How Much Respect Can You Afford to Lose?

As I write this, Netflix is attempting to climb out of one of the most predictable business failures ever. Apparently, the only people surprised by the dismal abyss Netflix has landed in are the executives at Netflix themselves. I, along with about 100,000 other people, warned them that raising their rates by 60% was ill-advised and wouldn’t be well received…but, apparently no one at Netflix can read email or the postings on their corporate Facebook page (perhaps if it isn’t released on video, they can’t comprehend it).

At this time in our nation’s history, when nearly 1 out of 10 Americans is unemployed, it’s a less-than-an-ideal time to raise the cost of anything. But the new Netflix pricing scheme seemed particularly shortsighted in light of the fact that Netflix isn’t in the entertainment business, it’s in the “mental escape” business.  Netflix isn’t really in the business of renting videos and streaming content, it is in the business of selling a ninety minute break from an often harsh and demanding reality. The Netflix service was providing families with the opportunity to come together for a couple of hours on a Friday night, watch a movie, and temporarily forget that the world outside was not as economically forgiving as it was five years ago. But rather than make that “mental vacation” an option for even more people (aka, potential customers) Netflix chose to make it harder for the customers they already had. And, to compound the problem, they put people in a position to have to think about the very thing they wanted to stop thinking about in the first place. Money.

 

Is it any surprise that such a strategy would fail?

So what does all of this have to do with personal growth and the pursuit of excellence? Everything. Because the key to success, whether in business or in personal life, is to understand that everything is a two-way street. No one operates in a vacuum. Decisions have consequences, and no one will ever thank you for treating them in a cavalier way. All relationships, if they are to be effective, must be symbiotic. 

Marriages that aren’t partnerships fail.

Bosses who manage through command and control will fail.

Parents that talk more than they listen will fail.

Companies that examine only the bottom line, and forget that people are behind their profits, will fail.

You see, until we are no longer in this world, we must deal with the people who populate it. Inconvenient? Sometimes. Avoidable? Only if you live alone in a cave in Nepal.“Other people” are the rails upon which our train of success must travel.  Change or damage the rails and we change the direction of the train – or derail it completely.

I hope Netflix recovers; those little red envelopes make a lot of people happy. But, let’s make sure that their mistake isn’t our mistake. When we are tempted to make the next unilateral or self-serving decision, when we are tempted to deliver it as a “my way or the highway” ultimatum, it might serve us well to stop and ask ourselves:

“How much respect and goodwill can I afford to lose today?”