Yesterday on
the 52nd anniversary of the first human landing on the moon, Jeff Bezos and
three other citizen astronauts took a suborbital trip into space. This came ten
days after Sir Richard Branson and three other citizen astronauts ventured into
suborbital space. This month has been a history-making month for human space
exploration.
Sir Richard Branson is a true showman. He
turned his triumph into a fun party and some real entertainment for the
millions of people watching. Jeff Bezos' triumph was more subdued. Everything
worked perfectly. It seemed that engineers were "running the show."
Let us do a quick comparison of Sir
Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos. Sir Richard comes across as warm, friendly, and
approachable. I have not had the honor of meeting him in person. Some months
ago, he was gracious enough to send me his autographed picture. It showed him
hanging out the pilot's window of his space plane. (When Virgin Galactic shares
slumped, I told Elena not to worry. I assured her that the autograph would keep
going up in value.) Jeff Bezos comes across as very arrogant and distant.
Sir Richard has been married to the same
woman for 45 years. There are no public scandals concerning Sir Richard and
other women. Jeff Bezos is divorced. He has had some scandals with other women.
Sir Richard appears to be a model
employer. There are no public scandals about him exploiting employees or
treating them unfairly. Jeff Bezos has a huge file of employee complaints. This
all led to a major New York Times expose some months ago.
Sir Richard honestly and fairly pays taxes
in several countries, Jeff Bezos prides himself on avoiding taxes everywhere.
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