Netflix Founder, Silicon Valley Veteran | Jim Cook

Times are changing, and technology is continuously progressing. The world is moving fast. Innovators are now continually engaging in the battle of ideas, as seen in the products and the realities they create as they forward their visions, meeting the silver lining in the end. 

In today's episode, we listen to Jim Cook, a Silicon Valley veteran who was part of Netflix’s founding team. He gives us a glimpse of how Netflix started, some essential lessons in working inside Silicon Valley and how Netflix became the largest entertainment network today. He also shares valuable insights about trust, integrity, and freedom, which are essential guiding principles both in the network of business and maintaining relationships. 

Tune in to the podcast to learn more about the story behind Netflix’s Silicon Valley success, and essential lessons on making your network vision a reality.

3 Reasons to Listen:

1.  Discover how Netflix started. 
2.  Explore the ins and outs of Silicon Valley and its culture.
3.  Relearn basic principles and values from Silicon Valley Netflix that drive business success.

Resources

That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph

About Jim

Jim Cook is one of the six founders of Netflix. He is also a Silicon Valley veteran and was an executive at Mozilla. Jim currently serves as valuable advisor to several venture-backed networks in Silicon Valley. He is also a director for the Alliance of Chief Executives. 

If you want to learn more about building startups and be updated in business trends and the tech world, you may visit Jim’s website or follow him on Twitter. 

Episode Highlights

Lessons From The Netflix Story 

• Don't let the naysayers get you down. 
• Stay positive and passionate. Entrepreneurs love to be positive.
• If you see a vision, work backward to attain it.

“People love to be negative. Entrepreneurs love to be positive. Stay positive, stay passionate. That's a key lesson.” - Click Here to Tweet This

Working on the Vision 

• They looked forward and envisioned moving the movies to the net world. 
• They kept their vision valid in their heads, no matter how long it's going to take to fulfill it.
• It’s good to have a vision, but you must work on the present value as well.

The Three Pillars of Silicon Valley

• First, Silicon Valley has a risk culture, where failure is not judged harshly. 
• Second, it has a massive amount of intellectual capital. The entrepreneurial zones are all around the universities. 
• Third, it has a set of wealthy people who are willing to give 1% of their wealth, knowing they may not get it back.

The Risk Environment

• Control comes only after success. 
• Most of the people in Silicon Valley have a rebel mentality. 

 “You need to actually diversify the people that are surrounding you to get the best ideas on the table.” - Click Here to Tweet This

Silicon Valley’s Underbelly

• First, non-diversity. Silicon Valley has a “bro culture.” There are a lot of white male engineers who develop young white male engineers. 
• It's not about who you are; it's about the best ideas. You can't have the best ideas if you have the same type of people surrounding you.
• Second, Silicon Valley has a real imbalance of personal and professional lives. A lot of people are overworking, which puts their mental health at stake.

“We need to always recognize that balance is important, and getting unbalanced leads to bad things.” - Click Here to Tweet This

What Makes Mozilla Unique

• Mozilla is a non-profit and values-based organization. 
• It upholds that the World Wide Web links people together for the good of the world.
• It believes that communication and delivering information to the world should have no bias.
• Mozilla’s primary mission is to keep the Internet open and accessible to all.

The Mozilla Story

• His biggest challenge as a CFO is to put systems in place. 
• The toughest thing is to know how they are going to use their leverage among the Goliaths in the industry (having an increase in users in a short period). 

Maintaining Integrity in the Workplace

• You say what you're going to do, and you do what you're going to say.
• You need to be honest and authentic with people. 
• Feedback is very important. However, it needs to be safely done. 

Integrity in Relationships

• It's about respect—treat people with respect and have them treat you respectfully, as well.
• Learn from one another.
• Egos get in the way. People want to be viewed as smarter and even faster.  

“The only way you make everyone better on the team, including yourself, is to be honest with each other about what they're great at and what kind of rubs people the wrong way.” - Click Here to Tweet This

The Importance of Trust and Freedom 

• His parents gave him the freedom and trusted him. If you are trusted, do not blow that trust.
• We are tightly controlled these days. People live in fear. 
• The more you let go and the more you allow people to make mistakes and trust, the more trust that they will give back.
• Let’s foster more social networks. 

“People have amazing ideas, but you got to get it out of them. And you're not going to get it out of them if you tell them what to do every day.” - Click Here to Tweet This

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To growing and becoming all we are created to be,

Tim