Winning @ Amazon

This is my story of working with and for Amazon for a quarter of a century, as a small publisher, an author, a top reviewer, a former stockholder, and eventually an associate at one of the company's delivery stations. It is a story about working with and for a corporation who is "too big to fail," and therefore can afford to operate in ways I'd call "rigid."

But it wasn't always like that. In fact, Amazon's first two decades of doing business were better than great. Jeff Bezos revolutionized the entire publishing and bookselling industry and for a time it seemed as if the company invented something new every six months; thereby giving thousands of small entrepreneurs the opportunity to start a business.

At that time, Jeff Bezos' famous "Day 1"-concept seemed omnipresent in everything the company proposed and did.

But I didn't see Amazon sticking to it. In fact, while I worked at the warehouse, I was wondering if the people who were in charge of Amazon's logistics operations ever heard of "Day 1"-thinking and if they even attempted to follow Amazon's leadership principles. The discrepancies between what Amazon said about themselves and what I saw "on the ground" were huge.

This was so baffling that eventually I penned 'Inside Amazon: My Story,' a business biography which also revealed how I would fix the issues I saw, if I had the chance.

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Still more surprising was what happened after I published 'Inside Amazon,' on May 1, 2021. I didn't even know about it for the longest time, until an unexpected issue and - maybe - fate brought me back to that warehouse.

That's when I discovered that Amazon applied my entire idea package from 'Inside Amazon,' (except for my suggestions relating to more money or recognition) and presented the new improvements as their insights. But while many of us know that "things like that" happen quite frequently, this case is unique. Because usually "overlooked employees" don't publish their ideas before their employers implement them.

Thus, to speak truth to power, I integrated the first two parts of my book 'Inside Amazon' into this book. Today, they are a document frozen in time that lays out what I saw and experienced, and what I thought about things.

So, here is what this book contains:

Part 1: My memories of Amazon's early days, when Amazon revolutionized the bookselling, printing and publishing industry, and, soon thereafter, the ecommerce industry. These were the days when Amazon gave hope to many small players - indie publishers, writers, and niche product producers - that the company's ways of doing business would enable them to fulfill their dreams.
This was also the time when millions of people truly admired Amazon.

Part 2: A document frozen in time that describes how Amazon's delivery stations used to operate - for seven long years, before I published 'Inside Amazon: My Story.'

Part 3: What happened after I released 'Inside Amazon: My Story.'

Part 4: An account of my second, much briefer stint at the warehouse, when I attempted to solve Amazon's biggest problem at their delivery stations without getting thrown under the bus again, and what I learned from the experience.

Part 5: About the conundrums of many corporate employees, not only Amazon's.   

Part 6: And finally - my insights on (1) how we can set ourselves up for "winning regardless," (2) why "creativity" is our most important job skill, and (3) why it'll be even more so in the future.