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That Will Never Work
- Narrated by: Marc Randolph
- Length: 11 hrs
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That Will Never Work
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Summary
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 of, and widespread DVD adoption seemed about as imminent as flying cars. 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 proposals, like personalised 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 they 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, however, 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.
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What listeners say about That Will Never Work
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Rad
- 26-09-19
Engaging, interesting and well read
This book is an engaging story from the start. Once I started I couldn't stop listening and would sneak in any few minutes I could while in the car, walking the dogs or just sitting in the sun (which I never do, I'm always on the go).
I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to know about startup life in Silicon Valley at the turn of the century, how one of the worlds biggest .com successes launched and how long it took them to find something that people actually wanted to buy.
it's narrated brilliantly too.
Well worth a read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Maria Haase Coelho
- 29-02-20
Really enjoyed listening to this! Inspiring!
Fascinating to learn about how netflix came about. Also a motivating and inspiring story that teaches you to transform your ideas into reality!
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- Abbi Vaughan
- 25-06-22
A truly inspirational story
The whole story is thoroughly engaging throughout and is a truly inspirational read for business enthusiasts.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-06-20
Great for Startup Founder
As a startup founder I look for books exactly like this that share more than just general and normally cliche advices.
The book provide great insight into the reality of how Netflix was built from the point of view of the founder. It does miss out a lot of the details but other books like Netflixed can plug those holes.
As a founder this book is invaluable and I highly reccomend it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- B S B
- 04-11-19
excellent insight and great advice for anyone
excellent insight and great advice for anyone. was easy to finish this book and very motivational
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- Victor K
- 15-07-20
A great startup story with many lessons to learn
Recommend this book to anyone in entrepreneurship, who is interested in business or who just wants a good and enjoyable read about how, a now large company, first started off. Plus great business and even life lessons.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Shope
- 27-12-19
Great book
Always wonderful knowing how these huge companies do it. Very inspiring, a must listen 100%
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- Barryjmcdonald
- 23-11-20
Great fly on the wall story.
Really enjoyed this book. So many things could have gone wrong, but through brains and some times luck, they finally got there. I'd echo what another revised said, its hard to look at Netflix in the same light again. Really well written and read
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-02-22
an inspirational listen
I really enjoyed this book, if you like autobiographies and business success stories then this is for you.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 15-08-21
Not Bad
I think it was a very good and engaging book and it does a good job at telling the story of Netflix.
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