Jeff Bezos's Single Teen Mother Brought Him To School With Her As A Baby. They Couldn't Afford A Phone — Now She's Worth $30 Billion
Jeff Bezos, the world's third-richest person with a net worth of $162.1 billion, defies the stereotype of a privileged upbringing. He was born to a teen mom who struggled to make ends meet, unable to even afford a telephone.
But it's not just Bezos's success story that is inspiring — his mother's journey is equally remarkable. In a 2019 commencement address at Cambridge College, Jacklyn Bezos shared her tale, prompting her proud son to tweet, M"y mom’s incredible story. Wow. So grateful. So proud. #Grit."
Jacklyn Bezos’s path to success was anything but easy. Becoming a pregnant teenager in Albuquerque, New Mexico, during the 1960s was challenging and met with judgment. Initially, school administrators told her she couldn't complete her high school education. Undeterred, she pushed back against the odds, and eventually, the school allowed her to return with strict conditions.
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These conditions were harsh and dehumanizing, including strict time constraints, limited social interaction and exclusion from graduation ceremonies. But despite this, Jacklyn Bezos persevered, complied and graduated high school.
After divorcing her son's biological father, Ted Jorgensen, when her baby was 17 months old, Jacklyn Bezos sought work as a secretary despite being a less-than-stellar typist. She landed a job that paid $190 per month, allowing her to move into her own apartment with her son. But she couldn't afford a phone to stay connected with her parents so her father set her up with a walkie-talkie to communicate daily.
Eager to continue her education, Jacklyn Bezos enrolled in night school and creatively managed to bring Jeff to class. She showed up with two duffel bags filled with textbooks and baby essentials.
It was during her night school classes that she met her future husband, Mike Bezos, a Cuban refugee whom Jeff fondly refers to as his father. But Mike's job required the family to move, putting Jacklyn's dream of college graduation on hold for years.
Despite the setbacks, Jacklyn never gave up on her educational aspirations. When she sent her children off to college, she felt a longing to join them. After facing delays and challenges, she returned to college with relentless determination. More than two decades after completing high school, Jacklyn finally achieved her goal and graduated from college.
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Reflecting on her graduation at the commencement ceremony, she said, "When I graduated from the class of St. Elizabeth at the age of 40 I had never been more proud of myself. I felt 10 feet tall, and that is a gain of 5 feet. So that's a pretty big gain from graduation. When I was finally given the opportunity to walk across the stage to get my diploma, the loudest cheers came from my family."
Besides raising a centibillionaire, Jacklyn and Mike Bezos played a crucial financial role in Jeff's journey to success. In 1995, Jeff approached his parents with a bold proposition to fund his new website, Amazon.com. They lent him $245,573, a significant gamble considering the internet was still in its early stages. Little did they know that this investment would turn out to be one of the most profitable decisions in history.
Today, that initial $245,573 has ballooned to nearly $958 billion. Jeff's parents took a leap of faith, and it paid off in a monumental way, establishing them as one of the wealthiest families in the world.
Assuming they kept their holdings over the years, Bloomberg estimates Jackie and Mike's net worth at around $30 billion today, which is a 12,000,000% increase.
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