Before Bezos became the world’s fourth-richest person with a net worth of US$246.9 billion, according to Forbes, he worked at McDonald’s as a teenager in 1980. The Amazon founder took the job because he needed summer work, and his father, Mike, had once also been employed at the fast-food chain, Business Insider reported.
During his first week in the kitchen, Bezos cracked 300 eggs a day, flipped burgers, and scrubbed bathrooms. When a five-gallon ketchup dispenser spilled across the floor, he was handed a mop as “the new guy” and told: “Get going!”
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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 12, 2023, in Beverly Hills, California. Photo by AP |
In an interview with author Cody Teets for her book “Golden Opportunity: Remarkable Careers That Began at McDonald’s,” Bezos said the most difficult part of the job was managing the grill during a rush, which taught him responsibility.
“You can learn responsibility in any job if you take it seriously,” Bezos said. “You learn a lot as a teenager working at McDonald’s. It’s different from what you learn in school. Don’t underestimate the value of that!”
He later reflected that the experience sparked his focus on efficiency and customer satisfaction. “Even as a teenager, I could see that thoughtful design was what kept everything from falling apart,” he told Forbes. “At McDonald’s, when something breaks down, you feel it instantly. That reinforced my belief that process matters, and good systems can help anyone achieve extraordinary results.”
Bezos applied these lessons in building Amazon into the largest U.S. e-commerce company, with a market capitalization of over $2.5 trillion, employing more than 1 million people in over 125 countries.
Matthew Davis, who works in data center planning and delivery for Amazon Web Services, told Forbes that Bezos’s system-driven mindset reflects his early days at McDonald’s. “300 burgers meant 300 buns, 300 patties, 300 slices of cheese,” he said.
“If customers need a certain number of gigawatts, we calculate how many racks we need, how many data centers to build. This logic comes straight from fast food: what do you need, and how can we deliver it in the most efficient way possible?”
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang seen at a conference in Singapore in December 2023. Photo by Reuters |
Like Bezos, Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang, the world’s seventh-richest person with a net worth of $153.9 billion, also began his career in the restaurant industry. After emigrating from Taiwan to Oregon at age 15, he spent summers from 1978 to 1983 working at a Denny’s.
He washed dishes, bussed tables, and cleaned toilets, some of which, he recalled, “you just can’t unsee.” He later became a waiter, pouring coffee and taking orders, an experience he said helped him overcome shyness.
“Excellent career choice. I highly recommend everyone start your first job in the restaurant business, it teaches you humility, hard work,” Huang said, as quoted by the New York Post.
Denny’s also played a pivotal role in his career. On Thanksgiving Day in 1993, Huang and two friends, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, met at the restaurant and sketched their idea for Nvidia on a napkin while he ate a Super Bird sandwich. Huang recalled the place had large tables, plenty of food, according to Inc. magazine, and there was “all the coffee you could drink, and no one would chase you out.”
From those beginnings, Huang has led Nvidia to become the world’s most valuable company, with a market capitalization of more than $4 trillion. His LinkedIn still lists Denny’s as one of only two jobs in his career.
