When you think about all that you would want to do if you had a billion dollars, we bet your list knows no end. A few staples on such a list would be a luxurious mansion with a garage full of exotic (and super expensive) cars, and then perhaps a few more in different parts of the world. But when it comes to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and a man with a worth of over 100 billion dollars, this is not how he likes to spend his money.
How It All Began
For Bezos, the doorway to Amazon opened up after he took the bold decision of leaving his full-time job on Wall Street back in 1994. He was only 30 years old at that time, an age when career professionals are well settled in the professions they want to devote their life. Yet, he wanted to start Amazon, and he knew he won’t be able to do it if he stayed employed.
In its early days, Amazon only had a workforce of about 10 employees, or as big as one medium-sized retail outlet. The company was in its infancy and understandably did not have enough resources to afford more manpower or technology. According to Bezos, he was personally delivering packages to post offices on the back of his car, a 1987 Chevy Blazer, with the dream of being able to afford forklifts to manage this process.
Going Public
Only three years after its initial inception, Bezos decided it was time for his company to go public, and in an IPO that generated billions of dollars in worth for Amazon, Bezos found his own personal worth skyrocket to over $12 billion.
One would expect Bezos to have gone from his Chevy to a Maserati or a Bugatti, but no, the Amazon founder and CEO decided to keep things modest. Although he did upgrade his car, he went from his Chevy to a Honda Accord, which can be categorized as a middle-class car with respect to its price.
Why The Honda?
The purchase of the Honda Accord surprised everyone and Bezos was even asked to substantiate upon his reasoning behind the purchase of this car by Bob Simon back in 1999 on the 60 Minutes segment, to which Bezos replied very calmly that a Honda Accord is a perfectly stable vehicle and there is no reason for him not to buy it.
Bezos also revealed in the interview that everything he is has been translated into the vision for Amazon. He wanted to sell products that were needed by the customers, and by spending only on things which he needed, Bezos was in effect reinforcing the Amazon principle of selling products that were genuinely in demand.
Reportedly, as of 2013, Bezos had still been using a Honda; however, he has certainly upgraded the model of the car over the years. Everyone at Amazon subscribes to the philosophy of saving money, which is perhaps what has resulted in the company making over $43.7 billion as reported revenue figure for its third quarter in 2017.