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That Will Never Work

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That Will Never Work

By: Marc Randolph
Narrated by: Marc Randolph
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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 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.

©2019 Marc Randolph (P)2019 Octopus Publishing Group
Business Business Development Business Development & Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship Professionals & Academics Inspiring Thought-Provoking Success

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All stars
Most relevant
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.

A great startup story with many lessons to learn

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Please tly surprised to find out this was actually narrated by Marc Randolph himself.
I found the book captivating and insightful.

This book would suit both a hopeful or newbie entrepreneur or someone just generally interested in the Netflix journey from a simple brain fart idea to the behemoth it is today.

I felt connected to Marc's story and even got close to tearing up at points in the final chapter.
I've decided to listen to it again in case I missed any nuggets.

Well worth a listen or read!

I almost teared up at the end.

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I have learnt so much in this book being a young tech entrepreneur myself.

I have learn the values of partnership, forming the right partnerships etc. Values of having the right people and team around u.

overall, its a great book

Amazing stuff

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Amazing book worth every minute of it. Easy to listen, the best narration I’ve ever heard in an audiobook and very interesting story.
Well done! Cannot recommend enough!

Amazing book

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I'm expecting to hear the story about the Netflix digital streaming but it's about netflix the dvd rental. there are good knowledge being shared about journey of the founder but becoming very boring half way through

Nice build up but becoming hard slog from mid

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