Every Sunday morning, Jeff Bezos rolls out of bed early.
He makes his way to the kitchen and pulls the Betty Crocker cookbook from the shelf, opening it up to the pancake recipe. Using the precision that has worked to his advantage in business, he carefully measures out one cup of flour, three tablespoons of baking powder, and the other ingredients in the recipe.
And, according to Lauren Sánchez, that meticulousness makes for a tasty breakfast, but it doesn’t spare the world’s third-richest man from her teasing.
“He gets the Betty Crocker cookbook out every time, and I’m like, ‘Okay, you’re the smartest man in the world; why don’t you have this memorized yet?’” she tells the WSJ. Magazine. “But he opens it up every time: Exact portions make the best pancakes in the world.”
You don’t get to be as successful as Jeff Bezos without an eye for the details. And Sánchez says living with Bezos “is like having a master class every day,” with lessons that range from how to run a meeting to suggestions as she writes her first book.
And he’s as focused on physical fitness as he is on pancakes, according to Sánchez.
“He stole my trainer!” she says. “Jeff is extremely dedicated to his workouts. I mean, you have no idea. He really puts in the work.”
Sanchez says that she and Bezos also have dinner with their respective children on a typical Saturday. “We are the Brady Bunch!” she said.
Up next for Bezos? Learning to fly. Sánchez, an active helicopter pilot and founder of the aerial film production company Black Ops Aviation, says Bezos is working to get his pilot’s license, and the pair fly together frequently. That’s a big step for the Amazon and Blue Origin founder, who was in a helicopter crash in 2003 and was uncomfortable in the air for years afterward.
Jan 27, 2022: This story has been updated to clarify that the interview took place in WSJ. Magazine instead of The Wall Street Journal.
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