9781422270400

STARTING UP One of the best words to describe Jeff Bezos is innovative. Innovative people see a changing world and develop new ideas or methods to fit into that world. In the early 1990s, the world’s use of computers was growing fast. Personal computers, which had once been very expensive, were now becoming more affordable for everyday people. By the middle of the 1990s, almost everyone had a home computer. Bezos saw a great opportunity and knew it was only a matter of time before other people saw it, too. If he was going to take advantage of this moment, he would have to act fast. Bezos’ willingness to try new things started when he was still young. He was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to a teenage mother, Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen, and his biological father, Ted Jorgensen. His parents were married less than a year, though, and when Jeff was four years old, his mother married Mike Bezos, a Cuban immigrant. As a child, Bezos wanted to understand how things work. He turned his parent’s garage into a laboratory and was constantly building electrical contraptions around his house. Later, as a teenager, he developed a love for computers. His family moved to Miami, Florida, where Bezos did well in school. In high school, he started his first business, the Dream Institute, an educational summer camp for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. He graduated as the valedictorian of his senior class. When Bezos went to college at Princeton University, he decided to pursue his interest in computers there. He graduated with honors in 1986 with degrees in computer science and electrical engineering. After graduation, he found work in the business world on Wall Street. Eventually, Bezos ended up at the investment firm D. E. Shaw,

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AMAZON