I recently finished the book That Will Never Work: The birth of Netflix and the amazing life of an idea by Marc Randolph.
It’s a delightful read with lots of take-home messages. The introduction sets the scene perfectly. It takes time for an idea to take shape and form. You might not even realise it for some time. They make themselves apparent over weeks and months. It’s not something that comes to you as sudden inspiration on a hike. These epiphanies rarely happen. Netflix itself was an idea that took months to develop. It wasn’t even the first. In an epiphany, Marc originally thought of custom baseballs or shampoo.
Very different to mailing out DVDs to customers. Even that was not so simple and took months of evolution to settle on the best solution for how to get DVDs to customers.
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I can lose myself brainstorming a business idea. In the book, Marc writes that it is the pursuit of an idea, the impossible, that is fulfilling.
This makes sense. It is in the pursuit of things that I find meaningful. It’s in getting healthier and fitter. It was in the journey of becoming an outdoor instructor. It was in improving my hiking and climbing skills. It’s in building out the townhouse. It’s building a family.
Find the idea you need to pursue. Through that, we will find some fulfilment.
What’s mine? I’m not sure yet. I like to write about many different things. Over time, the idea will take its shape. I have no doubt.
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Nobody knows if an idea is going to work unless you actually go and do it. Some of my ideas could have been amazing. I’ll never know. There’s one idea I had that I kept coming back to over the years. It seemed right in my gut. I didn’t pursue it. It sounded too good to be true. Yet I won’t know if it has promise unless I go and do the thing. That’s another key takeaway for me. I just need to do it.
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Here’s the rest of my takeaways from the book:
- Test your idea by asking others to invest in your company with money. It’s easy to say sounds rad when it’s verbal feedback. Ask someone for money though? Different story. It’s a good litmus test.
- Think of a name later. To start, build out your idea and the problem you are solving. Thinking about how to execute. Build. Then think of a name.
- Plan and prepare but once you executive and launch, things take a life of their own. They go their own course. You then must focus on solving the problems that come up. You won’t think of them all pre-launch.
- Just because you started something and built it from the ground up, it does not mean that you are the best person to take it forward. Think about your skillset and where you should sit. You may need to replace yourself as CEO and focus on more of the creative functions. Businesses have seasons. Perhaps you are a growth CEO which is perfect for startups. Once it’s developed, you need a CEO that can maintain and focus on the long term.
- Workplace perks are good, but at the end of the day, people just want to be treated like adults. Give them freedom and responsibility. Trust them. This ties in with a lot of Reed’s ideas and advice from his book, No Rules Rules.
- Remember that nobody knows anything. Hollywood doesn’t really know what movies are going to be a hit. Silicon Valley doesn’t know what technology or app is going to be a hit. You have to try.
- Simplify your offering. Don’t confuse your customer. Focus on the core product.
- Trust your gut but test it. Before you do anything concrete test the numbers and data.
- Ask for reviews and feedback often and early. People love giving their opinion.
- Everyone is aligned when the sky is blue. It’s when there is trouble within the business such as a decline in sales that it becomes apparent that people have different goals and objectives.
- Love the problem, not the solution. That allows you to keep going when times are tough or if you have to pivot and change what the solution is.
- Happiness exists on a totally different axis than money.
- Learn what you like and what you are good at. Anyone who gets to spend their days doing both things these is a lucky person.
- Success is being able to do what you like, do what you do well, and pursue the things that are important to you.
- Start. You’ll only find out if your idea was a good one by doing it. You’ll learn more in an hour of doing something than a lifetime of thinking about it.
I highly recommend the book. It’s an enjoying read full of wisdom and personal reflection that we can apply in our own lives. Check it out.