Amazon’s Founder & CEO, Jeff Bezos has now beaten Bill Gates again to become the wealthiest man in the world with a total worth of $141.9 billion. Last year, Bezos was beaten by Gates in just a few hours to become the richest man in the world again. However, since the start of June this year, Bezos’s net worth has grown by $5 billion making him $49 billion richer than Bill Gates and $60 billion than Warren Buffet.
Earlier this year, Bezos helped Amazon become the second most valuable company and also dethroned Apple & Google to have the most positive impact in the society. His success can be traced back to his decision to quit his job and kickstart his own business at the age of 30.
Being a straight-A student and a class valedictorian, Bezos got accepted to Princeton via early admissions to pursue computer science and electrical engineering. After completing his education, Bezos worked at an array of finance and tech firm. When he was serving as the Vice President of D.E. Shaw, Bezos had a light bulb moment to sell books over the internet. He discussed this internet bookstore idea with his boss who appreciated the idea but also pointed out the significant risk of compromising a stable job to pursue this idea.
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Bezos was inspired to see how internet usage was increasing 2300 percent per year. He has never heard about something that grew this fast. His idea to build an online bookstore with millions of titles excited him more. Something like this could not be possible in the offline world. That’s when Bezos reflected if his 80-year-old self will regret not seizing this opportunity. What followed rest is now history.
In 1994, Bezos quit his job to follow his entrepreneurial aspirations. Three years later, Amazon had gone public. Since the company’s debut, Amazon has been rising exponentially in the Fortune 500 ranks to come close to its ultimate competitor, Walmart. This year, Amazon made history for the first time breaking into the top 10 listing of Fortune 500, ranking 8th amongst the biggest American company.
With this ranking, Amazon has gone up four ranks since its last year’s 12th spot. In 2002, Amazon made its debut on the Fortune 500 list at 492nd rank, the same year Walmart first landed the top spot in the list and continues to do so. In a span of 16 years, Amazon is catching up with the biggest American company. With its exponential progress and constant innovation, it is only a matter of time that it beats Walmart.
