What does it mean to be an Amazonian?
It means embracing a Day 1 mentality. It means being vocally self-critical while remaining open to evolving the leadership principles.
It means obsessively raising the bar for customers and preferring narrative documents to PowerPoint decks.
Table of Contents
Thinking Long-Term
Perhaps most importantly, being an Amazonian means thinking long-term and being willing to be misunderstood.
This last part proves particularly challenging. People will tell you that you’re crazy.
Critics will emerge from everywhere. But if you truly believe in your vision, if you believe it’s the right thing for customers, it will ultimately pay off.
Operational Excellence
At Amazon, I witnessed what genuine operational excellence looks like.
The mechanisms Amazon establishes through its narrative culture effectively scale information dissemination.
This becomes a true force multiplier when managing large teams and creates valuable artifacts as your company continuously grows with new people.
Conclusion
I once believed I would be an Amazonian for life. I imagined retiring at Amazon.
I thrived in the culture and particularly enjoyed the writing-focused environment.
Yet, after four and a half years, I took one of the biggest leaps in my career—leaving Amazon to join a pre-seed, pre-product startup with nothing but a PowerPoint deck to its name.