Jeff Bezos turns 58 today. Here's how he built Amazon into a $1.7 trillion company and became one of the world's richest people.

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  • Jeff Bezos began his career as a hedge-funder in New York before leaving to start Amazon.

  • Amazon struggled to turn a profit at first, but these days, it's worth $1.7 trillion. Its share price has hit new highs during the pandemic.

  • Along the way, Bezos has faced antitrust scrutiny, weathered scandals, traveled to space, and become one of the world's richest people.

Jeff Bezos' mom, Jackie, was a teenager when she had him on January 12, 1964. She had recently married Cuban immigrant Miguel Bezos, who adopted Jeff. Jeff didn't learn that Miguel wasn't his real father until he was 10, but says he was more fazed about learning he needed to get glasses than he was about the news.

jeff bezos miguel bezos
Jeff Bezos with his father, Miguel Bezos.Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Statue Of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation

Source: Wired

When Bezos was 4, his mother told his biological father, who previously had worked as a circus performer, to stay out of their lives. When Brad Stone interviewed Bezos' biological father for Stone's book "The Everything Store," Bezos' dad had no idea who his son had become.

Ringmaster Monte Carlo circus
Not Jeff Bezos' father.Reuters/Eric Gaillard

Source: The Everything Store

Bezos showed signs of brilliance from an early age. When he was a toddler, he took apart his crib with a screwdriver because he wanted to sleep in a real bed.

Baby crib
Fabian Strauch/picture alliance via Getty Images

Source: The Everything Store

From ages 4 to 16, Bezos spent summers on his grandparents' ranch in Texas, doing things like repairing windmills and castrating bulls.

jeff bezos young 1999
AP Photo/Richard Drew

Source: The Everything Store

His grandfather, Preston Gise, was a huge inspiration for Bezos and helped kindle his passion for intellectual pursuits. At a commencement address in 2010, Bezos said Gise taught him "it's harder to be kind than clever."

jeff bezos
Jeff Bezos.AP Images

Source: Business Insider

Bezos fell in love with reruns of the original "Star Trek" and became a fan of later versions too. Early on, he considered naming Amazon MakeItSo.com, a reference to a line from Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

star trek
Paramount Pictures

Source: The Everything Store

In school, Bezos told teachers "the future of mankind is not on this planet." As a kid, he wanted to be a space entrepreneur — now, he owns a space-exploration company called Blue Origin.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin
Getty Images / Blue Origin

Source: Wired

After spending a miserable summer working at McDonald's as a teen, Bezos, together with his girlfriend, started the Dream Institute, a 10-day summer camp for kids. They charged $600 a kid and managed to sign up six students. The "Lord of the Rings" series made the required reading list.

Jeff Bezos Thumb
Kim Kulish/Getty images

Source: Wired

Bezos eventually went to college at Princeton University and majored in computer science. Upon graduation, he turned down job offers from Intel and Bell Labs to join a startup called Fitel.

Princeton University
Princeton University.John Greim / Getty Images

Source: The Everything Store

After he quit Fitel, Bezos considered partnering with Halsey Minor — who would later found CNET — to launch a startup that would deliver news by fax.

fax
Karl Baron/Flickr

Source: Wired

Instead, he got a job at the hedge fund D.E. Shaw. He became a senior vice president after only four years.

india stock market

Source: The Everything Store

Meanwhile, Bezos was taking ballroom dancing classes as part of a scheme to increase his "women flow." Just as Wall Streeters have a process for increasing their "deal flow," Bezos thought analytically about meeting women.

Ballroom dancing
Lisi Niesner/Reuters

Source: The Everything Store

He married MacKenzie Tuttle, a D.E. Shaw research associate, in 1993. The couple had four kids together.

Jeff Bezos + Mackenzie
AP

Source: The Everything Store

In 1994, Bezos read that the web had grown 2,300% in one year. This number astounded him, and he decided he needed to find some way to take advantage of its rapid growth. He made a list of 20 possible products to sell online and decided books were the best option.

girl in bookstore
Paul Falardeau

Source: The Everything Store

Bezos decided to leave D.E. Shaw even though he had a great job. His boss at the firm, David E. Shaw, tried to persuade Bezos to stay. But Bezos was already determined to start his own company — he felt he'd rather try and fail at a startup than never try at all.

amazon bezos
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is silhouetted during a presentation of his company's new Fire smartphone at a news conference in Seattle, Washington June 18, 2014.REUTERS/Jason Redmond

Source: Wired

And so Amazon was born. MacKenzie and Jeff flew to Texas to borrow a car from his father, and then they drove to Seattle. Bezos was making revenue projections in the passenger seat the whole way, though the couple did stop to watch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon.

jeff and mackenzie bezos
Sara Jaye/Getty Images

Source: The Everything Store

Bezos started Amazon.com in a garage with a potbelly stove. He held most of his meetings at the neighborhood Barnes & Noble.

