#37 You know not everyone can do this, right?

Something I notice on almost every Amazonian I speak with:

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You'll describe something genuinely impressive — and then immediately wave it off. "That's just how it works there." "Everyone does that." "It's not a big deal."

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Except it is. And almost nobody outside Amazon can do it.

Running a programme across twelve teams in four geographies with no direct authority over any of them? Most organisations can't get three people aligned without someone pulling rank. You did it across borders, across time zones, across teams that didn't report to you and had no particular reason to cooperate.

Delivering a Q4 launch on a headcount that got frozen and a budget that got cut twice? Most companies would push the timeline. You just figured it out — and probably didn't even flag it as unusual because constraints were just the environment.

Getting hostile stakeholders aligned without escalating, without burning relationships, without anyone leaving feeling steamrolled? Most people either escalate or avoid. You sat in the discomfort and moved it forward anyway.

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At Amazon, all of this is “just” Tuesday. It's how the system works. So you stop noticing it, stop counting it, and when someone outside asks what you're good at, you skip right over the things that make you unusual — because they don't feel unusual to you.

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They are. And they compound.

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Operating under constraint. Building consensus without authority. Delivering in ambiguity. Making high-stakes calls with imperfect information. These are exactly the capabilities companies pay a premium for at director and VP level. You just never had to name them because they were part of your every day.

One thing to try this week:

Think about the last really hard thing you delivered. Not the outcome — the conditions. What was working against you? What would have stopped a less capable person? What did you do that nobody gave you credit for because it just looked like "doing your job"?

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That's worth naming. Out loud. To yourself first, and then to anyone who asks.

Chat soon,

Mel

P.S. Tuesday's LinkedIn post about what interviewers assume about Amazonians clearly struck a nerve. If you missed it, here's the TL:DR - the assumptions interviewers carry into the room about your resources are probably more damaging than anything you're saying wrong.