Why the Best RevOps Leaders Choose the Harder Path—Lessons from LinkedIn's Akira Mamizuka
Akira Mamizuka, VP of Global Sales Operations at LinkedIn, attributes his success to choosing challenging paths—such as a rigorous technical high school in Brazil and leaving a promising McKinsey partnership to join LinkedIn early—prioritizing hard work, meaningful impact, collaborative culture, and personal growth over comfort and prestige.
On a recent episode of Revenue Mavericks, Akira Mamizuka, VP of Global Sales Operations at LinkedIn, shared insights from his nearly 12 years scaling one of tech's most iconic companies. What stood out was his philosophy: choosing difficulty over comfort, impact over prestige, and people over frameworks.
1. When Hard Work Becomes Your Operating System
Akira made a pivotal decision in high school, opting for a demanding public technical program in Brazil over the easier path his friends took. This program required Saturday classes, advanced physics, and a heavy workload.
"I compared my life with my other friends who stayed in normal high school or private high school. And my life was just miserable compared to their lives. I had classes on Saturday the whole day. So it was very intense."
Though he envied his friends at the time, Akira later recognized this choice as formative, instilling a strong work ethic and giving him an early advantage in quantitative thinking that benefited his career.
2. Walking Away from Partnership to See What Happens Next
After eight years at McKinsey, where he rose to engagement manager, Akira was on track for partnership and financial rewards. Yet, he felt unfulfilled:
"I realized that I wanted to see the impact of my work, not only in terms of delivering a recommendation to clients, but seeing what happens next, both good and bad."
He wanted to experience the outcomes of his work, not just deliver recommendations. This led him to leave McKinsey and join LinkedIn when it was still a startup in Latin America. Before making the leap, Akira considered what mattered most:
- The mission: A company doing good for the world—helping people get jobs, helping companies grow.
- The culture: People who work well together, help each other, and bring lightness to their work.
- The talent: Colleagues he could continue learning from, not just teaching.
Another factor was his family:
"I had my first son at the time. He was one, one and a half years old. I realized that I was not being a present father to him and I was not showing up as the dad that I wanted to be."
Career-defining moments often require walking away from what's working to pursue what matters more.
3. The Only Framework That Actually Matters
When asked about his secret to success, Akira cited advice from his mentor Brian Frank:
"Hiring is the most important thing you do as a leader."
Not a complex methodology, just a simple truth. If you hire great people, they will make up for your mistakes. If you hire the wrong people, no framework will save you.
Akira attributes his success at LinkedIn to building and developing a tremendous team:
"The reason that I've been successful at LinkedIn was because I had a tremendous team and I hired and developed a tremendous group of people who delivered exceptional impact."
Hiring decisions are rarely easy. Sometimes you're tempted to hire someone you know well or someone who's been waiting the longest. But making the best hiring decision—not the easiest one—has a disproportionate impact on everything that follows.
Why This Matters for RevOps Leaders
Akira exemplifies what separates good revenue leaders from great ones:
- The discipline to choose the harder path because you know it compounds
- The courage to walk away from prestige when impact matters more
- The wisdom to prioritize people over process
- The honesty to admit that great teams matter more than great plans
The best revenue organizations aren't built on perfect frameworks. They're built on people who elevate each other, multiply impact, and figure things out together.