Show notes
“Be conscious of your tradeoffs…if you’re perpetually doing things not aligned with your priorities, that’s a recipe for unhappiness.”Today Sid and I got to sit down with our friend Brent Holley, Senior Finance Manager of Data Center Construction here at AWS Infrastructure.This episode was like a fireside chat (a campfire actually). Brent talked to us about adding value as a finance partner and shared his philosophy on being conscious about how you spend your days. He told us a about a recent vacation too – no, not Cabo. Try, getting dropped off in the middle of the Alaska wilderness by a plane.We left much wiser than we came! This is truly valuable. Please enjoy! 2:40 | Getting dropped off in the wilderness above the Arctic Circle5:40 | a chemist business guy makes his way to Malaysia8:30 | Life in Malaysia12:20 | Returning to the states, MBA at Texas A&M, a good fit for finance13:30 | What does finance do? Act like a business person with a broad perspective.16:00 | Brent’s Leadership philosophy – empowerment20:45 | First years at Amazon (2016). Learning & scaling the finance team for AWS23:15 | 4 years experience in the role – investing in understanding the business, thoughts on rotating versus staying in one position: what do you want out of your career?25:30 | Long term view of career & post-career life – being deliberate about how you want to spend your time29:00 | Making transitions – you’ll figure it out31:00 | Career philosophy – work from the end backwards, think about the future. Don’t kid yourself, you can only be in one place at a time, prioritize and be conscious of your tradeoffs.34:55 | Focusing on ‘what’s next’, not spending time dwelling36:30 | A culture of humility at Amazon is really useful37:50 | Consuming content outside of work – Altering between Intense & Goofy. History (A cool recent book, “Empire of the Summer Moon”), sports, funny movies (‘Shawn Of The Dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’)41:30 | Big groups vs. small? Small. Brent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-holley-357692/--CONTACT THE SHOW:Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.charleskunken.com/subscribe Find us online: https://www.charleskunken.com/podcast or email the show with any questions, comments, requests for guests, etc: [email protected] on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhodi/Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleskunkenThe blog | https://www.charleskunken.com/blogsummary (weekly posts exploring creativity & mindset)Insta | https://www.instagram.com/cbkunk/ for #WritinAndRidin, a weekly 1 minute TV showfb | https://www.facebook.com/cbkunk—Theme music by Good Baby. ‘Rose Colored’ (instrumental version). You can peep the full music video here: https://www.goodbaby.band/musicvideos