I wanted a woman who could get me out of a 3rd-world prison: Jeff Bezos

The richest man on earth has a sense of humour — be it about work or family. Turns out, when Jeff Bezos decided he was ready to settle down, he went on several blind dates, set up by friends. Bezos said he knew he’d found his wife when he met someone truly resourceful.

“I wanted a woman who could get me out of a third-world prison,” he said in a recent no holds barred interview to Mark Bezos. Hard not to get candid when your younger brother is the interviewer.

When it comes to raising kids, resourcefulness ranks high there too. Bezos said that he and his wife let their kids use sharp knives since they were four and soon had them “wielding power tools”, because only if they hurt themselves, they’d learn. “‘I’d much rather have kids with nine fingers than a resourceless kid,’ that’s my wife’s perspective.”

So, how does the billionaire split his time between home and work?
“I like the phrase ‘work-life harmony’”, Jeff says. “Balance implies there’s a strict trade-off.” If he feels like he is a productive member of a team at work, “It makes me better at home. If I’m happy at home, it makes me a better employee, a better boss.”