That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

by Marc Randolph

Real innovation comes not from top-down pronouncements and narrowly defined tasks. It comes from hiring innovators focused on the big picture who can orient themselves within a problem and solve it without having their hand held the whole time. We call it being loosely coupled but tightly aligned.

“Nobody Knows Anything” isn’t an indictment. It’s a reminder. An encouragement.

sometimes the only way out is through.

But everyone with a dream has had that experience, right? You wake up one morning with a great idea that’s going to change the world! You can’t wait to run downstairs and tell your husband. Explain it to your kids. Run it by your professor. Or burst into your boss’s office to lay it all out for him. What do they all say? That will never work. By now, I hope you know what my answer to that line is. Nobody Knows Anything.

You have to learn to love the problem, not the solution. That’s how you stay engaged when things take longer than you expected.