Jeff Bezos
Founder of Amazon.com
Bezos's Rise to Fame
Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, January 12th of 1964. He was born to his mother and father, Jacklyn Gise and Ted Jorgensen. His parents were married for less than a year, and when Jeff was four years old, his mother married his step-father, a Cuban immigrant named Mike Bezos. Growing up, Jeff was intrigued by how things functioned and performed. When he was a teenager, he and his family moved to Miami, where he became valedictorian and began his first business, the Dream Institute. It was an educational camp for students of grades fourth through sixth. He attended Princeton University and graduated in 1986 summa cum laude with a fresh degree in electrical engineering as well as computer science. Straight out of college, he found work in multiple business firms, and he also found his wife Mackenzie working in D.E. Shaw. In 1990 he was named the youngest vice president of the company. Four years after this prestigious nomination, he quit his job, moved to Seattle, joined the world of e-commerce, and began to work on the idea of an online bookstore. He named it "Amazon" after the Amazon River in South America and opened the website on July 16, 1995.
A Few Questions Regarding Leadership
Q: What was an important event in this leader's childhood? How do other people describe him?
A: Definitely when he began his first business, the Dream Institute, an educational camp for students of grades fourth through sixth. Other people, I'm sure, look up to him as a role model because of his ability to just go out there and do something you love.
Q: What elements of leadership are inherent to your leader? How do you know?
A: Perseverance, courage, determination, and initiative. He kept trying to achieve his goal and didn't stop until he did. Even though some people probably thought it would never be possible, he did it anyways.
Q: What elements of leadership did your leader learn during his life? What examples from your leader's life demonstrate those traits?
A: Perseverance, self confidence, determination, and how to take a leap of faith. When he first started with the idea and experimented with how he would go about making it all come together. After being heavily involved in the business world, it took a lot of faith to quit and pursue his dreams of opening an online bookstore.
Q: How did each leadership trait affect the leader's ability to have an impact on others?
A: People who see Amazon.com are just astonished at what he has accomplished. Not only is it an online bookstore, but it sells a massive amount of products completely unrelated to books. You can clearly see how he had to persevere, have confidence in himself, be determined, and show initiative over his ideas and his accomplishments.
Q: What leadership traits do you share with your leader? How might you use those leadership traits in your future?
A: When given a task, I am always determined to get it done and I don't give up until I do. I believe that if I put my mind to it, I can accomplish many things in the future. In the real world, having these traits are very important and people notice if you do because you stand out against the crowd.
Q: Which character trait do you think was most helpful for your leader and why?
A: Self confidence is definitely the most important character trait for a person to have because you may have perseverance and a goal you want to reach, but if you don't believe you can do it, what will you accomplish?
Q: What about him makes you want to follow or emulate him?
A: He is such an inspiration to those who aren't very confident. He displays his accomplishments as so simple to do, and in a way the first step is believing in yourself.
Q: Do leaders have to demonstrate all the leadership traits to be effective? Why or why not?
A: I don't think they have to have all of them necessarily, but you definitely have to be able to do something with the belief that it can be done with a little hard work and time.
Q: List qualities you need to develop in order to be an effective leader.
A: Courage, determination, motivation, perseverance, self confidence, faith in your cause, optimism, honesty, trustworthiness, and adaptability.