Jeff Bezos, you probably know, is the world’s richest man and he has held that position since 2017, alternating it twice with Bill Gate.
A recent analysis by Comparisun, a content platform that serves small and medium scale businesses reveals that Bezos will be the world’s first Trillionaire by 2026. This is according to a study on his annual financial growth.
Since 2015, Bezos’s network has continuously grown at an average of 34% and if that pace is maintained, he would be the first man to hit $1 trillion before the end of 2026 and that would be at age 62!
Let’s try and understand who Jeff Bezos is.
Jeff Bezos
In 2017, Jeff Bezos topped the world’s list of richest men at age 53, overtaking Bill Gates who has held that position since 1995 (that’s a whopping 22years!).
Over the past 3years, he has steadily grown his net worth and is currently worth $146.9B, while his closest rival, Bill Gates is worth $106.5B. An astonishing difference of $40.4B dollars in just 3 years.
Jeff Bezos is so rich that he’s about 36% richer than the whole of the British Monarch. He makes about $2,489 per seconds (that’s about $8,960,400 per hour). After divorcing MacKenzie and giving up 25% of the Amazon stock co-owned by the couple, Bezos still kept his ranking as the richest person in the world while MacKenzie rose to become the 4th richest woman in the world
But the big question is “How did a man who hit the number 1 position in 2017, overtake Bill Gates and steadily grown over the years?”
I will tell you!
Jeff Bezos' worth growth
The world is constantly, continuously undergoing changes and improvement and all Jeff Bezos did was to recognize this fact early enough and flow with the tide.
To understand this, we need to understand the economic revolution the world has undergone from creation to date. The world is in its 5th economic revolution currently.

  • Stage 1: Stone Age –

man’s survival depended on his brutal strength, people survived then by how much you could fight and displace others.

  • Stage 2: Trade by Barter revolution –

With the improvement in man’s intelligence came a need to exchange what you have with what you need. In this stage, collective strength proved to be more beneficial than single strength because man has a limit to which his strength can go

  • Stage 3: Industrial revolution-

with the dawn on Industrial age came a movement from human labour to manual labour. Tools were built to ease man’s labour. The best way to have survived in this stage is to align yourself. Imagine doing trade by Barter in his stage of the economic revolution, you’ll not just be poor, you’ll be wrecked!

  • Stage 4: Technology revolution –

at this stage, labour moved from Manual to Automated. Machines were made to do more work than humans. This stage became so automated that codes and robots human labour almost totally. The world is totally not out from this revolution but has expanded further to the next stage.

  • Stage 5: Connection revolution –

This is where the world is – connecting people and businesses – of course using the Technology and Industrial revolution. A lot of things are been done today from the comfort of our homes.
If you check through the list of the world’s richest men, you will see that all of them occupied their current economic stage as it were.
This is what Jeff Bezos leveraged upon. Jeff Bezos was able to top the list because he occupied the connection stage of economic revolution while Bill Gates remained in the technology stage (though he’s gradually going into the connection stage, that is why he’s still relevant in the chart).
Jeff Bezos' worth growth
The world is currently in the connection stage and if you have nothing to do with this stage, then be ready to be left out completely.
In the connection revolution, business owners build systems that connect people or other businesses together. They act as an intermediary and nothing more.
Amazon, for instance, which is the main source of Bezos’s income, makes an average of $230B annually by just providing a platform where buyers can reach out to sellers. Amazon does not own a single store anywhere in the world yet it’s last quarter revenue in 2018 ($72.4B) was more than Nigeria’s budget for the same quarter.
One interesting thing about this is that it requires little capital to start up and run. You can do it from anywhere in the world.

Let’s take a look at some businesses in the connection stage.

E-commerce:

This is probably the most common in this stage. In e-commerce, you set up a system (usually a website and logistics) that will enable sellers and buyers to come together. The website is the hotspot where the sellers exchange their products with buyers, of course for a fee, and the system gets a commission (usually in percentage) for every sale you made.
The logistics system is there to deliver the purchased product to the buyer and this system can be totally separated and outsourced so that the business owner just concentrate on the website.
With this kind of business, all you need to have is a well designed, mobile-friendly and fast loading website and a standby customer service that will work round the clock.

Logistics Business:

Because a lot of transactions depends on moving product, the logistics business has become increasingly relevant in this age. When sales happen online, it requires the delivery of the product to the buyer through an organized logistics system.
If you’re careful, you would notice an increase in logistics business around you, more delivery motorcycles, truck, tricycle and even air transport system. That tells you that people are recognizing the need to move goods and services.
One of the world’s foremost logistics system is FedEx made $69.7B just last year by delivery goods. I know a lot of companies that have gone into food logistics, running errands, house agency, conveying goods and they are making it big time.

Social Media:

This may seem huge and yes, it is. But it is also one of the major connection businesses today. Facebook, the world’s largest online community was started in 2014 and boasts if  2.5 Billion monthly users. No wonder Mark Zuckerberg is worth $86.5 Billion and is the youngest person on the list of top 10 richest people, occupying the 7th position. This is for a business that is less than 2 decades old
There are lots of ideas that can connect people and businesses together. People want an easier way of getting things done. Zoom, for instance, shoot up from 10million active meetings in December 2019 to 300million in April 2020. All they did was to provide a platform that connects people together
With the advent of the Corona Virus, people will be more constrained to stay at home but they would still have to live a normal life. So there are opportunities to make money in this connection stage.
You can suggest other businesses that can strive in this economic revolution stage in the comment section below.
You now see why Jeff Bezos is gaining traction even with this COVID-19 saga that slammed many businesses. Jeff is the only person in the list of world’s top 5 richest people that did not go down during this period. And his share in Amazon is only 39%.
Amazon has survived this period because they occupy the connection stage and all they have is a website and customer service.
You too can take a bit in this connection stage by setting up a system. The system or medium is the major emphasis and it is usually a website.
At this level, websites are not just for information, they become work stations, market place, business hotspot and all you need in a physical office and even more.
So if you’re considering where to invest your money or ideas, think towards businesses that connect people or other businesses together.
At Benchmark Digital, we are fully equipped to set up a workable system that connects.
So go in the comment section and suggest a business suitable for the connection stage of the economic revolution. I would like to also read your suggestions.