Barnes and Noble store
Mike Segar/Reuters

Source: Wired

In the early days, a bell would ring in the office every time someone made a purchase, and everyone would gather around to see whether anyone knew the customer. It took only a few weeks before it was ringing so often they had to make it stop.

jeff bezos young 2001
AP Photo/Andy Rogers

Source: Insider

In the first month of its launch, Amazon sold books to people in all 50 states and in 45 different countries. And it continued to grow: Amazon went public on May 15, 1997.

amazon ipo jeff bezos
Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

Source: Insider

When the dot-com crash came, analysts called the company "Amazon.bomb." But it weathered the storm and ended up being one of the few startups that wasn't wiped out by the dot-com bust.

jeff bezos
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Source: Barron's

Amazon has now gone beyond selling books to offering almost everything you can imagine, including appliances, clothing, and even cloud computing services.

amazon warehouse
An Amazon warehouse.Shutterstock

In the early days, Bezos was a demanding boss and could explode at employees. Rumor has it he hired a leadership coach to help him tone it down.

Jeff Bezos
Amazon's Jeff BezosReuters

Source: Insider

Bezos is known for banning PowerPoint presentations at Amazon. Instead, he requires his staff to turn in papers of a specific length on their proposals to encourage critical thinking over simplistic bullet points.

Pens and paper with the Amazon logo are seen at the logistics center in Brieselang, Germany November 17, 2015. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
Pens and paper with an Amazon logo are seen at the logistics center in BrieselangThomson Reuters

Source: The Everything Store

Bezos is also known for creating a frugal company culture that doesn't offer perks like free food or massages.

Amazon office 61
An Amazon office.Business Insider

In 1998, Bezos became an early investor in Google. He invested $250,000, which was worth about 3.3 million shares when the company went public in 2004. Those would be worth billions today (Bezos hasn't said whether he kept any of his stock after the initial public offering).

Larry Page Sergey Brin
AP

Source: All Things D

What does Bezos do with all his money? In 2012, he donated $2.5 million to defend gay marriage in Washington. More recently, he's pledged $10 billion to fight climate change, donated $200 million to the Smithsonian, and gave $100 million each to the Obama Foundation, chef Jose Andres, and activist Van Jones.

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos.REUTERS/Abhishek N. Chinnappa

Source: The Washington Post, Insider, Insider

Bezos has also donated $42 million and part of his land in Texas to the construction of The Clock Of The Long Now, an underground timepiece designed to work for 10,000 years.

Clock of the Long Now
The Long Now Foundation / Facebook

Source: Insider

In August 2013, Bezos bought The Washington Post for $250 million.

Jeff Bezos
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Source: The Washington Post

And he also spend money on his space company, Blue Origin. Blue Origin made history in 2015 when it became one of the first commercial companies to successfully launch a reusable rocket.

Blue Origin
Blue Origin

Source: Insider

Bezos' interest in flying has gotten him into trouble in the past. In 2003, Bezos almost died in a helicopter crash in Texas while scouting a site for a test-launch facility for Blue Origin.

august 2011 helicopter crash wreckage missouri
This isn't Bezos' helicopter.NTSB

Source: CNN

But in early 2016, he flew his personal jet to Germany to pick up and bring home Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter who had been detained by Iran.

Jeff Bezos
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Source: Insider

Bezos is said to own a 5.35-acre estate on Seattle's Lake Washington that includes 200 yards of shoreline.

Amazon plane Lake Washington
An Amazon-branded Boeing 767 freighter, nicknamed Amazon One, flies over Lake Washington.Stephen Brashear/Getty

Source: Curbed Seattle

He bought a seven-bedroom, $24.5 million mansion in Beverly Hills in 2007. There's a greenhouse, tennis court, pool, and guest house on the property, and it neighbors Tom Cruise's estate.

Jeff Bezos Beverly Hills Home
Bezos' house in Beverly Hills.Dream Homes Magazine

Source: Forbes

In January 2017, Bezos purchased the Textile Museum, a pair of mansions in Washington, DC's Kalorama neighborhood. The property sold for $23 million and is the largest in Washington. Bezos' renovation plans for the house cost $12 million.

Jeff Bezos DC house
AgnosticPreachersKid/Wikimedia Commons

Source: The Washington Post, Insider

Bezos also owns five apartments at 212 Fifth Avenue in New York City. His most recent purchase in the building was last August, when he paid a reported $23 million for a four-bedroom unit, bringing his total real estate holdings in the building to $119 million.

Madison Square Park
Madison Square Park in New York City.Shutterstock

Source: Insider

In February 2020, Bezos became the new owner of the Warner estate, a sprawling compound in Beverly Hills, California, that he reportedly purchased for $165 million. A few months later, Bezos added to the compound with an adjacent house worth $10 million.

Jeff Bezos Warner estate Beverly Hills
Los Angeles County/Pictometry

Source: Insider

In October 2021, Bezos reportedly added to his real estate portfolio once again with a new home in Hawaii. The home is located in an isolated area on Maui's south shore and is near lava fields, Pacific Business News reported.

