Jeff Bezos Still Uses A Desk Made Out Of A Door Today: The Hidden Business Lesson Behind It

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos may own superyachts and mansions, but at work he's still parked behind a desk made from a cheap wooden door, as a symbol and a matter of principle.

Frugal Origins Of Jeff Bezos' Door Desk

Jeff Bezos still works at a door-desk, a habit dating to 1995, when Amazon was an online bookseller. As chronicled in a Fox News report from early 2024, talk of the old desk resurfaced when his then-girlfriend and now wife, Lauren Sanchez, posted a photo showing him at the same type of makeshift workstation.

The original design was cost-cutting. "We happened to be across the street from a Home Depot… [Bezos] looked at desks for sale and looked at doors for sale, and the doors were a lot cheaper, so he decided to buy a door and put some legs on it," recalled early employee Nico Lovejoy in a company blog post.

This frugal approach extended beyond furniture. In Amazon’s early years, Jeff Bezos was known for reusing packing materials, driving secondhand cars, and even holding meetings in empty offices to avoid unnecessary expenses. Employees quickly learned that cost-consciousness was not just a quirk but a cultural expectation.

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Symbol Of Customer-First Spending And Relentless Frugality

By 1999, Amazon was public and Jeff Bezos a billionaire, holding roughly $10 billion in Amazon stock, according to The New York Times. Yet the company still used door desks. In a "60 Minutes" profile that year, he told CBS's Bob Simon the bare-bones setup carried a message. "It's a symbol of spending money on things that matter to customers and not spending money on things that don't," he said.

Upgraded door desks still sit in Amazon corporate offices and fulfillment centers, according to a 2018 CNBC report and Amazon's own history of the furniture. Frugality is written into Amazon's leadership principles, which say, "Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention."

Bezos has often emphasized that visible frugality encourages employees to think creatively and avoid waste. Teams are incentivized to question assumptions about costs and efficiency. This mindset, he argues, is critical for a company serving millions of customers while keeping prices competitive.

Door Desk Becomes Cultural Trophy At Amazon

The door has also become a trophy. At all-hands meetings, Bezos has handed out miniature signed replicas, the "Door Desk Award," to teams that find cost-saving ideas.

The award is more than symbolic. Employees report feeling pride in being recognized for practical solutions that save money, boost efficiency, or improve customer experience. It reinforces the idea that frugality is an achievement, not a limitation, and that clever, resourceful thinking is celebrated at every level of Amazon.

The symbolism fits with a broader Jeff Bezos playbook, which finds mention in Amazon.com’s garage-to-giant origin story to his "Day 1" mantra and advice on resisting conformity. Even as his net worth has climbed into the hundreds of billions of dollars, the door desk remains in view, reminding employees that thrift is meant to start with the customer.

In recent years, Jeff Bezos' personal commitment to the door desk has sparked wider discussions about leadership and workplace culture. Business schools and media outlets often highlight it as an example of how successful leaders can remain grounded and connected to the principles that built their companies. While many CEOs adopt luxurious offices, Bezos’ desk stands as a reminder that true leadership often starts with humility and practical thinking.

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#JeffBezos #Amazon #Leadership #Frugality #BusinessCulture #DoorDesk #CustomerFirst #Innovation #StartupCulture #LaurenSanchez #billionaire