Receiving the Impressive "Just Do It" Award by Russell Grandinetti at Amazon

👉 See my article: My Journey from Africa to Amazon as a Cloud Architect
👉 See my article: My Amazon Offer as an Information Technology Engineer
👉 See my article: Rejected by Amazon. Here's What I Learned

By 2024, I had built a software tool that went viral internally at Amazon. Engineers across different teams started testing it, and some even suggested submitting it for a security review to expand its reach beyond France to Europe.

One day, an engineer from Sunnyvale, USA, reached out and said:

“We’ve been trying to build something like this for years with little success. Would you be open to making this an official product?”

It felt like an acquisition of my idea to be moved to the USA, since important decisions came from the headquarters, right? 😄

My manager was extremely supportive and encouraged me to present my work to a larger audience. Most of this development happened during my free time—outside billable work hours. I was simply building because that’s what I do.

I don’t usually like attending in-person global meetings and prefer remote participation. But in November 2024, my manager insisted I attend our annual leadership meeting in Paris.

🏆 Winning the Just Do It Award

At the meeting, the time came for recognizing employees who had made significant contributions. The venue was a packed 900-person theater in Paris.

Suddenly, our Vice President, Russell Grandinetti, stepped on stage and announced:

“Our ‘Just Do It Award’ recognizes employees who exemplify two of our core values: Innovation and Bias for Action.”

Then he continued:

“This year’s winner has developed a tool that is revolutionizing our laptop migration process. The solution streamlines Windows laptop migrations for Amazon and AWS users, reducing the process to just 2 hours. It is fully cloud-integrated and entirely customizable.”

“The Just Do It Award goes to… Sadou Bah!”

💥 I was in shock. My imposter syndrome kicked in. How did I, a kid from Dakar who didn’t even know about Amazon 10 years ago, win one of the most prestigious internal awards?

I walked onto the stage, completely overwhelmed. I barely remember what I said. But after the event, I found myself in the restroom, and I just started crying.

It hit me—I had been working tirelessly for years, building tools (many of which failed), persuading Amazon decision-makers, and pushing solutions globally. And now, I was being recognized at the highest level.

🌍 Final Thoughts: From Dakar to Amazon’s Global Impact

Looking back, I never imagined I would end up here. From trying to buy a phone battery on Amazon without even knowing what Amazon was, to receiving an award from its global leadership, my journey has been anything but ordinary.

🚀 Key Takeaways

• ✅ Every rejection is a lesson – My first AWS interview rejection made me focus on improving my English, which later paid off.
• ✅ Be open to new opportunities – Even if it’s not your first choice, entering Amazon opened doors for me to reach AWS.
• ✅ Keep building – Many of my tools failed, but the one that succeeded changed everything.

If someone had told my 17-year-old self in Senegal that this would be my future, I wouldn’t have believed them. But here we are.