Maui Hawaii
A home in Maui, Hawaii, although not the one Bezos purchased.ejs9/Getty Images

Source: Insider, Pacific Business News

Now, more than 20 years after going public, Amazon has a market cap of nearly $1.7 trillion.

Jeff Bezos
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.Alex Wong/Getty Images

Source: Markets Insider

In August 2017, Amazon officially acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. The Amazon influence became immediately clear: Customers who are Amazon Prime subscribers can get 10% of sale prices, and you'll see some Amazon branded items offered in stores, including tech products like the popular Amazon Echo line.

whole foods amazon echo
Kate Taylor/Business Insider

Source: Insider

In July 2017, Bezos became the world's richest person for the first time, surpassing Microsoft founder Bill Gates. At the time, his net worth was more than $90 billion.

Jeff Bezos Bill Gates Tennis
Getty Images

Source: Markets Insider, Forbes

Despite his high net worth, Bezos never actually took home a high salary, comparatively speaking: His annual salary while he was CEO came out to $81,840, according to Bloomberg.

Jeff Bezos Sun Valley
Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon, and John Elkann, chairman of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, walk together during the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2018 in Sun Valley, Idaho.Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Source: Bloomberg

In January 2019, Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, announced they were divorcing. "As our family and close friends know, after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends," the couple wrote in the statement. "If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again."

Jeff Bezos MacKenzie Bezos
Dia Dipasupil / Staff

Source: Insider

Shortly after the Bezoses announced their divorce, news broke that Bezos was dating TV host and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez. At the time, the National Enquirer said it had obtained texts and explicit photos the couple had sent to each other.

Lauren Sanchez Jeff Bezos
Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images

Source: Insider

Bezos immediately launched an investigation into who had leaked his personal messages. Soon after, he dropped a bombshell of his own: an explosive blog post accusing National Enquirer publisher AMI of trying to blackmail him. "Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I've decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten," Bezos wrote.

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos.Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Source: Medium

The Bezoses announced on Twitter they had finalized the term of their divorce in April 2019. MacKenzie retained more than $35 billion in Amazon stock, making her one of the world's richest women.

FILE PHOTO: 89th Academy Awards - Oscars Vanity Fair Party - Beverly Hills, California, U.S. - 26/02/17 – Amazon's Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie Bezos. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/File Photo
Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos.Reuters

Source: Insider

Since then, Bezos and Sanchez have had a whirlwind few years, attending Wimbledon together, yachting with other moguls and celebrities, and vacationing in Saint-Tropez and St. Barths.

jeff bezos lauren sanchez
Reuters/Andrew Couldridge

Source: Insider

During the coronavirus outbreak, Amazon saw a surge in demand as more people were forced to shop online. At the same time, the company faced criticism over its treatment of workers and its attention to health and safety at its fulfillment centers nationwide.

Amazon worker protest
Former Amazon employee, Christian Smalls, stands with fellow demonstrators during a protest outside of an Amazon warehouses in the Staten Island borough of New York on May 1, 2020.REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Source: Insider

Amazon delivery drivers, who are contractors employed by third-party companies, have also spoken out about the demands of their jobs. Drivers say Amazon's emphasis on metrics has forced them to use their delivery vans as a bathroom or sacrifice safety to deliver packages on time.

An Amazon driver carrying packages.
An Amazon driver carrying packages.Patrick T. FALLON / AFP

Source: Insider, Insider

The company is also facing antitrust concerns, particularly over the company's treatment of third-party sellers on its platform. Bezos and other major tech CEOs were called to testify before Congress in July 2020.

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos threw his weight behind the US military.AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Source: Insider

After the killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed in 2020, Bezos was outspoken about his support for the Black Lives Matter movement, publicly shaming customers who sent racist emails about his and Amazon's support. In an Instagram post, he posted a screenshot of a customer email and described the man as "the kind of customer I'm happy to lose."

black lives matter sign
A person holds a "Black Lives Matter" sign at a protest in Seattle, Washington on June 1, 2020.Lindsey Wasson/Reuters

Source: Insider

On February 2, 2021, Bezos announced he would step down as Amazon's CEO and transition to executive chairman after 27 years at the helm. Bezos said that he planned to spend more time on philanthropy — including the Bezos Earth Fund and his Day 1 Fund — as well as his two other major endeavors: The Washington Post and his rocket company, Blue Origin.

jeff bezos star trek
Jeff Bezos attends the premiere of "Star Trek Beyond" in 2016.Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Source: Insider

Bezos stepped down in July and embarked on his next adventure: On July 20, he took an 11-minute voyage to the edge of space aboard a Blue Origin spacecraft. He was accompanied by his brother, Mark; a Dutch teenager named Oliver Daemen; and Wally Funk, an 82-year-old aviator who trained to go to space in the '60s but was ultimately denied the opportunity because she was a woman.

Jeff Bezos Blue Origin
Isaiah J. Downing/Reuters

Source: Insider

Allana Akhtar contributed to an earlier version of this story.

Read the original article on Business Insider