Millionaire Spotlight

Well, it is Friday and we are back on track for our Millionaire Spotlight. Tonight we are going to look at the Forbes Ranked 18th richest American (and ranked 43rd in the world), Jeff Bezos. Each week we spotlight a millionaire and see what business points we can learn from these people. Many of the millionaires we spotlight started from humble beginnings, like you and I. The difference is in how they managed to build their fortunes. Hopefully as we continue to spotlight various Millionaires both in the United States and around the world, you will find some pearl of wisdom that will help you too to build your personal business into a million dollar industry.

Have you heard of Jeff Bezos? He is a self-made millionaire and is the founder of Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico January 12, 1964. When Jeff was born, his mother was still in her teens. Her marriage to his birth father lasted a little more than a year. His mother eventually remarried by the time Jeff turned 4. His stepfather was a Cuban refugee and had escaped to the U.S. alone at the age of 15. His stepfather, Mike Bezos, worked his way through the University of Albuquerque and ultimately became an engineer for Exxon. Jeff's grandparents had a 25,000 acre ranch where Jeff spent much of his summers working.

Early on, Jeff Bezos showed great mechanical aptitude. He developed many scientific interests and continuously worked on a variety of science projects. It was in high school that Jeff discovered and fell in love with computers. He entered Princeton University planning on studying physics, but ended up returning to his first love, computers. He graduated with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering.

After graduation, Jeff Bezos began work on Wall Street, where the demand for computer science was growing quickly. He remained in the financial realm, first with Bankers Trust, and then at D.E. Shaw which specialized in applications of computer science to the stock market. It was at D.E. Shaw where in the spring of 1994 Jeff discovered that Internet usage was increasing by 2,300 percent a year. He saw a new opportunity for business and immediately began considering possibilities. As he searched various mail order companies, he found that books had no comprehensive mail order catalog. Since a comprehensive book catalog was never economically feasible to mail, the Internet became a perfect tool. A vast book database could be maintained, and a limitless number of people could access that book database. That was the beginning of the concept of Amazon.com.

After more research with booksellers to learn everything he could about the book business, Jeff and his wife decided to go into business for themselves and compile a comprehensive book catalog. He and his wife decided to name the new company Amazon, for the seemingly endless South American river with numberless branches. They set up their new business in a 2-bedroom home with computers on tables made from door blanks. July 16, 1995 Jeff Bezos opened Amazon.com to the world. Within 30 days, with no actual advertising, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries. By September of that year, it had sales of $20,000 a week.

In order to continue growth, Jeff increased his market share as quickly as possible, at the expense of initial profits. He wanted to be more than "Earth's biggest bookstore" and really wanted to be "Earth's biggest anything store". Throughout this growth, Jeff Bezos focused on his 6 core values - customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, frugality, high hiring bar and innovation. His company vision was to be "the world's most customer-centric company. The place where people come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

Jeff's focus on his Six Core Values is something we can all apply to our own businesses. These are not difficult concepts, and implemented honestly and consistently will help you to build and grow your home based business too. As you can see, Jeff is always looking for more innovations to provide his customers an even better buying experience. Amazon.com has become a household name. Another wise action that Jeff Bezos took was to reinvest in his company. Instead of spending the early company profits on personal "toys", Jeff reinvested those profits back into his company to continue to grow and develop it. We can all take a page from Jeff's playbook and most likely make our own businesses more profitable also.

Good luck in continuing to grow your small or home based business. Hopefully these Millionaire Spotlights will provide some spark of innovation, or inspiration for you to move your business to the next level.

If you are looking for some second income opportunities and have no idea what you might want to do, our website might be of some assistance. Please feel free to e-mail us with any of your questions. We would love to hear from you.

Until tomorrow...