Lessons from my Second Day at The Amazon Web Service re/Start 2021 in Benin City

For some reason I can’t figure it out, I was actually reluctant to put this article together even though the Hub Lead Manager encouraged us to do so in other to enhance our writing skills.

It was late in the evening on Tuesday 18th of February as I got home and found myself drifting into deep thoughts, a deep reflection on what I have been introduced to at the lecture hall. At this point, I realized how important certain ideologies and belief systems can have on our actions. You will agree with me that we see these influences every day in African society.

I have always been a student of the mind kinds of stuff and a big lover of the works of Carl Jung and all my findings have greatly enhanced my life in more ways than one. Maybe what would have made some of us great as Sons and Daughters of Africa are deeply rooted in the mass conditioning of the mind? Running the show from the unconscious aspect of the psyche. Yet we blame our outer circumstances for not working together to get us to where we want to be. Others we ironically packed into Our Shadow Self.

Psychological Researches and Cognitive Sciences have given rise to several discourses on how our mind can have a great influence upon our health and quality of life. However, hearing my new Linux Instructor talking about this got me very excited; he appears to be very skilled at what he does and seems even better with how the mind works. It was like a re-enforcement learning taking place inside me.

I know you may be wondering what this discussion might be, well it, is about the 14 Amazon Web Service Leadership Principles. These principles have been introduced to me for the first time in my life and going through them again on my own made me do some serious rethink and saw the richness that they embodied.

Been a good developer is no longer enough in recent times and companies emphasized more soft skills than technical skills as it is a more vital prerequisite for employment. I can say that AWS leadership principles have a way of strengthening your character as a tech leader on a more subtle level when added to the lists of personal philosophies.

According to Inc “Jeff Bezos has built a super successful business based on 14 extremely powerful Amazon leadership principles”.

Our major focus was on principle 8 titled “Think Big” Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.

I am aware of how detrimental to growth thinking shallow can be. This immediately reminds me of the words of Brian Tracy in his book GOALS “Your thoughts create a force field of energy around you, depending on your dominant thought” This is true, in that what you constantly focus on has a way of expanding, triggering neurological impulses that compels one to take a certain course of action and by expansion I mean it reflects in the way you talk and acts in other to make your thinking a “person reality” or put it in another way; self-fulfilling prophecy.

The seed of light and darkness is potential in us all and the one you give water constantly will produce for you its fruits in due time. Far from the spiritual interpretation that may come to mind when you take this statement from a religious perspective. By light I mean those positive desires, those innovative ideas, and those business ideas that lie in the debt of your mind, and by darkness, I mean that hopelessness, hate, worries, fears, limited ideas, and thinking.

Aim for the moon, why you may and may not reach the moon, you will eventually land your way on the sky.

As Africans, we need to find ways to break through the limits that our society, culture, politics, and the likes have placed upon us through auto-suggestions to the mind.

Albert Einstein once said logic will take you from A — B but imagination will take you everywhere. It is safe to say, if you cannot see beyond what is happening at the moment and see the bigger picture, it may be impossible to achieve much in whatever one does.

Psychologically speaking, you will begin to act with what you have held in your mind and cannot act beyond what you think is possible for you, which in turn becomes your self-fulfilling prophecy

If you think a thing is impossible, you are right. If you think a thing is possible, you are right too. The choice depends on what quality of thoughts you choose to focus on, whatever it is, that will determine the next action you take and the next action you take will determine the result you get, big or small, it is that simple.

These are the thoughts that went through my mind and became my take-home lessons for that day as I take my first steps toward becoming a Certified AWS Support Engineer. I hope I always remember these valuable lessons.

I am really grateful for the opportunity to become a better tech leader through work and interacting with excellent minds at the hub.

Feel free to drop your comments, questions, and contributions.