That Will Never Work Quotes

“As you get older, if you’re at all self-aware, you learn two important things about yourself: what you like, and what you’re good at. Anyone who gets to spend his day doing both of those things is a lucky man.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder of Atari, once said something that has always resonated with me. “Everyone who has taken a shower has had an idea,” he said. “But it’s the people who get out of the shower, towel off, and do something about it that make the difference.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“You see, a startup is a lonely place. You are working on something that no one believes in, that you’ve been told time and time again will never work. It’s you against the world. But the reality is that you can’t really do it on your own. You need to enlist help. Bring others around to your way of thinking. Let them share in your enthusiasm.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“you're going to get things wrong. you just don't want to get the same things wrong twice.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“Culture isn’t what you say. It’s what you do.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“own your own business. control your own life.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“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. I only get to write this book once. And I’d feel like I missed an opportunity if I ended this story without giving you some advice. The most powerful step that anyone can take to turn their dreams into reality is a simple one: you just need to start. The only real way to find out if your idea is a good one is to do it. You’ll learn more in one hour of doing something than in a lifetime of thinking about it. So take that step. Build something, make something, test something, sell something. Learn for yourself if your idea is a good one. What happens if your idea doesn’t work? What happens if your test fails, if nobody orders your product or joins your club? What if sales don’t go up and customer complaints don’t go down? What if you get halfway through writing your novel and get writer’s block? What if after dozens of tries – even hundreds of attempts – you still haven’t seen your dream become anything close to real? You have to learn to love the problem, not the solution. That’s how you stay engaged when things take longer than you expected.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“everyone is aligned when the wind is blowing the right way. it's when a storm comes up that all of a sudden it becomes apparent that people have different goals and objectives”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“Epiphanies are rare. And when they appear in origin stories, they're often oversimplified or just plain false. We like these tales because they align with a romantic idea about inspiration and genius”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“Truths like: Distrust epiphanies. The best ideas rarely come on a mountaintop in a flash of lightning. They don’t even come to you on the side of a mountain, when you’re stuck in traffic behind a sand truck. They make themselves apparent more slowly, gradually, over weeks and months. And in fact, when you finally have one, you might not realize it for a long time.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“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.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“If people want what you have, they will break down your door, leap over broken links, and beg you for more. If they don’t want what you’ve got, changing the color palette won’t make a damned bit of difference.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“Most engineers can choose where they want to work, and the way they make their decision boils down to two questions: 1) Do I respect the people I’m working for? 2) Will I be given interesting problems to solve?”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“Nobody Knows Anything. And it’s not just in Hollywood. It’s true in Silicon Valley, too. “Nobody Knows Anything” isn’t an indictment. It’s a reminder. An encouragement.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“Epiphanies are rare. And when they appear in origin stories, they’re often oversimplified or just plain false. We like these tales because they align with a romantic idea about inspiration and genius. We want our Isaac Newtons to be sitting under the apple tree when the apple falls. We want Archimedes in his bathtub. But the truth is usually more complicated than that. The truth is that for every good idea, there are a thousand bad ones. And sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“do at least 10% more than you are asked to”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“no doesn't always mean no”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“The truth is that no business plan survives a collision with a real customer. So the trick is to take your idea and set it on a collision course with reality as soon as possible.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“So as a leader, the best way to ensure that everyone arrives at the campsite is to tell them where to go, not how to get there. Give them clear coordinates and let them figure it out.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“There are bad ideas. But you don’t know an idea is bad until you’ve tried it.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“Plenty of people ask their parents for money during the seed stage of startups. In fact, back then nobody even called it a “seed round.” People called it the “friends and family round.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“working, for me, was never about getting rich - it was about the thrill of doing good work, the pleasure of solving problems”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“when it comes to making your dream a reality, one of the most powerful weapons at your disposal is dogged, bullheaded insistence”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“took one of our biggest liabilities - delivery time - and in one fell swoop turned it into one of our biggest advantages”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“it wasn't finishing the train that he liked. it was the years of labor.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“we developed complex algorithms to accurately match supply with anticipated demand. But back then, we were just guessing.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“Focus. It’s an entrepreneur’s secret weapon.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“When you start a company, what you’re really doing is getting other people to latch on to an idea. You have to convince your future employees, investors, business partners, and board members that your idea is worth spending money, reputation, and time on. Nowadays, you do that by validating your product ahead of time. You build a website or a prototype, you create the product, you measure traffic or early sales—all so that when you go to potential investors, palm outstretched, you have numbers to prove that what you’re trying to do isn’t just a good idea, but already exists and works.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“I’m gonna pull my hair out,” I say, “and I don’t have much left.” I run my hand through the remnants of my curls, and then it happens: I have one of those all-too-rare epiphany moments. It seems like everything happens at once: The sun comes out of the clouds, and it stops drizzling. The sand truck wheezes to life and merges into the proper lane, and traffic starts to move. It feels like I can see for miles, down into the clogged heart of San Jose: houses, office buildings, treetops waving in the breeze. We pick up speed, and the redwoods fall away behind us, and in the distance I see Mount Hamilton, its crest sparkling with fresh snow. And then it comes to me. The idea that will finally work. “Personalized shampoo by mail,” I say.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

“A part of me is starting to wonder if all of my business ideas are built on a foundation as unsteady and shifty as the sand loaded into the truck ahead of us.”
― Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea