Randolph’s Rules for Success
That will never work.
A lot of people are met with skepticism when bringing new ideas to light.
They share them with others enthusiastically just to be met with those four words. Those that are successful in bringing their vision to life, such as Marc Randolph of Netflix, ignore those words and persist.
That is one of my handful of takeaways from the book That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph.
The second is a takeaway that he kindly spelled out at the end of the book:
Randolph’s Rules for Success - a gift from his father.
Do at least 10% more than you are asked.
Never, ever, to anybody, present as fact, opinions on things you don’t know. Tale great care and discipline.
Be courteous and considerate always—up and down.
Don’t knock, don’t complain—stick to constructive, serious criticism.
Don’t be afraid to make decisions when you have the facts on which to make them.
Quantify where possible.
Be open-minded but skeptical.
Be prompt.
While I feel like I embody a lot of these characteristics and that they have all played a part in where I am today, I couldn’t help but pause and reflect on each one.
The most well-viewed people I know are those that do more than they are asked. Contrary to popular belief, they are seldom taken advantage of.
Do I ever present my opinions as fact? This is a bit harder. I am trying to teach people to be introspective. Trying to encourage them to be more open-minded. My teachings are inherently going to be imbued with opinions that I present as fact. I don’t always know what I am talking about as well as I would like as I too am learning along the way.
I am intentional in being considerate—but am I always courteous? What does that look like? I’m not one to open the car door for my wife (nor would she expect me to) but I let people in when driving in traffic and hold the door open for anybody within reasonable proximity.
Complaining gets you nowhere and this I do try to avoid at all costs. What’s done is done. If I don’t have control over it, I accept it and move forward.
Am I afraid of making decisions? Sometimes? I made the decision to make this blog and have committed myself to posting daily for a few months at this point. I have also been recording videos of myself daily for a similar duration. I have larger aspirations that I know have the propensity to significantly impact myself and others but sometimes I struggle to move those elements forward as analysis paralysis sets in.
To be honest, I am more qualitative than quantitative. Numbers help tell a story and I do use them but numbers can be deceiving and it is easy to focus more on the numbers than you need to.
This is one of my favorites as it works perfectly with how I view the world and education. Ideas and concepts are right until proven otherwise. A product is perfect until someone dares to invent something new. Open-mindedness is a gift and skepticism helps taper it from being a detriment.
This one is simple yet deeply ingrained in me from my time playing football. “If you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late” was a common phrase and I take the heart of that into my life now, although my family may disagree. It is important to respect not only your time but the time of others. It is truly our scarcest resource.
The last was one of the very last statements that he made.
You just need to start.
Need I say more?
The only way it will work is if you follow that final takeaway.
