Every successful career I've ever known was filled with long periods of meandering, months or even years when no one knew what would happen next. Look at me: I started as a geology major turned failed realtor. I then ended up founding several companies, one of which ended up becoming @Netflix.

Find the smartest person who will take you seriously, and do whatever they ask.

“Nothing matters if the dogs don’t eat the dog food.” I had that phrase taped to my monitor for years to remind me that even the best marketing wouldn’t compensate for a substandard product. Because you know what shouts louder than advertising? Having the product actually be great.

Let me be honest with you. Something bad is bound to happen. That’s out of your control. But you can always control how you respond to it. Treating customers well is one of the cheapest, easiest ways to surprise and delight them. And treating them poorly is one of the surest ways to chase them away. I’m often baffled by the decisions some companies make about how they handle customer problems and concerns.

How I learned to start companies:

Trust your gut, but also test it. Before you do anything concrete, the data has to agree.

Stop telling me your company is like a family. It’s not. When was the last time you fired someone from your family? “Son, your mother and I have been talking, and we’ve decided to outsource ‘taking out the trash’. I’m afraid we’re going to have to let you go.” At Netflix, for example, we never thought of ourselves as a family. We always considered ourselves more like a sports team. And not a Little League team, where everyone gets to play and at the end of the season everyone gets a trophy. No, we were a professional team playing at the highest level, and my responsibility as manager wasn’t to make sure everyone got playing time. It was to make sure I put the best possible team on the field for every game. I did that because I owed that to the team owners. I owed it to the fans. And most importantly, I owed it to the other players. I learned a long time ago that what the best players want is not just a friendly attitude in the locker room. They want to know that everyone excels at their position. They want to know that everyone will be trying as hard as they can. They want to win. That’s why a manager’s job is not just to hire well and motivate your team to be the best they can be. It’s also to make sure that when someone isn’t holding their end, you’re the person who sits them down and explains why you’re sending them down to the minors. This is especially hard in a startup, because in almost every case, the players you start with aren’t going to be the ones you finish with. At the beginning, you’re looking for generalists. Since you don’t yet know what they will need to be great at, you want people who are good at a lot of things. You want people who are comfortable with the fact that their job description is going to change weekly. You want people who are motivated by the adventure, rather than by stability. That first team is going to give you everything they have. They’ll leave better paying jobs with great benefits to work for a fraction of their salary. They’ll work nights and weekends. They’ll do everything you ask—and then some. So it’s especially brutal when your company is just starting to take off, and you have to sit someone down and tell them that they won’t be coming with you on the next stage of the journey. Or that you’re bringing in a more experienced executive over them. That part is neither easy nor fun. But it’s the job. And if I can’t do that, I don’t deserve to be in my position either.

Interviewing is a horribly inexact science. You just can’t know how well someone will perform in a role until they’ve actually had a chance to do it. So be careful not to set up a hiring process so rigid and exacting that it guarantees you only hire great people. Not only will you slow your hiring to a crawl, but you’ll have certainly turned away dozens of people who would have been amazing - had you only given them the chance to show you that they could be.

I always believed things would be successful. Even when everyone else said my ideas were ridiculous. Even when we were almost out of money. Even when the metrics were all upside down. I always have confidence that I'll figure something out. That things are going to work out fine.

Working hard is a choice, not a requirement. Jensen Huang clearly thrives working dawn to dusk seven days a week - he's doing what he loves. But it's a disservice to imply every successful company requires that level of obsession. It doesn't. Success certainly correlates with hard work, not obsessive work. For every founder who works continuously and succeeds, hundreds work just as hard and fail. There are scores of factors that go into a company's success (luck being paramount), so if you beat the odds and become that one in a thousand, you never really know if your company succeeded because of you, or despite you. When reading about successful founders who worked constantly, remember: Survivor Bias is a B*tch. Working that hard for long periods comes at a cost - to your health, relationships, and ability to chase down the other joys that make you whole. You have to push back - because a startup is a demanding mistress. It's never satisfied no matter how much time you put into it. Whatever pace you choose, prepare for the long haul. Jensen has been building Nvidia for 31 years. While recent years have been intense, he knew when to sprint, when to walk, and when to step away entirely. During Netflix's launch, I often only managed rushed family dinners before returning to late-night office sessions. Years later, testing Netflix kiosks in Las Vegas, I spent months away from home. Not many date nights that summer. But I learned ways to unleash beast mode when needed while maintaining balance. When I couldn't find balance daily, I looked for it weekly. And if weekly wasn't possible, I aimed for monthly. I learned years ago never to run for airplanes, because going all out rarely determines success or failure. Pick your battles and don't obsess over the small stuff. I've helped found seven startups, including two billion-dollar outcomes. Yet my proudest achievement is staying married, having my kids grow up knowing me, and pursuing my other passions. This proves you can be a founder without working constantly. That's a success we can all aspire to.

Trust your gut, but also test it. Before you do anything concrete, the data has to agree.

As entrepreneurs, or artists, or just people with dreams, the worst thing you can do is get so caught up in planning the perfect idea that you never get around to actually... well, doing it. Don’t build perfect castles in your mind.

Entrepreneurial progress is like geology: 99% happens in 1% of the time. Between breakthroughs, expect long periods of apparent stillness. Patience.

If you wait until you can see the end of the path... by the time you've figured that out, there will be 100 people who got there before you.

Progress is rarely continuous. Entrepreneurial growth happens at geologic pace - 99% of progress in 1% of time, like landslides and eruptions, with long inactive periods between.

HOW you ask for something really matters. And it depends heavily on context. There are a lot of things you need to consider when deciding how to go about it: - what you’re asking for - who you’re asking - your relationship with them - the power dynamic between you - and even gender. But there’s one certainty: you have to ask. So go ahead. Asking may not get you the answer you want. But if you don’t ask, the only answer you’ll ever get is “No.”

I’m Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix & 6 other companies. This is my definition of success:

When I was in my twenties I worked like a dog: first to arrive, last to leave, regularly working weekends. Not because I had a demanding boss—I just loved what I was doing. But after several years of this—and some not-so-subtle encouragement from my girlfriend (now wife)—I finally backed off that schedule a little bit. But by that point I had built up many of the skills I’d use for the rest of my career as an entrepreneur. I learned the techniques that let me get the critical things done while still leaving time to have a life outside of work