Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's tip for a 'highly successful' career: Don't be a know-it-all

Another aspect that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wants young professionals to focus on is their attitude. 'There are so many things that you can't control in your work life, but you can control your attitude,' he said. (Image credit: Unsplash, LinkedIn)

Jeff Bezos's successor Andy Jassy career before joining Amazon was a winding adventure. The 56-year-old had dreamed of becoming a pro athlete, flirted with the law and dabbled in sportscasting and music management, gotten an MBA degree from Harvard University before finally being hired by the tech giant as a product manager.

Over the years, Jassy rose through the ranks to eventually become the company's CEO in 2021. Recently, at a podcast hosted by LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky, Jassy shared some career advice for young professionals, the first being: don't be a know-it-all.

It hinders people from valuing new perspectives and opportunities to learn fresh skills, Jassy said on The Path podcast last week. “The second you think you know it all is the second [you start] to unwind,” he said, adding that successful people are “incredibly ravenous learners”. “The biggest difference between the people I started with in my early stages of my career and what they’re doing now has to do with how great they were at learning,” the Amazon CEO said.

Another aspect that he wanted young professionals to focus on is their attitude. "There are so many things that you can't control in your work life, but you can control your attitude. I think people would be surprised how infrequently others have great attitudes. I believe it makes a big difference," Jassy said.

He also requested them to not look at their career graphs as a linear line. “Sometimes it's a straight line and there's certainly people who've had that. It was not my experience. But, you know, you'll wind your way around something that you're really good at. And along the way, you'll keep picking things up if you let yourself,” the tech leader added.