I left Amazon in 2020. I made it just about 15 months. Am I crazy for deciding to leave? Amazon is well, Amazon. Huge, disruptive, dominant, top of the top. And as a L8 director at Amazon I was in the top 1% of Amazon. A likely pinnacle for just about any career, right?

Yet, there was a trade-off for being in that amazing (Amazoning?) spot. My specific position at Amazon was too consuming for me. It was impacting my health and my well-being. Some say time at Amazon equates to dog years. So, I was actually there for perhaps 10 years, and honestly, it kind of felt that way. I feel like I did a lot. I think I helped some people, and helped deliver some cool video technology to the world. I considered transferring to a different group in Amazon, because stories were that I had it particularly rough in my group. Anyway, somewhat paradoxically, thanks to a generous Amazon, I have reached a point in my life, where I can get out of the grind.

As I was leaving I looked at an interesting statistic: Just about 50% of the 1 million employees at Amazon came in after I started. I actually was sort of the old dog, yikes. There were some long-term 5+, 10+ year employees (celebrated by different color badges), and many people that planned to stay; yet the turnover and hiring is on a massive scale. I perhaps can see going back, but as with any large organization, it is not the organization, it is the specific group you work for in that organization.

I updated my LinkedIn with the title “Aspiring Explorer, Technologist, Advisor, and Coach”. Yes, it is a vague catch all for the things I am passionate about. Aspiring feels expansive and evergreen, so I can make that anything I want. I value flexibility after all. I am feel decidedly “LinkedOut”, and really not engaged in social media of any kind.

Will I start my own consulting company? Will I got back to corporate life? Will I start some new project? Good questions, and honestly I think whatever I do it probably will not be some a traditional role. For all intents and purposes I am retired. I have done some advising and coaching for the Founders Institute and that has been rewarding. If you want some advice or coaching let me know. And if you want to in-person explore, or talk tech, or talk boat let me know. I will aspire on, and I think that is suiting me fine.

Amazon Inc. is huge, and seems to be taking over everything. And it sucked me in. I started working there in August 2019. It was an unexpected shift, and it has been all consuming (hence lack of any updates here).

Amazon has 14 leadership principles, and they really follow them, and use them everyday. There is a wonderful obsession with customers and making them happy. As well as a long-term mindset. As well as delivering results. They all work together. Also I believe they are the main reason Amazon has been so successful. Coupled with some other key concepts such as working backwards, a culture of narrative writing and reviewing, a technique of two-pizza work teams, and you have an engine for creating technology driven disruption. It has been quite interesting.

Back in the year 2000 I joined a company with the codename Project Mayo. It quickly changed names to DivXNetworks Inc., and then eventually simply DivX Inc. DivX was/is all about technology disruption and riding the wave of Internet technologies. DivX played an important part in the revolution of video entertainment over the Internet. Joining DivX was a pivotable moment in my work history to be sure. It was an intense ride that went through so many different eras, phases, and situations you can almost call it working for 10 different companies.

In fact DivX has been through several different corporate eras. From private to public. From acquisition to divestiture. Since founding DivX changed its name and corporate ownership 7 times. It was public 4 separate times. Depending on the corporate entity it ranged from 30 people to 1200 people. The historical record is stranger than fiction. I guess everyone wanted to say they had a piece of that hot Internet video technology. It made for an exciting, and often tumultuous ride at times. I was around through almost all of it. I did take leave of DivX more than once. One leave was a planned sabbatical to travel. Two others were I just could not stay given the prevailing corporate climate at the time.

My last leave, a “Jaunt” in the Bay Area, is now over. Jaunt Inc. unfortunately ran out of money before it could support the rather large staff and operations. I am glad the for the experience at Jaunt, and I would like to think I made a positive difference while I was there. I thought I might be in the Bay Area of a while, it is certainly a hub of technology activity. I certainly looked in San Diego, since I had been rooted there for so long, yet not as many opportunities.

In an interesting twist of fate. I am back in San Diego at DivX as the CTO. DivX has changed a lot, and is now a private company again. And some things have not changed. Since the very start of DivX there were core brand values. Circa 2010 timeframe they finally got written down: Access, Fidelity, Transformation, and Enjoyment. Staying true to those values has enabled DivX to survive, even in the most challenges times. Those brand values continue to resonate with me. The great news is I am working on a new product that embodies all of them. The disruption wave continues with the help of an old friend. Thanks DivX, I am excited for the future.

My work mode question has been answered. I started full-time at Jaunt VR today. Virtual Reality (VR) has the potential to be transformative and immersive. People have been dreaming about VR becoming viable and mainstream. There is a lot of great work happening to get it there, and I am going to be helping. It is reminiscent of DivX in the early days. Getting video to the Internet was quite the core. Now getting VR to the masses is also a challenge. There are plenty of variables. The end-user headsets are evolving, the cameras are evolving, and the content monetization models are evolving. Being end-to-end, and doing it fast are going to matter a lot. It is going to be fun surfing this disruption wave.