80 minutes of can't miss discussion with Lenny Rachitsky (author of the #1 business newsletter on Substack with 582,000+ subscribers) on his podcast.
If read my posts and wonder, what is the real story behind these posts or some of the deep details of how I succeeded and failed at Amazon, this episode is for you.
We cover:
The Magic Loop framework: a five-step process to grow your career.
Read my detailed writeup on The Magic Loop with advanced forms I used as an Amazon VP and with my direct reports.
Fun fact: my writeup is the 6th most popular article in Lenny’s Newsletter.
Why people get stuck in their career growth.
How to break out of a career plateau.
How to cultivate inventiveness in your work.
How to stand out in interviews.
My detailed story of how I failed Jeff Bezos and eventually got promoted to Amazon VP (you can also read the story).
The story of how I helped advocate for and draft the Amazon Leadership Principle (LP) “Ownership” — the words, “They never say ‘that’s not my job.’” are mine (you can also read the story).
Contrarian opinions on the return-to-office movement and doing business on a handshake.
And some fun facts :)
6 takeaways Lenny astutely captured:
Speed up your career growth by following the Magic Loop: do your current job well, ask your boss how you can help, do what they ask, suggest ways to help that align with your goals, and repeat.
Nail your interviews with a polished appearance and genuine enthusiasm. Emphasize the impact and results of your work instead of just listing tasks to stand out positively.
Recovering from failure is easier than you think. Own the mistake, learn from it, and work relentlessly to regain trust. Even after a failed public launch at Amazon, Ethan regained Jeff Bezos’s trust and got promoted.
Invention is the easy part. The expression and execution of an idea is much more difficult. What matters is bringing an idea to life and iterating it over and over again, so that its value to users increases over time.
Being right is good, but being quick is necessary. Amazon can ship fast and stay ahead of the competition by prioritizing speed—even if that means gambling on an outcome.
True leaders should actively work to challenge their assumptions. Keeping an open mind and demonstrating the ability to change your beliefs broadens your perspective, leading to faster and better decision-making.
Lenny and his team set the bar for producing great content.
If you do not already subscribe to Lenny's newsletter, you should. He brings an incredible array of CEOs, authors, and executives together to share their experiences.
Lenny spends a massive amount of time researching and perfecting each article, supported behind the scenes by both artists and copy editors to make each piece as strong as possible.
For me, working with Lenny and his team on this episode was a pleasure. Their attention to detail and quality is the bar I think about when improving my writing.
Please share your comments on the Podcast. I'd love to know what you think of the topics we cover.
What people are saying about our podcast episode
"This is one of the best episodes of anything ever."
"This is already the single best podcast episode l've listened to on leadership and career growth. And I'm not even halfway through it yet."
"Absolute gold."
“Just a masterpiece.”
“Fenomenal episode! Impressed by the density of insights from Ethan. Took 19 snips on Snipd.”
“Ownership is one of my favorite Amazon leadership principles so it was fun hearing the origin!”
“Thank you for the podcast. The deep dive on the magic loop, the book recommendations, the life motto of paying it forward hit home for me.”
“Such a power pack of insight and exploration into career acceleration.”
“I have the feeling that this will be one of the best episodes of Lenny’s.”
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In this highlight clip, Ethan shares how to best maximize Executive 1:1 time.
Become a member to attend future events live and to watch the full 65-minute video recording where Ethan covers:
The Amazon Way
Why Jeff Bezos shifted to no 1:1s
Amazon SVP 1:1s
Ethan's skip level 1:1 story
Executive expectations
How to use a Skip 1:1
How to ruin a Skip 1:1
How to have good "regular" 1:1s
How to talk about your career in 1:1s
The Manager's POV in 1:1
Audience Q&A
Connect With Ethan
I hope this newsletter has helped you or someone you know with their career. If you want to go deeper into career growth and leadership development, consider my courses:
> Being right is good, but being quick is necessary.
This is a hard-earned lesson for me. Just after I graduated and started my first position as a software engineer, I was keen to bring in math (which was most of my studies) to solve problems. I got into academic discussions around speed and efficiency, only to realize that an okay-ish solution took a day to implement while my ideas were still on paper.
Sometimes speed and efficiency are essential, but for most apps most of us will build, whatever you have is probably OK.