Inspiration: The Wealthiest Guy in the World
Jeff 
Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is the world’s* wealthiest person.
He and a few other technology leaders recently, July 29th – 2020, appeared before U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law.
The Subcommittee was examining the market power and dominance of Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. I’ve included the links to the Subcommittee if the reader cares to read the opening statements of each organization’s leader and, more importantly, in my opinion, “the statements for the record”: These are from several diverse organizations familiar with each of these powerhouses.
I was, and I think you may be inspired, and a little awed by Jeff Bezos’ journey. I’ve provided the link to his statement to the Subcommittee** and I quote below phrases that had an impact on me, I hope you enjoy them:
“I founded Amazon 26 years ago with the long-term mission of making it Earth’s most customer-centric company.”
“My mom, Jackie, had me when she was a 17-year-old high school student in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Being pregnant in high school was not popular in Albuquerque in 1964. It was difficult for her. When they tried to kick her out of school, my grandfather went to bat for her.”
“My dad’s name is Miguel. He adopted me when I was four years old. He was 16 when he came to the United States from Cuba as part of Operation Pedro Pan, shortly after Castro took over. My dad arrived in America alone. His parents felt he’d be safer here. His mom imagined America would be cold, so she made him a jacket sewn entirely out of cleaning cloths, the only material they had on hand. We still have that jacket; it hangs in my parents’ dining room.”
“The initial start-up capital for Amazon.com came primarily from my parents, who invested a large fraction of their life savings in something they didn’t understand… I told them that I thought there was a 70% chance they would lose their investment, and they did it anyway. It took more than 50 meetings for me to raise $1 million from investors, and over the course of all those meetings, the most common question was, “What’s the internet?”
“Since our founding, we have strived to maintain a “Day One” mentality at the company. By that I mean approaching everything we do with the energy and entrepreneurial spirit of Day One.”
Can you imagine your world without Amazon, Google, Facebook, or Apple.
Carlos Dominguez – CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Portfolio Manager, RJFS
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Sources:
Photo by Nikita Kachanovsky, cropped by me.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Billionaires#2020
https://judiciary.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=3113
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