Becoming one of the world’s richest men isn’t something that happens overnight – the journey there is often arduous and at times humiliating.
Fans were thrilled to see Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos paying tribute to his first-ever paid gig over the weekend when he posted a photo of himself on Twitter eating a burger from his original workplace – McDonald’s.
My first job. And still the same great burger. Happy Sunday! pic.twitter.com/3slx6dHUVa
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) August 28, 2022
In 1980, the now billionaire took the job turning burgers in the kitchen when he turned 16 years old.
“I was a cook,” Bezos said in an interview with… Fast company in 2001. “They wouldn’t let me anywhere near the clients. This was my teenage acne phase. They said, ‘Hmm, why don’t you work in the back?'”
He went on to explain that the gig taught him that customer service is “really difficult” and that the lessons he learned in that job pushed him to make customer service a key pillar of Amazon’s business model as the company evolved.
In a book titled Golden Opportunity: Remarkable Careers That Started at McDonald’s, Bezos also spoke about the lesson he learned in working under pressure and maintaining team morale.
“The most challenging thing was keeping everything going at the right pace during a rush,” Bezos told the book’s author, Cody Teets. “My McDonald’s manager was excellent. He had a lot of teenagers working for him and he kept us focused even when we were having fun.”
Bezos resigned as Amazon CEO on July 5, 2021, marking Amazon’s 27th anniversary as a company. He is still the executive chairman of the board of directors.
From Monday morning, Bezos’ estimated net worth was $155.6 billion.
