That Will Never Work
The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea
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That Will Never Work
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Narrated by:
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Marc Randolph
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Written by:
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Marc Randolph
About this listen
In the tradition of Phil Knight's Shoe Dog comes the incredible untold story of how Netflix went from concept to company—all revealed by co-founder and first CEO Marc Randolph.
Once upon a time, brick-and-mortar video stores were king. Late fees were ubiquitous, video-streaming unheard was of, and widespread DVD adoption seemed about as imminent as flying cars. Indeed, these were the widely accepted laws of the land in 1997, when Marc Randolph had an idea. It was a simple thought—leveraging the internet to rent movies—and was just one of many more and far worse proposals, like personalized baseball bats and a shampoo delivery service, that Randolph would pitch to his business partner, Reed Hastings, on their commute to work each morning.
But Hastings was intrigued, and the pair—with Hastings as the primary investor and Randolph as the CEO—founded a company. Now with over 150 million subscribers, Netflix's triumph feels inevitable, but the twenty first century's most disruptive start up began with few believers and calamity at every turn. From having to pitch his own mother on being an early investor, to the motel conference room that served as a first office, to server crashes on launch day, to the now-infamous meeting when Netflix brass pitched Blockbuster to acquire them, Marc Randolph's transformational journey exemplifies how anyone with grit, gut instincts, and determination can change the world—even with an idea that many think will never work.
What emerges, though, isn't just the inside story of one of the world's most iconic companies. Full of counter-intuitive concepts and written in binge-worthy prose, it answers some of our most fundamental questions about taking that leap of faith in business or in life: How do you begin? How do you weather disappointment and failure? How do you deal with success? What even is success?
From idea generation to team building to knowing when it's time to let go, That Will Never Work is not only the ultimate follow-your-dreams parable, but also one of the most dramatic and insightful entrepreneurial stories of our time.
©2019 Marc Randolph (P)2019 Hachette AudioWhat the critics say
"Netflix was built on the vision and creative DNA of one man—Marc Randolph. As the founding CEO, his leadership defined the culture of Netflix and laid the groundwork for successive, global revolutions in how we make and consume entertainment. His willingness to step aside so that his co-founder Reed Hastings could scale up the company stands as an example of humility and self-knowledge that is rare in the startup world."—Gina Keating, author of Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs
"Marc is an unusually brave soul. Marc's genius in recognizing that not knowing frees you to experiment and observe and to ultimately win."—Lloyd Tabb, founder of Looker
What listeners say about That Will Never Work
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gab
- 2024-02-11
MUST Read / Listen
If you are looking for an inspiring story to help you put your challenges into perspective and self-reflect on what is the true meaning of success, this us the book! All the way up there with Nike Shoe Dog from Phil Knight. The audiobook version is vibrant, making those 11 hours feel like a handful of minutes...
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sean
- 2021-05-25
Solid Listen
Was great to hear all about the trials & tribulations of one of 2021’s biggest global companies! Thanks for writing this book, Marc.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anthony
- 2019-11-09
Nobody Knows Anything
Wow! I had a hard time getting into the first part of the book, but about halfway through I just couldn’t stop. This book is inspiring, eye opening and just plain fun to read.
I could write down a lot of amazing quotes, but for me if there is only one to remember it is “Nobody knows anything”, any idea could be the good one, you have to trust yourself and be willing to fail. This book deserves to be read and read again, I starting noticing the value of it closer to the end when everything was coming together.
Make yourself a gift and buy this book.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Luc N.
- 2020-08-22
Great book
Very interesting piece. You should read to open your mind on early startup in 1995.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Laura
- 2020-08-19
Leaves you anting a sequel
Written and read with great passage and a vivid description of what it took to constantly manipulate an idea into the submission of holistic success.
Thanks for the encouraging read. Idea train has left the station!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2022-02-20
A great listen
I enjoyed it from start to finish. Great description of events and great lessons about business and life. Recommended.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2022-11-22
Great start up story
This is a great story of what a start up goes through. It’s very exciting and motivating to hear the story of how Netflix started.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sarah
- 2021-12-28
Slow paced, detailed but worth the read
I got impatient reading this book as there is a lot of detail and mini side stories, while they do tie together it really stretches out the book. As someone who expected more of a business book this is more of a novel. I did get into it though, especially towards the end. And learned some interesting lessons through the stories. Overall I’d recommend it but you’re gonna be bored at times even listening at 1.25 speed.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Richard P.
- 2022-05-20
Amazing story
Amazing story, well performed. I read this one a little while ago and can't even remember if it was the original author doing the reading.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Jake
- 2019-12-20
A Memoir Worth Hearing
Mark does a fantastic job of sewing together the narrative of the Netflix story in a way that is both educational and engaging. Well done. I highly recommend to budding entrepreneurs.
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