The best managers figure out how to get great outcomes by setting the appropriate context, rather than by trying to control their people.
Don’t be afraid to change the model.
On the Internet you get continuous innovation, so every year the streams are a little better.
But as an entrepreneur you have to feel like you can jump out of an aeroplane because you’re confident that you’ll catch a bird flying by. It’s an act of stupidity, and most entrepreneurs go splat because the bird doesn’t come by, but a few times it does.
When there’s an ache, you want to be like aspirin, not vitamins. Aspirin solves a very particular problem someone has, whereas vitamins are a general ‘nice to have’ market.
Be big, fast and flexible.
Tomorrow when you come to work, if it doesn’t make the customer happy, move the business forward, and save us money – don’t do it.
Broadcast TV is like the landline of 20 years ago.
Truly brilliant marketing happens when you take something most people think of as a weakness and reposition it so people think of it as a strength.
Stone Age. Bronze Age. Iron Age. We define entire epics of humanity by the technology they use.
Our brand at Netflix is really focused on movies and TV shows.
Great leaders, like Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos, also focused on the long term.
I think there will be 20 years of evolution from linear broadcast to internet television.
I don’t know of any Internet service that opens on a regional basis.
The Netflix brand for TV shows is really all about binge viewing. The ability to get hooked and watch episode after episode.
In fact, technology has been the story of human progress from as long back as we know. In 100 years people will look back on now and say, ‘That was the Internet Age.’ And computers will be seen as a mere ingredient to the Internet Age.
What’s got me excited about the education space is the growth of the Internet over the next 10, 20, 30 years.
Comparing Apple to Netflix is like comparing apples to oranges, especially if the oranges made so many mistakes that people stopped eating oranges and just went back to Blockbuster.
Fibre optic is becoming like electricity. If you look at how electricity spread around the globe 100 years ago, that’s what’s happening now.
I founded Netflix. I’ve built it steadily over 12 years now, first with DVD becoming profitable in 2002, a head-to-head ferocious battle with Blockbuster and evolving the company toward streaming.