Jeff Bezos went from earning $3/hr flipping burgers at Miami McDonald's to spending $6,000/hr on a $500,000,000 yacht
Published on Nov 11, 2025 at 3:19 PM (UTC+4)
by Daisy Edwards
Last updated on Nov 11, 2025 at 3:19 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
Jeff Bezos went from flipping burgers for $3 an hour at a Miami McDonald’s to spending $6,000 an hour cruising the world on a $500 million superyacht.
The billionaire founder of Amazon wasn’t always surrounded by luxury, he had humble beginnings like the rest of us mere mortals.
As a teen, he was frying eggs at a greasy grill, not sipping champagne on the deck of Koru.
Here’s how the world’s richest man turned the golden arches into golden piles of money and created pure superyacht splendor.
EXPLORE SBX CARS – Supercar auctions starting soon powered by Supercar Blondie
From flipping burgers at McDonald’s to champagne on a yacht
Long before he built Amazon or bought his spectacular superyacht, Bezos worked the breakfast rush at McDonald’s in Miami, earning just $3 an hour.
He wasn’t allowed on the register because his teenage acne kept him in the kitchen, so he learned the rhythm of cooking hundreds of eggs for McMuffins with precision.
He later said that the job at Maccies taught him everything about systems, process, and efficiency, which is ironically, the same engineering mindset that powered his empire decades later.
It’s the kind of discipline that turned frying eggs into hatching a billion-dollar idea.
Big Mac on deck
Today, Jeff Bezos owns and commands Koru, a 416-foot sailing yacht worth roughly $500 million, along with a $75 million support vessel named Abeona for his wife, Lauren Sánchez.
Operating costs are eye-watering, about $6,000 every single hour, or $50 to $60 million a year just to keep the ship running and shipshape.
With polished wood decks, three towering masts, and a crew ready to serve at sea, Koru is a million miles away from that greasy McDonald’s kitchen.
It’s proof that Bezos’s real skill wasn’t flipping burgers, it was learning how to flip fate and master the art of business.
DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie
Daisy Edwards is a Content Writer at supercarblondie.com. Daisy has more than five years’ experience as a qualified journalist, having graduated with a History and Journalism degree from Goldsmiths, University of London and a dissertation in vintage electric vehicles. Daisy specializes in writing about cars, EVs, tech and luxury lifestyle. When she's not writing, she's at a country music concert or working on one of her many unfinished craft projects.
