{"id":37904,"date":"2021-05-29T15:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T19:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=37904"},"modified":"2021-06-12T15:33:27","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T19:33:27","slug":"jeff-bezos-before-amazon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life &#038; Business Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What was Jeff Bezos childhood like? Where was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon-2\/\">Jeff Bezos before Amazon<\/a>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeff Bezos was born in 1964 and had a messy childhood. He always stood out as a gifted student and he eventually used those gifts to take advantage of new business opportunities on the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading for the timeline of Jeff Bezos&#8217; life before he started Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Jeff Bezos Before Amazon<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What was Jeff Bezos&#8217; life before Amazon? Here is the timeline of Bezos&#8217; life from birth up until he started his online book store called Amazon.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1964: Jeff Bezos is born to a circus unicycler (Ted Jorgensen, then 18) and Jacklyn Gise (then 16).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>June 1965: Jacklyn Gise files for divorce after Jorgensen is unable to hold a job and is an inattentive father. She soon meets Miguel Bezos, a Cuban emigrant, working at the Bank of New Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1968: Jackie moves with Jeff and Miguel to Houston, where Miguel has a job as a petroleum engineer at Exxon. They later have two more children, Christina and Mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Miguel has tireless work ethic, love for America and its opportunities, and a libertarian aversion to government intrusion.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeff Bezos is a standout student in a gifted program in elementary school, which receives excess mainframe computer capacity from a local company. They learn how to program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Jeff is fascinated with space, spurred by the Apollo11 landing and Star Trek.<\/li><li>Jeff spends summers with his grandparents at a ranch in Texas, where he performs everyman jobs (castrating bulls, repairing windmills) and learns the values of self-reliance, resourcefulness, and distaste for inefficiency.<\/li><li>Jeff tells his smoker grandmother that she would die earlier by 9 years. This makes her cry, and his grandfather tells him: \u201cOne day you\u2019ll understand that it\u2019s harder to be kind than clever.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The family moves to Florida. His mother pushes to let Jeff into a middle school gifted program despite a usual mandatory 1-year waiting period. She also supports his dreams of becoming an inventor, taking him to Radio Shack to buy parts to build booby traps and gadgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In high school in Miami, Bezos is known as \u201cextremely disciplined\u201d and focused. He announces that his intention to become valedictorian, and his colleagues understand the race is now who\u2019s going to be #2. Said a classmate: \u201cJeff decided he wanted it and he worked harder than anybody else.\u201d<\/li><li>His curiosity and work ethic take him to a variety of jobs: at McDonald\u2019s, breeding hamsters for a neighbor, and starting a summer school for 10-year-olds exploring science to use \u201cnew ways of thinking in old areas.\u201d<\/li><li>In his high school valedictorian speech, Bezos talks about his desire to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/colonize-the-moon\/\">colonize space<\/a> to secure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-the-future-of-humanity\/\">humanity\u2019s future<\/a>. Bezos attends Princeton for college.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>1986: Bezos graduates from Princeton and works at Fitel, developing a transatlantic computer network for stock traders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1989: Bezos spends a few months on a venture sending a customized newsletter to people over fax machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1990: Bezos joins D. E. Shaw, a finance firm started by computer science professor David E. Shaw in 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Shaw views the firm not as a hedge fund but as <strong>a technology laboratory that could apply computer science to a variety of problems<\/strong>. He started the firm after leaving Morgan Stanley.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Struck by the Internet<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1994: Bezos notices the Web is growing fast &#8211; the number of bytes increased by 2057x fold from the previous year, <\/strong>outpacing other internet technologies at the time, like ftp and gopher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>(Shortform note: the first web browser, Mosaic, was released in 1993)<\/li><li>Bezos, reflecting on this period later: \u201cThings just don\u2019t grow that fast. It\u2019s highly unusual, and that started me thinking, <strong>what kind of business plan might make sense in the context of that growth?<\/strong>\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/BKutJsmm40paQdzDbgUuH0ySZFoMtw88VuKZtkwJBx5epY_DnqsslGTuO4HigCDev9v7VL_d4il68EzHDIVXZ_ARkvJeL24PYY7A4BOb_EyqwRUCe77dLM_ssDiysU6Hf97o9P1G\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(Shortform addition: the image that fascinated Bezos. This journal graph showed Internet protocols and their volume month by month. w, representing the world wide web, is growing exponentially and eclipsing all other protocols.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1994: At D.E. Shaw, Bezos has been running the options trading group and its third-market business, an OTC exchange. Shaw recognizes the opportunity of the Internet and appoints Bezos to research it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>They meet for a few hours each week to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-brainstorm-ideas-for-writing\/\">brainstorm ideas<\/a>, and Bezos researches their feasibility afterward. Example ideas that they actually develop include a free email service (developed into Juno) and online stock trading (FarSight Financial, later sold to Merrill Lynch)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>They also discuss the \u201ceverything store\u201d<\/strong> &#8211; an intermediary between customers and manufacturers that sells every type of product worldwide, with unlimited shelf space on the Web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>They cast predictions of the Internet\u2019s future and how it would lead to a revolutionary shopping experience.<ul><li>Bezos envisions the ability to personalize the store to each shopper, giving it a huge advantage over brick-and-mortar retailers.<\/li><li>Despite the slow current speed of the Internet, Bezos believes everyone would one day use the Internet at high speeds.<\/li><li>Customers could leave reviews of any product, a more credible version of mail-order catalogues.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>The \u201ceverything store\u201d has to start somewhere, so Bezos investigates 20 possible product categories, including software, office supplies, apparel music. <strong>He settles on books because they\u2019re pure commodities <\/strong>(so customers know exactly what they\u2019re getting without worrying about product quality),<strong> there are only a few distributors to build relationships with<\/strong> (eg Ingram), and <strong>there is a large catalog of over 3 million books available<\/strong>, far more than a Barnes &amp; Noble retail store could ever stock, giving an online store an edge.