Marc Randolph who started Netflix, talks in his new book That Will Never Work, about playing with with some early crazy ideas for a company way back in 1997. He had few believers, and would be about to go through many calamities.
He eventually settled on a video streaming service called Netflix with the aim one day of being as big as ONE Blockbuster video shop. Many dramatic deep ups and downs followed, would test Randoph’s beliefs in what he was doing to the limit and beyond.
He even flew for a presentation to Blockbuster to offer them to buy his company in 2005, but the boss of Blockbuster literally laughed in his face when he said he wanted 50 million dollars for it, as video streaming even then was very much on the rise, and Blockbuster’s arrogance fuelled him to prove them wrong and take them on head on.
Randolph made it his mission to beat Blockbuster and put its horrid and hated trading practices to bed once and for all.
Blockbuster like most of the Gym industry, relied on a huge part of its income through dreaded and hated late fees. Gyms rely on hooking you up to hated contracts, you never showing up or at least trying to catch you out with 31 days to cancel.
This is one practice I despise with gyms, I know you do too, and that’s why we never do it. Keep your members by serving them well in every session and getting results for them, and not through contract trickery.
Gyms, trainers, business of all kinds will come and go. If anyone wants to tie you up to a long term contract, run a mile because they should have confidence to keep you by their quality of service full stop.
All businesses should be about retaining the people you have, and keep providing them with an incredible service and never take them for granted.
Blockbuster a once huge business went into bankruptcy just 5 years later after laughing Randolph and Netflix out of town, and Netflix eventually went on to attract 150 million customers that would revolutionise the world in terms of how most people watch TV.
Treating their customers incredibly well was a the core of their idea from the very start. They stuck to their principles, their great service despite everyone trying to knock them down especially when the so called “big boys” got worried. The comparison between them and Blockbuster became like night and day.
It shows that if you have an instinct and passion for doing the best for people, can develop some resilience from coming back from a few knockdowns (because they WILL come), then literally anything is possible. The more people tell you that your idea WILL NEVER EVER WORK, the more you should knuckle down harder, keep refining your approach and prove them ALL wrong.
