That is a sentiment that Jeff Bezos is going to experience very soon. After spending a total of twenty-seven years at the helm of one of the most diversified companies on Earth, Bezos is ready to step down from his post as the CEO of Amazon, making way for Andy Jassy to fill in his shoes.
Note that Bezos will not entirely be off Amazon’s files. He will continue to remain Amazon’s largest shareholder and will serve as the executive chairman of the company. He won’t indulge in the everyday working of the firm. He instead plans to focus on initiatives like the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, and his other passions.
The most immediate one would be a trip to space with his brother Mark. Scheduled for July 20, Bezos will be on the first flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard space capsule, likely becoming the first billionaire to travel to space. Setting such records, it is highly unlikely that Bezos will miss his busy office days back on Earth. Still, Bezos’ decision marks the end of an era that saw a persisting entrepreneur reach heights of a business that were unimagined before. The world was a testimony to his rise, as an online bookstore managed from the garage of a rented home in Seattle became the world’s biggest online marketplace in about three decades.
It wasn’t just the e-commerce that made Amazon the behemoth it is today. The one factor that always differentiated the company from any other in its line of business was its pursuit of innovation, especially in the field of technology. This was more of a virtue of Bezos than that of the company.
Now Bezos’ is not really considered a tech genius at par with the likes of Elon Musk. However, his success story tells us that Bezos made up for this with his vision for the world around him. He started Amazon because he wanted to do away with the brick-and-mortar retail of books. He started Blue Origin to take humanity to space and beyond. The goals changed with time, but his principles remained intact.
Amazon Web Services, for instance, proved to be an important pivoting point for the company during its early years. Since its inception in 2006, the service has enabled Amazon’s retail partners to maintain their online presence. In short, Amazon did not only envision creating a marketplace, and it worked to bring the world on it. More than two decades on and now the person who headed the growth of AWS (Andy Jassy), and Amazon as a whole, will lead the conglomerate. It seems every other part fit in when you look back at the puzzle called life, and Bezos will now have ample time to reflect on the same.
