The Devil

The Devil – Jeff Bezos

Getting the devil card in your reading shows that you are a slave to materialism and opulence and no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to shake off the feeling of wanting to indulge in luxurious living, despite how it may affect those around you. Be warned – you may become so addicted to your wealth that you would not spare any of it, even in order to stop the world around you from burning.

Jeff Bezos Facts:

  • Fun fact: obsessed with Star Trek and space (as a kid, told teachers “the future of mankind is not on this planet”, now he owns a space-exploration company)
  • First entrepreneurial pursuit: Started a summer camp for kids as a teen.
  • Went to Princeton University and joined a startup called Fitel after grad.
  • Next, worked at a hedge fund and became vice president.
  • During this career rise, had a scheme to increase his “women flow” (ew), a process modeled after Wall Streeters increasing their “deal flow”.
    • It worked! Got married in 1993.
  • Left the hedge fund to start Amazon.com. In its first month, they sold to all 50 states and 45 countries.
  • Amazon went public in 1997.
  • In the early days, Bezos was known to be really demanding and mean to employees. He also did (and still does) weird things like banning PowerPoint presentations and requiring staff to write papers on their proposals instead.
  • Perks of working for Amazon? Not really! Bezos doesn’t believe in things like free food.
  • In 1998, Bezos invested in Google. His shares would be worth billions today but he hasn’t said if he kept his stock.
  • In August 2013, Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million.
  • In 2015, his space company successfully launched a reusable rocket.
  • In 2017, Amazon bought Whole Foods and cut 1,900 employees off of their insurance plans there. He also became the world’s richest person for the first time.
  • Now, Amazon has a market cap of over $1.56 trillion.
  • In 2019, Bezos and his wife divorced. His ex retained over $35 million in Amazon stock and became one of the world’s richest women.
  • Now, Bezos is worth about $183 billion.
  • Bezos and Amazon are known for treating employees poorly and providing unsafe working conditions. They’re also known for firing whistleblower employees who speak out about it!
  • In February 2021, Bezos announced he’d be stepping down as Amazon’s CEO and transitioning to executive chairman. In reality, he’ll still have a lot of control of Amazon in this role but won’t be directly accountable for the success and failures of the company.

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