Jeff Bezos Education

From groceries to the latest fashion wear and high-end gadgets, Amazon.com has become a one-stop-shop for everything. This e-commerce website is actually the brainchild of Jeff Bezos, an American entrepreneur who actually began his career journey by working with several firms on Wall Street! He took the risk to enter the emerging domain of e-commerce and what ensued is the advent of a globally acclaimed online shopping platform that transformed the way we carry out our daily chores and shopping. This blog brings you the journey of Jeff Bezos education as well as how through Amazon, he successfully targeted the untapped potential that e-commerce possessed!

Full Name	Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen • Jeffrey Preston Bezos
Born	January 12, 1964 (age 58) • Albuquerque • New Mexico
Title/Office	CEO, chairman, and president of Amazon.com (2000–present) • owner of The Washington Post (2013–present) • CEO and chairman of Amazon.com (1999–2000) • CEO, chairman, and president of Amazon.com (1996–1999) • chairman and president of Amazon.com (1994–1996) • senior vice president, D.E. Shaw & Co. (1994–1994)
Founder	Amazon.com • Blue Origin
Notable Family Members	son of Miguel (“Mike”) Bezos • son of Jacklyn (“Jackie”) Bezos • son of Ted Jorgensen • married to Mackenzie Scott (1993–2019) • brother of Mark Bezos • brother of Christina Bezos
Education	Miami Palmetto Senior High School (Miami, Florida) • Princeton University (B.S., 1986)
Founder Of	Amazon.com • Blue Origin

“Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.”

Jeff Bezos’ Educational Journey

A pioneer name in the e-commerce industry, Jeff Bezos was born on 12th January 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Born to a teenage mother Jacklyn Gise Jorgenson, Jeff’s biological father Ted Jorgenson was a unicyclist and was part of a local group that used to perform in the country fairs. Later on, the couple separated and his mother married Mike Bezos. 

From an early age, Jeff showcased an inherent interest in science. As a toddler, the little Jeff once dismantled his own crib with the help of a screwdriver. His passion for machines grew with age and later on, he even created an electronic alarm to keep his younger siblings off his room. To prosper the budding talent in their kid, Jeff’s parents converted their garage into a science laboratory. 

“If you double the number of experiments you do per year you’re going to double your inventiveness.”

Jeff Bezos education played a key role in fuelling his drive towards innovation. He completed fourth to sixth standard studies in River Oaks Elementary School in Houston. Bezos was very much influenced by his grandfather and considered him his role model. He used to spend his summers at the ranch working rigorously in fixing windmills, laying pipes, etc. During the secondary stage of Jeff Bezos education, a key milestone happened in 10th grade when he started his first business venture called the Dream Institute, an educational summer camp for the students of 4th to 6th grade. In his camp, he taught children about different things and read popular books like Lord of the Rings, Stranger in a Strange Land, Gulliver’s Travels and many more.

Then, his family had to move to Florida hence, Jeff had to switch to Palmetto Senior High School where he completed the rest of his schooling.  He also got invited to be a participant in the Student Science Training Program held at the University of Florida in the year 1982. He won the title of a National Merit Scholar as well as a Silver Knight Award at the end of the program.

“One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”

As he grew more passionate about computers and emerging technologies, he decided to pursue a degree in this field to explore it in further depth. He changed his major from Physics and graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.

The Beginning of Amazon

Completing his graduation from Princeton, he worked with various Wall Street firms like Bankers Trust, Fitel, D.E. Shaw, amongst others. He even became the youngest Vice President of D.E. Shaw in 1990 and while working there, he also met his future wife MacKenzie. At this investment firm, Bezos was in charge of examining and evaluating the investment possibilities of the emerging internet. While exploring the immense potential of the internet, Bezos was amazed by the increasing web usage which sparked his entrepreneurial imagination. He decided to quit D.E. Shaw to invest his time fully towards his business idea of beginning an online bookstore and in 1994, he handed his resignation and moved to Seattle. Jeff Bezos education from an institution like Princeton helped him immensely at this stage as he reached to his friends and classmates and was successfully able to $1 Million for his dream venture. He began his online bookstore named as “Cadabra” on July 5th 1994 which was renamed to awake.com, browse.com, bookmall.com and finally amazon.com as we know it today. He was working out of his garage with a fewer number of employees as he developed the software for the website. 

His virtual bookstore sold its first book in July 1995 and rapidly became popular for its user-friendly interface, discounts offered as well as personalised recommendations, amongst others. It sold a large number of books in 50 states and 45 countries making up a profit of $20,000 a week by the end of September 1995. 

“What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you – what used to be a tailwind is now a headwind – you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn’t a strategy.”

Many years went by as Amazon spread its roots a little deeper. From a bookstore, it expanded and availed ‘Books, Music and More‘. Further, the year 1999 brought an astonishing growth of 900%, as Bezos became a millionaire and was the Time’s Person of the Year.  In October 2002, Bezos added a section of clothing sales to the website. By the year 2003, Amazon became a global leader in e-commerce with sales of more than 3,000 brands over a few clicks. The business kept on expanding and launched Amazon Prime providing 2-days shipping facilities in the USA with a bare minimum annual fee. This led to an expansion of Amazon in the UK, Italy, France and Canada. From Fortune Businessperson in the year 2012 to IAF Excellence in Industry Award, the Amazon CEO achieved many milestones through his transformative business idea blended with his strive for innovation and excellence!

“At Amazon, we like things to work in five to seven years. We’re willing to plant seeds, let them grow and we’re very stubborn. We say we’re stubborn on vision and flexible on details.”

Now that you know the amazing journey of Jeff Bezos education, take a look at our exclusive blog on the Education of Bill Gates!

Thus, Jeff Bezos education truly played an imperative role in augmenting his passion for the nascent computer and internet technologies. At Leverage Edu, we believe in guiding everyone towards actualising their dream career by gaining quality education and world-class opportunities! Sign up for an e-meeting with our experts and get answers to all your career-related queries!