Or is it that he is taking the American fundamental right of “pursuit of happiness”*as listed in the Declaration of Independence a little too seriously? It appears that with his “married mistress” he is more in the pursuit of a thrill than a pursuit of happiness, a blissful feeling not obtained by hurting your near and dear ones.

On the professional front, Jeff Bezos is an extraordinary man who not many can parallel. He left his lucrative job in the hedge fund, started Amazon Inc from his garage, personally delivered books to people, and made Amazon the top 3rd information technology company in the world. On the personal front, however with his romantic entanglement outside of marriage, he has shown that he is a man of shaky moral fiber, who like many other men is not immune to the intoxication of too much wealth and power.

Otherwise, why would this 55-year-old CEO of Amazon Inc, the richest man in the world with the net worth of 140 billion, cheat on his wife of 25 years by having an affair with the wife of his friend?

I have always admired Jeff Bezos for what I perceived was his down to earth-ness, what with his wife driving him to work until 5 years ago in a Honda Minivan and he himself rinsing and putting his dirty dishes after a meal in the dishwasher. I would often give his example to my children when teaching them about humbleness and the importance of cleaning up after yourselves.

So needless to say it came as a shock to me both as an admirer and as a minuscule shareholder of his company Amazon, when I read about him having an affair and getting divorced as a result of it. It left me disappointed that I had one less role model that I could refer to my children and made me regret the day I divested some mutual funds from my retirement account to invest in Amazon.

Ironically, Jeff Bezos’s newspaper “The Washington Post” has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump’s immoralities while he himself with his indecorous texts to his “married mistress”, is if anything, a step ahead of Trump. Even though theoretically we know about hypocrisies, it still has us reeling when it hits us smack on the face that entities and people who preach morality the most are indeed the ones who are most immoral.

The question that begs an answer is Why did Jeff Bezos put at stake a family that loved him and stood by him through thick and thin? Could it be that after he became the richest man in the world, he needed some excitement? Could it be that he is going through mid-life crisis? Otherwise, why would someone who is considered a visionary, felt no guilt in breaking 2 families (one of his own and the other of his “mistress”). To say that such behavior is inordinately selfish and callous is an understatement.

There are many biographies I would like my children to read, biographies that I hope will inspire them. While Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett will make the list, sadly Jeff Bezos has been delisted. Just as former President Bill Clinton, despite having one of the highest presidential approval ratings of all times, scarred his name in history by his dalliances, Jeff Bezos, a self-made technology entrepreneur who by his sheer brilliance and risk-taking ability became the richest man on earth, scarred his name by his betrayal, a betrayal not only of his wife and children, but of his friend, whose wife he cheated on and their kids who will now be part of yet another broken home. And nobody knows the impact this impending divorce and subsequent diversification of wealth will have on the future of his company Amazon, which was founded by him with the help of wife Mackenzie Bezos.

*”Pursuit of happiness is defined as a fundamental right mentioned in the Declaration of Independence to freely pursue joy and live life in a way that makes you happy, as long as you don’t do anything illegal or violate the rights of others.

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