Today, the world has changed. It is not because of some environmental crisis, even though that’s happening in the meantime, but this is something big. News is so big that this man inspired millions to achieve with struggle and hard work, To always pay for your dreams with a deep sense of motivation. The sone man changed the industry and the world at the same time. One of the world’s earliest and fastest-growing entrepreneurs is back into the news, and this time it is no because he is now richer than ever or if the stock rose, but because the man is leaving a position so wanted by many, to brighter minds. Yes, we’re talking about Jeff Bezos, the man who founded Amazon.
Jeff Bezos built a legacy that was greater in proportion and ambitions. From trying to start a book shop online with an infinite catalog to selling various products online. Amazon has gone far and ahead in terms of scale, and it has defeated many of those people who had doubted the Company’s growth and success. Jeff Bezos struggled to find an investor who could give him funding for his dream project in his prime days. Many laughed over this idea stating that the online stream was new, and many investors didn’t even know what it could give them back. They advised him that he could be cheated, and people can’t trust the system for now. Jeff Bezos still stuck to his ambition and never gave up (1).
In a world where we strive to achieve our goals, the complexity of one trying to go forward and achieve that is insane. Why because of the time and mental strength it takes to go from zero to one. Even that takes at least seven to eight years. Jeff Bezos laid the foundation for startups to be brave in their ideas. If you see any young entrepreneur who had been ever asked why they ever ventured to a startup, their answer would always be to become like Jeff Bezos; such was the inspiration that this man delivered to younger minds and struggling minds. Even in his interviews, he advised the youth and investors always to value each other’s presence since they are progressing for the greatness of different sizes. Jeff Bezos, the man who went from nothing to being the richest man on the planet, certainly has a life worth being told off in various mediums and platforms (2).
Now, Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO of Amazon. As soon as the news broke, he was trending everywhere on social media, and celebrities worldwide wished for his welfare and best wishes in life. Jeff Bezos has built a mountain of legacy and hope and employed millions across the globe. Today, he stands as the forerunner of a great dream, a billion-dollar dream for many to grab a chunk of that and progress on with motivation and hard work. Leaving Amazon may not be a daunting task, but what could Amazon look like in the future without the man who shaped it?
The man, the legacy – Jeff Bezos
Bezos was born in Albuquerque, which is located in New Mexico, on January 12, 1964. He was named Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen at birth. At the age of four, Miguel Bezos adopted his surname, and his surname was changed to Bezos. The family moved to Houston, which is in Texas. In high school, the family moved to Miami, Florida (3). The founder and head of the e-commerce company Amazon, The Washington Post, and founder of the Blue Origin space exploration company, is Jeff Bezos, an entrepreneur and e-commerce pioneer. His successful business ventures turned him into one of the world’s richest people. Bezos had a strong desire and passion for computers, and at Princeton University, he studied computer science and electrical engineering. After graduating, he worked with Wall Street companies and became the youngest senior vice president at the investment company, D.E. Shaw, in 1990. Four years later, Bezos left his lucrative job to open Amazon.com, an online bookstore that has become one of the greatest success examples on the Internet (4).
On July 16, 1995, after asking 300 buddies to beta test his site, Bezos started Amazon.com, named after its longest South American river. A few employees initiated developing software with Bezos in his garage in the months leading up to the launch; they eventually expanded operations into a two-bedroom house equipped with three Sun Microstation. The Company’s initial success was meteoric. Within 30 days, Amazon.com sold books throughout the United States and 45 foreign countries with no press promotion. Sales reached 20,000 dollars within a week in two months, growing faster than Bezos and his startup team had envisaged (5).
In 1997, Amazon.com went public, leading many market analysts to question whether, when traditional retailers launched their e-commerce sites, the Company could hold its own. The startup grew higher and outpaced rivals two years later, becoming an e-commerce leader. By selling a major deal of music and videos in 1998, and subsequent clothing, electronics, toys, and more through major retail partnerships, Bezos continued to diversify Amazon’s offerings. Although many early ’90s dot. Coms went bust; Amazon flourished with annual sales that jumped from 510,000 dollars in 1995 to more than 17 billion dollars in 2011.
Amazon’s ventures
Amazon.com introduced its video-on-demand service in 2006. Initially known on TiVo as Amazon Unbox, it was ultimately rebranded as Amazon Instant Video. With the introduction of Amazon Studios in 2013, Bezos debuted several original programs. With the critically-acclaimed movie, Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle, the Company grew fame in 2014. In 2015, his media company produced and released Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq, its first original new movie. In 2007, the Company announced the Kindle, a handheld digital book reader that enabled users to purchase, download, read, and store their selected books. With the Kindle Fire launch in 2011, Bezos managed to enter Amazon into the global tablet market (6).
