IT’S SOMETHING PEOPLE are naturally curious about, but I have never sought the title of “world’s richest man.” I was fine being the second-wealthiest person in the world. I would much rather be known as inventor Jeff Bezos or entrepreneur Jeff Bezos or father Jeff Bezos. Those kinds of things are much more meaningful to me, and it’s an output measure. If you look at the financial success of Amazon and the stock, I own 16 percent of Amazon. Amazon’s worth roughly $1 trillion.^* That means that over twenty years we have built $840 billion of wealth for other people, and that’s really what we’ve done from a financial point of view. We’ve built $840 billion of wealth for other people, and that’s great. That’s how it should be. You know, I believe so powerfully in the ability of entrepreneurial capitalism and free markets to solve so many of the world’s problems. Not all of them, but so many of them.

1. *As of September 13, 2018. Amazon’s value, as of this writing (July 6, 2020), is now $1.44 trillion, of which I own 11 percent.