Full Video Of The Episode:
“Be true to yourself, no matter what.”
Today our guest is Ernest Popescu, a Bus Dev Sr. Manager here in AWS Infrastructure (and Sid’s business partner). Ernest takes us on a classic ‘Hero’s Journey’ prior to joining Amazon in 2014, complete with tales, hijinks, and the lessons he learned along the way. This episode was a blast. We hope you have as much fun as we did!
3:50 | Wait, how many languages does Ernest know?
5:01 | Ernest as a kid - sports…and just a little trouble ;)
8:01 | Mechanical engineering & joins the infantry at 18
10:10 | First job consulting with DBM, in France, Spain
11:50 | Futon + PS3 + ricer cooker = simple times
12:45 | A duplex, a pug and a very interesting transition towards the business side with GM…
17:50 | Peeling back the layers…of a coconut
18:50 | A ‘Think Big’ objective on salary…
19:45 | Two early lessons from a Managing Director - on money, and communication
21:50 | Here it is…the run up to the Amazon origin story begins…it involves a building up a respectable art collection
22:35 | An explanation to the art gallery **PICS OF THE ART GALLERY BELOW (or go check it out on the blog here if you’re reading this from the show notes)
https://www.charleskunken.com/blog/6/#ArtGallery
26:25 | …and then Amazon comes a calling…
29:10 | What was different at Amazon - loved the culture
31:05 | Which ‘Leadership Principles’ would you add?
33:29 | What was different about working with Finance peeps at Amazon?
34:20 | What makes a good finance partner
36:30 | What advice would you give yourself starting out? - Be true to yourself, no matter what
39:36 | on consuming new information & what’s Ernest reading,
40:44 | Ernest drops one of my favorite fiction books of all time ‘ The Name Of The Wind’ by Patrick Rothfuss
42:55 | Three people for dinner
43:56 | and Ernest’s philosophy on life
Ernest's Art Gallery
Check out the interview at 22:35 for the explanation to the collection ;)
Ernest on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ernestpopescu/
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Theme music by Good Baby. ‘Rose Colored’ (instrumental version). You can peep the full music video here: goodbaby.band/musicvideos
The music video to the theme music for the show: ‘Rose Colored’ by Good Baby
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