E360: Success Is About More Than Revenue

What does a successful company look like? Marc Randolph offered an answer earlier in this issue. He’s the cofounder and first CEO of Netflix, and he suggested that every entrepreneur ask themselves a fundamental question: Why are we doing the things we do? “If people are doing this because they think they’re going to be rich? Not going to happen,” he said. “If they think they’re doing it because they’re going to be famous? Not going to happen. You have to do this because fundamentally, you love solving problems.”

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This is true -- and it’s also a good way to set expectations. “Solving problems” is simply the only thing an entrepreneur can control. Nobody can engineer wealth or fame, but we can devote ourselves to the grinding, occasionally thrilling, deeply satisfying task of picking apart problems and engineering solutions. Our expectations should be set there. Our goal is to fix things. And if we do it well, a company will be born out of our ideas. (And then, that company will create even more problems to solve!)