&nbsp;<ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB832204437381952500\">Music is a close second<\/a>, with a catalog too large for any brick and mortar store to stock. But Bezos worries about the concentration of power in 6 major record companies, compared to the 4,200 US book publishers who would find it difficult to gain leverage over the new store.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>They aren\u2019t the first to come up with the idea. Multiple companies already sell books online (like Books.com). Bezos and colleagues try ordering a book. It arrives two weeks later, tattered. It\u2019s clear to them that no one has figured out how to sell books over the Internet.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Spring 1994: Bezos tells D. E. Shaw he plans to leave to create an online bookstore. <\/strong>Shaw is sympathetic (given that he himself left Morgan Stanley to found his firm) but notes that Shaw might compete with Bezos in the future.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Soon after, Bezos leaves New York for Seattle, a technology hub with a relatively small population, thus not needing to collect state sales tax. His wife MacKenzie is the company\u2019s first accountant.<\/li><li>He backs the company himself with $10,000 and adds another $84,000 in loans over the next 16 months.<\/li><li>Shel Kaphan from D. E. Shaw joins Bezos as the company\u2019s first employee and technical steward. His contract requires him to commit to buying $5,000 of stock upon joining.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What was Jeff Bezos childhood like? Where was Jeff Bezos before Amazon? Jeff Bezos was born in 1964 and had a messy childhood. He always stood out as a gifted student and he eventually used those gifts to take advantage of new business opportunities on the internet. Keep reading for the timeline of Jeff Bezos&#8217; life before he started Amazon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":37913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,33],"tags":[376],"class_list":["post-37904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-people","tag-the-everything-store","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life &amp; Business Ideas - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Where was Jeff Bezos before Amazon? Learn about his childhood, school life, and his conception of &quot;the everything store.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life &amp; Business Ideas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Where was Jeff Bezos before Amazon? Learn about his childhood, school life, and his conception of &quot;the everything store.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-29T19:33:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-12T19:33:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1346\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"828\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hannah Aster\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f\"},\"headline\":\"Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life &#038; Business Ideas\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-29T19:33:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-12T19:33:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/\"},\"wordCount\":1128,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Everything Store\"],\"articleSection\":[\"History\",\"People\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/\",\"name\":\"Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life & Business Ideas - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-29T19:33:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-12T19:33:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"Where was Jeff Bezos before Amazon? Learn about his childhood, school life, and his conception of \\\"the everything store.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg\",\"width\":1346,\"height\":828},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life &#038; Business Ideas\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f\",\"name\":\"Hannah Aster\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Hannah Aster\"},\"description\":\"Hannah is a seasoned writer and editor who started her journey with Shortform nearly five years ago. She grew up reading mostly fiction books but transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018. When she's not writing or traveling, you can find Hannah working on home reno projects, crafting, or taking care of plants.\",\"knowsAbout\":[\"Graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in professional and creative writing\"],\"jobTitle\":\"SEO Team Lead\",\"worksFor\":\"Shortform\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/hannah\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life & Business Ideas - Shortform Books","description":"Where was Jeff Bezos before Amazon? Learn about his childhood, school life, and his conception of \"the everything store.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life & Business Ideas","og_description":"Where was Jeff Bezos before Amazon? Learn about his childhood, school life, and his conception of \"the everything store.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-05-29T19:33:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-06-12T19:33:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1346,"height":828,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Hannah Aster","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hannah Aster","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/"},"author":{"name":"Hannah Aster","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f"},"headline":"Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life &#038; Business Ideas","datePublished":"2021-05-29T19:33:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-12T19:33:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/"},"wordCount":1128,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg","keywords":["The Everything Store"],"articleSection":["History","People"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/","name":"Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life & Business Ideas - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg","datePublished":"2021-05-29T19:33:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-12T19:33:27+00:00","description":"Where was Jeff Bezos before Amazon? Learn about his childhood, school life, and his conception of \"the everything store.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg","width":1346,"height":828},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-bezos-before-amazon\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jeff Bezos Before Amazon: Early Life &#038; Business Ideas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f","name":"Hannah Aster","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hannah Aster"},"description":"Hannah is a seasoned writer and editor who started her journey with Shortform nearly five years ago. She grew up reading mostly fiction books but transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018. When she's not writing or traveling, you can find Hannah working on home reno projects, crafting, or taking care of plants.","knowsAbout":["Graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in professional and creative writing"],"jobTitle":"SEO Team Lead","worksFor":"Shortform","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/hannah\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/bezos-jeff.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38491,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37904\/revisions\/38491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}