Bezos made headlines in early December 2013 when he unveiled Amazon’s new, experimental initiative, called Amazon Prime Air (7), using drones to provide clients with delivery services. He said these drones would be capable of carrying items weighing up to five pounds and traveling within ten miles of the Company’s distribution center. On December 7 of 2016, the first Prime Air delivery took place in Cambridge, England. When the Company launched the Fire Phone later in 2015, Bezos oversaw one of Amazon’s few major missteps. Criticized for being too gimmicky, the following year, it was discontinued. Bezos was targeting the market for delivery services, and Amazon confirmed in 2017 that it had purchased the Whole Foods grocery chain for 13 billion dollars. For as little as two hours, based on the market, the Company started offering in-store deals to Amazon Prime customers and grocery delivery. As a result, Walmart and Krogers have also started offering their clients food delivery.
Bezos hit the headlines internationally on August 5, 2013, when he purchased The Washington Post for 250 million dollars and other associated publications. The agreement led to the end of the four-generation Graham family’s influence of The Post, including Donald E. Graham, the Company’s chairman, and Katharine Graham. Hundreds of journalists and editors were appointed by Bezos, and the paper’s technology staff increased. The organization had many scoops. By 2016, it was financially viable, the organization said. As per ComScore, Amazon soon surpassed The New York Times’ digital inactive visitors, with 86.4 million daily visitors since June 2019 (8).
In 2000, Bezos established Blue Origin, an aerospace company developing technologies to reduce interstellar travel costs to make it available to paying customers. The Company has been in operation quietly for a decade and a half. He defined a vision of human beings not only going to visit but ultimately colonizing space. In 2017, Bezos pledged to sell around 1 billion dollars of Amazon stock yearly to fund Blue Origin (9). Two years later, he introduced the Blue Origin Lunar Rovers and said the Company was trying to conduct flight tests to its suborbital New Shepard rocket that would take tourists to orbit for a few minutes. In 2018, Bezos introduced the Bezos Day One Fund, which focuses on ‘funding existing non-profitable organizations that helps the homeless and creating a network of new, non-profit schools in low-income communities. Bezos founded an organization with MacKenzie before they divorced and donated 2 billion dollars of his fortune to fund the non-profit.
On January 30, 2018, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan issued a joint press release announcing plans to group their resources to form a new healthcare company for their employees. According to the release, the Company will be “free from profit-making incentives and constraints” as it seeks to find ways to reduce costs and increase patient satisfaction, with an initial focus on technology solutions. On February 17, 2020, Bezos announced the Bezos Earth Fund launch to combat climate change’s potentially devastating effects (10).
Stepping down as CEO
In February 2021, Amazon announced that Bezos would step down as CEO in the third quarter of the year. He’s going to move to the Executive Chair of the Amazon Board. Under Bezos’ leadership, Amazon has developed from an up-to-date online bookshop to one of the world’s most popular internet markets, which can quickly deliver a wide array of goods and services. Bezos’ creation managed to help put into motion huge changes to the way people from around the world shop, as people started purchasing toothpaste from car parts to grocery stores on their PCs and phones. Amazon also sparked a change in physical retail, accelerating the shutting down of shopping malls and stores.
Bezos, who turned 57 last month, established a shift to Andy Jassy last summer when the Company reported that one of its potential successors, Jeff Wilke, would soon retire. That opened the way for Andy Jassy to take on the job of CEO. Andy Jassy is a clear choice for top jobs, especially after Jeff Wilke, head of the Company’s global consumer division and another veteran Amazon leader, announced his retirement in August. Jassy has long been a member of Amazon’s elite S-team, leadership group, overseeing the growth of AWS into a profit center and the world’s largest cloud services provider.
Though Andy Jassy might be the new CEO, it still doesn’t mean anything would change that big. Amazon’s share price won’t change, and the Company will still run as strong as it used to be. Jeff Bezos is just stepping down as CEO but still will oversee the executive actions at Amazon. The Company is said to be in good hands with Andy Jassy, the CEO of AWS. AWS is a cloud service provider which gained critical acclaim in recent times. Such a company was established in association with Amazon has been getting its work done through AWS. AWS is very famous, especially with huge corporates, and Jeff was sure that Amazon will continue to grow better than ever in his hands.
