Published By: Mumpy Chakraborty

Fun facts about Jeff Bezos that you probably didn’t know about

Things that many people don’t know about the richest person on earth

An entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut, Jeff Bezos is the founder of the giant e-commerce company Amazon and the richest person on the earth.  The successful story of Jeff Bezos is as fascinating as inspirational. Coming from a humble background Bezos started his dream company Amazon when he was just 30 years old and within just five years he became a billionaire. Though he is the richest person in the world, when it comes to knowing Bezos, we know very little about him and his struggles. These are some of the fun facts that you probably didn’t know about him

Bezos’ mother was a teenager when she had him

Jeff Bezos' mother, JacklynGise Jorgensen, was only 17 years old and was a junior in high school when she gave birth to Jeff Bezos in 1964. She was even denied permission to finish her education there and was allowed to return under strict conditions. Soon after her graduation Jacklyn Bezos got divorced from Jeff Bezos' biological father, Ted Jorgensen when Bezos was just over a year old.

Bezos' biological father was a circus performer.

Jeff Bezos’ biological father, Ted Jorgensen was a unicyclist and circus performer. In the interview with Brad Stone, who wrote the biography of Jeff Bezos in 2013 named “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon," Jorgensen said that he has not seen his son in decades and hadn't realized he was his biological father. But later he reached out to his son and the two made amends, with Bezos telling him ‘he harboured no ill will towards Jorgensen at all’.

Bezos worked for McDonald’s and started his first business when he was in high school.

Jeff Bezos had a summer job at McDonald’s when he was 16 as a fry cook and launched his first business when he was in high school. He started an educational summer camp for 9 to 12-year-olds called the Dream Institute. Both Bezos and his then-girlfriend used to work on the camp and charged its six attendees US$600 per person.

Bezos started Amazon in his garage.

After getting the prototype website ready, Bezos asked his 300 friends to beta test it. Bezos and a few early employees began developing software for the site in Bezos’ garage. Due to the small space Bezos used to hold meetings at a local Barnes & Noble bookstore. Later the small team expanded their operations and began working out of a two-bedroom house.

Amazon was first named Cadabra

Jeff Bezos wanted to name his dream company Cadabra but was changed to Amazon as his lawyer Todd Tarbert explained to him that the name sounds similar to “cadaver”, which was already an existing company’s name. Later Bezos went with Amazon, which was named after the largest river in the world symbolising amazon as the largest bookstore in the world.