Reed Hastings Quotes

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

“Don't be afraid to change the model.”

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

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

“Be big, fast and flexible.”

“Fibre optic is becoming like electricity. If you look at how electricity spread around the globe 100 years ago, that's what's happening now.”

“Taking smart risks can be very gratifying.”

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

“On the Internet you get continuous innovation, so every year the streams are a little better.”

“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.”

“In 20 years from now we will all be able to click and watch TV.”

“If you have a team of five stunning employees and two adequate ones, the adequate ones will sap managers' energy, reduce the quality of group discussions, and show the team you accept mediocrity.”

“We didn't do much farming for dissent in those days. I was messianic, convinced this is the right move — and it turned out that lots of people had severe doubts, but they didn't know the other executives had doubts.”

“Does the firm survive? The turnover in the S&P 500 is terrifying. Most of the time change in the world overtakes you.”

“The horse was the dominant form of human transportation for about 5,000 years. And then in one generation, from 1900 to 1930, everything changed with the internal combustion engine. The trick is to realize, those are pretty rare.”

“This book is really designed to be an antidote to 300 years of industrialization. For 300 years we've been factory, factory, factory. That's influenced our management paradigms to where the boss is top down, there's no errors, there's lots of process. For innovative or creative organizations, it's really much better to go with flavors of creativity and freedom and responsibility.”

“The few times I've done investing, I've lost my shirt. I realize I'm just so optimistic. Anybody who seems to have a good idea, I'm like, 'Sure!'”

“It's healthy for leaders to have a reservoir of self-doubt, because it's how you create an internal dialogue and how you check your assumptions.”