PremiumWork-life balance has become something of a myth in today's world as a growing number of people adapt to ‘hustle culture’. But as millions rush to squeeze extra hours out of their day, Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph insists that ‘keeping his life balanced with his job’ has allowed him to stay ‘sane’.
“For over thirty years, I had a hard cut-off on Tuesdays. Rain or shine, I left at exactly 5 pm and spent the evening with my best friend. We would go to a movie, have dinner, or just go window-shopping downtown together," he explained in a LinkedIn post earlier this week.
The former Netflix CEO said that he made sure ‘nothing’ got in the way of his Tuesday evening plans.
“No meeting, no conference call, no last-minute question or request. If you had something to say to me on Tuesday afternoon at 4:55, you had better say it on the way to the parking lot. If there was a crisis, we are going to wrap it up by 5:00," he wrote.
Randolph was one of the co-founders of Netflix in 1997 and served as the company's first CEO. Over the years, the serial entrepreneur has also helped found the US edition of Macworld magazine, two computer mail-order businesses, served as a mentor at MiddCORE and as a board member for several organisations and groups.
“Every successful company I can think of started out doing something that bares only a passing resemblance to what they eventually became successful with…Netflix, for example, started out as a video-rental-by-mail (with due dates and late fees) before eventually morphing into a subscription service, and then (9 years after launch) to a streaming company," he had remarked a few days earlier.
The tech entrepreneur however associates his success with his family life rather than the many companies he started or their success.
“…the thing I'm most proud of in my life is not the companies I started, it’s the fact that I was able to start them while staying married to the same woman; having my kids grow up knowing me and (best as I can tell) liking me, and being able to spend time pursuing the other passions in my life. That’s my definition of success," he wrote on LinkedIn.