 1994, he worked as a financial software developer on Wall Street. It was good comfortable work, which provided Jeff with “bread and butter” and allowed him not to worry about the future.
When one fine day Bezos suddenly told his boss that he wanted to quit to open his own online store, the boss was sincerely amazed: “This is really good idea. But it would be good for someone who doesn't have your job and your status. Are you really ready to give up everything? Jeff was ready.
Describing the path that ultimately led him to create Amazon, Bezos says the following: “I knew that when I turned 80, I would not regret taking a risk. Only when I saw what the Internet was, I realized: this is exactly what could turn my life around. You just need to get involved. Even if I failed, I would despise myself less than if I had not tried.”
In business, the question is often asked: “Why?” This good question. But much more valuable: “Why not?”
Jeff Bezos
4. Always have alternative options.
When asked who he would be if the Amazon venture had failed, Bezos gives two answers at once.
First: “I would most likely be a very happy programmer. I’m no stranger to starting from scratch.”
Second: “I have a fantasy that I could become a bartender. A very good bartender. True, very slow. I love making cocktails, I approach it with the utmost care, like an art. I would make slowness my thing. There would be a sign in my bar that said, “Do you want it fast or do you want it good?”
5. Remember: defeats are necessary in order to learn from them.
In their approach to raising children, Jeff and his wife use rather controversial, but effective methods. So, the Bezos allowed their heirs to use sharp knives from 4 years old. A little later, the kids got access to power tools.
What would make most responsible parents raise their hair, Jeff justifies this: “Whoever does not make mistakes and does not feel the bitterness and pain of his mistakes loses the opportunity to learn. I would rather be the father of a child with nine fingers than a child who does not have the opportunity to experience the real world."
6. Maintain a work-life balance
Bezos is a proponent of the concept. “In this context, I prefer not ‘balance’, but ‘harmony,’” he clarifies. - Work and personal life should be independent and at the same time complement each other, like yin and yang. If I'm happy at home, it makes me a better employee, a better boss at work. If I am productive and relevant at work, it makes me a more balanced and positive husband and father at home.”
Therefore, by the way, Jeff is categorically against overtime, as well as “family” calls to work time. A harmonious life cocktail, in his understanding, has a key line in the recipe: do not mix.
7. Preserve childlike curiosity
The world is so complex that sometimes you have to become a real expert in this or that matter in order to find a solution, says Jeff Bezos. - Unfortunately, once you become an expert, you risk being trapped by information dogma. You begin to know exactly “how it should be” and lose the opportunity to find out “how it could be.” In order not to fall into this deep dogmatic rut, from which it is then extremely difficult to get out, it is important to maintain childlike curiosity. Again and again, force yourself to ask questions: “Is it possible to do this? And like this? What happens if<…>? All the inventors and discoverers of the world are experts with the mentality of absolute beginners. They never tire of being surprised and looking for new paths even where dogmatists have already built highways.
If you do something interesting, you will probably have critics. If you absolutely can't handle criticism, just don't do anything new or interesting.
Jeff Bezos