Former Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach says attitude—not MBA or network size alone—is the key to career success, a view Amazon's Andy Jassy shares

Eschenbach, who stepped down as Workday CEO in February 2026, told McKinsey's Inside the Strategy Room podcast (episode released August 2025) that 'the attitude that you bring to the office' ultimately determines success, and that he saw transformative change once he shifted 'from a life of success for myself to a life of significance for others.'

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy echoed the message to LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky in 2024, saying 'an embarrassing amount of how well you do, particularly in your twenties, has to do with attitude'—suggesting that an MBA or large LinkedIn network may not help as much as a positive disposition.

Eschenbach also advised young people to build lasting networks ('the power of your network is only as strong as the number of nodes that are in it') and to 'lean into technology, don't be afraid of it' rather than fear AI job automation.