Jobs was a music lover (and dated Joan Baez). Thanks to his tin ear, Bezos lost untold billions to Apple’s Steve Jobs. As a Wall Street wunderkind, he kept a sleeping bag in his office.ħ. At age three, Bezos disassembled his crib with a screwdriver. He’s punishing you.” No one in Jeff Bezos’ family has a weird laugh - except his biological dad, who sounds exactly the same.Ħ. “ misunderstand it,” warns ex-Amazon exec Rick Dalzell. Bezos laughs “like a cross between a mating elephant seal and a power tool.”īut don’t be fooled - it’s like Tom Cruise’s smile, a way to hypnotize you and deflect questions, not just to be nice. And Amazon’s distribution centers became futuristically efficient.ĥ. “One worker fired for intoxication and then wet himself while he tried to protest.” If Amazon’s board really maneuvered to dump him as Steve Jobs was dumped from Apple, Stone says, they couldn’t, because he controlled most Amazon stock. Though three board members deny it, other execs called Bezos “impetuous and controlling” and were terrified by his “reckless binge” of spending and the chaos in Amazon warehouses stuffed with $39 million in unsold toys and staffed by temps - some of whom were high on crack or alcohol. Amazon’s board may have tried to dump Bezos after he became Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 1999. After flopping in Hollywood and fatherhood, Bezos’ dad took a $1.25 an hour job.Ĥ. He was stunned his son was worth $25 billion and is the 12th-richest American.

Stone told Jorgensen his son was Jeff Bezos, whom he’d never heard of. Bezos’ mom kicked the deadbeat dad out of their lives. Stone found Bezos’ long-lost biological father, who was a high-wire unicyclist who went to Hollywood to audition for The Ed Sullivan Show.īezos never knew his biological dad, John Jorgensen, a kindly man who didn’t care how much money he made in pursuit of his unicycle dream.

Yet his wife, MacKenzie, a respected novelist, still drives him to work in their Honda after dropping their four kids off at school.ģ. Amazon spends $1.6 million a year on personal security for Bezos and his family.

Jeff bezos and the age of amazon