The life and career rise of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the richest person in modern history (AMZN)

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, reached a new milestone recently: his net worth reached $150 billion, making him, as Bloomberg put it, the richest person in modern history.

As his Amazon empire continues to expand, Bezos continues to amass his fortune. He first nabbed the title of world's richest person last summer, and is now worth $55 billion more than Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

But Bezos' rise to the top is has taken decades. He got his start in the hedge fund world, then left a cushy job to launch his own startup. 

Here's how Bezos got his start, and built one of the largest tech companies in the world.

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Jeff Bezos' mom, Jackie, was a teenager when she had him in January 1964. She had recently married Cuban immigrant Mike Bezos, who adopted Jeff. Jeff didn't learn that Mike wasn't his real father until he was 10, but says he was more fazed about learning he needed to get glasses than he was about the news.

Source: Wired

When Bezos was 4, his mother told his biological father, who previously had worked as a circus performer, to stay out of their lives. When Brad Stone interviewed Bezos' father for Stone's book "The Everything Store," Bezos' dad had no idea who his son had become.

Source: The Everything Store

Bezos showed signs of brilliance from an early age. When he was a toddler, he took apart his crib with a screwdriver because he wanted to sleep in a real bed.

Source: The Everything Store

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Contributer : Tech Insider https://ift.tt/2v0DjTS

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