Reed Hastings Quotes

“Be brutally honest about the short term and optimistic and confident about the long term.”

“Broadcast TV is like the landline of 20 years ago.”

“Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.”

“Comparing Apple to Netflix is like comparing apples to oranges, especially if the oranges made so many mistakes that people stopped eating oranges and just went back to Blockbuster.”

“Do not tolerate brilliant jerks. The cost to teamwork is too high.”

“I don't know of any Internet service that opens on a regional basis.”

“I got the idea for Netflix after my company was acquired. I had a big late fee for Apollo 13. It was six weeks late and I owed the video store $40. I had misplaced the cassette. It was all my fault.”

“I learned the value of focus. I learned it is better to do one product well than two products in a mediocre way.”

“I'm on the Facebook board now. Little did they know that I thought Facebook was really stupid when I first heard about it back in 2005.”

“I've worked very hard, but my life's always been fun.”

“If the Starbucks secret is a smile when you get your latte... ours is that the Web site adapts to the individual's taste.”

“Most entrepreneurial ideas will sound crazy, stupid and uneconomic, and then they’ll turn out to be right.”

“Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. We define entire epics of humanity by the technology they use.”

“Taking smart risks can be very gratifying.”

“The best managers figure out how to get great outcomes by setting the appropriate context, rather than by trying to control their people.”

“Truly brilliant marketing happens when you take something most people think of as a weakness and reposition it so people think of it as a strength.”

“When there’s an ache, you want to be like aspirin, not vitamins. Aspirin solves a very particular problem someone has, whereas vitamins are a general ‘nice to have’ market.”