A New Journey Begins

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it” Buddha

Despite the wise words above, for the longest time purpose was something that eluded me. My career as a sales professional had been progressing quite nicely thank you, that is from a purely financial, material, climbing the ladder perspective. So purpose, or to be more accurate, my lack of it, was the farthest thing from my mind. I’ve written about the power of purpose in other posts so I won’t revisit it here, what I do want to share is that I recently started a new journey that has given my purpose, which is - “To break down the barriers between buyers and sellers so that together we can create a better world” - the kind of global reach, influence, and resources necessary to have a real and meaningful impact on the lives of many more people than would otherwise have been the case.

I’m excited to share that I have joined Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a member of the Sales Strategy, Operations and Enablement team covering the EMEA region. I am so thrilled to have joined an organisation that was founded on a mission to become the earths most customer centric company, although a lot has changed since Amazon started selling books online back in 1995, one thing that absolutely hasn’t is that focus on customers. In fact the first of the fourteen Leadership Principles that shape this organisations unique culture is Customer Obsession. We believe that leaders start with the customer and work backwards. We believe they work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. And we believe that although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers. I love that. I encourage you to learn more about our Leadership Principles here.

I must admit to being a little sceptical when I first learned about the impressive culture painted by Amazon’s leadership principles. After all, most companies large and small have an equally impressive set of values, signals, or principles they claim to live by……but sadly don’t! In fact one of the most disappointing experiences of my corporate life has been the realisation that all too often brand promises do not match brand experiences. I’m a sucker for a well-crafted brand message and I'll eagerly buy into what they’re putting out, only to feel a little duped and taken advantage of when the meticulously curated messaging I embraced with such gusto, falls well short.

But that just didn’t happen when I was invited to experience the inner workings of Amazon Web Services. I had the unique opportunity to work with AWS over many months as an external sales performance consultant prior to joining the team, and this was one of those all too infrequent occasions when everything more than lived up to my lofty expectations. It’s true to say that I was ready to once again be disappointed, but I quickly learned the fourteen leadership principles aren’t simply an impressive but shallow collection of words meant only for the pages of corporate reports, they are very real and every Amazonian brings them to life, every day with great energy and enthusiasm. It's infectious and I'm loving it.

I’m at the very start of my career journey with AWS, however my purpose remains true. In fact, it would be fair to say my purpose has even more purpose here amongst the proudly peculiar culture that I am so privileged to be a member of. A new journey has begun for sure, but my journey to change the way the world thinks about and experiences sales continues.

My sincere thanks and appreciation to all the clients, collaborators, partners, friends, and associates that I've had the great honour to know and work with on my journey to date, and let me take this opportunity to wish you all continued success in everything you do.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ian J Lowe was the Founder and CEO of eccoh, a sales transformation, coaching and consulting organisation pioneering a movement to change the way the world experiences and thinks about sales. The selling environment has radically changed and yesterday’s attitudes, mindsets and cultures are no longer relevant. To succeed we need to be much more than in the past. Our mission is to harness the collective energies of every salesperson on the planet as a force for good in the world. 

Image Credit: Dr Strange movie 2016, Marvel Studios