Jassy joined Amazon when he was 29 years old after trying out several other professions. Here’s what he’s learned about shaping his career.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s career path didn’t follow a traditional route. He spent years exploring—and ruling out other jobs—before he found his way to Amazon 28 years ago.
That journey, which included finding his passion and writing his own story, has led to decades of evolving and learning.
He recently shared his top five tips for building and growing a successful career with Amazonians:
1. Find your passion
“Pick something to work on that you’re either really passionate about, that you think you’re good at, or that you are really determined to get great at working out, because life is too short. You spend a lot of your waking hours thinking about and at work, and you want to work on something that really is fulfilling to you and that you can be great at and makes you feel good about how you spend your days.”
2. Keep writing and reinventing your story
“I don’t think that you have to know what your final destination is in your job early in your life. Maybe not even in your 40s, 50s, and 60s. I think that you have a chance to keep writing your own story and reinventing your own story.
Before I got to Amazon, I had tried sportscasting and sports production, I coached a soccer team, I worked in a retail golf store, I did product management, I tried investment banking, I tried sales, I tried a lot of things.
I really do believe it’s perhaps as important to figure out what you don’t want to do as what you want to do, because it actually helps you get more centered on what really makes you happy. So don’t be afraid to try a lot of different things and don’t let people tell you that whatever you’ve done—even if you’ve done it for a while—is what you must do. You have the opportunity to write your own story.“
3. Don’t be afraid to fail
“If you are inventing and trying things and pushing hard enough, you’re not going to get everything right. But we are going to fail sometimes when we’re inventing, and that’s OK.
Every important lesson I’ve ever had as a professional, or in my life, frankly, have been mistakes that I’ve made or been a part of. The key is not to fall apart over it, but to learn what didn’t go right and be self aware. Take the things that did go well and the things you could have done differently and then apply them to the next thing you do. Because there’s always going to be a next thing you can do.“
4. Your attitude will help drive your success
“I do believe that an embarrassing amount of what makes people successful is attitude. Do you work hard? Do you do what you said you were going to do? Can people trust you? Can you work on teams? Are you a can-do person instead of someone who sucks all the energy out of the room? Are you somebody who cares about the mission, along with the team, versus just yourself?
This seems so obvious, but a lot of people don’t do those things.“
5. Never stop learning
“Are you a great learner? The biggest difference to me in the people that I’ve started with at various times in my career to what they’re doing right now has been their aptitude and willingness to learn.
There are people who at a certain point of their life consider it threatening that they don’t know it all, or they get to a certain seniority and they think it’s embarrassing if they have to keep learning. But the reality is, the second you stop learning is the second you’re starting to unwind.
The truth is, if you work in an active, dynamic area, like all of us do, you should be learning all the time. You should be able to step back three to six months at any point and say, ‘Wow, look at the things I’ve learned over the last three to six months.’ That is a huge difference-maker.“