"An engaging read that will engross any would-be entrepreneur" ( Wall Street Journal ), now updated with a new afterword by the author: In the tradition of Phil Knight's Shoe Dog comes the incredible untold story of how Netflix went from concept to company -- all revealed by co-founder and first CEO Marc Randolph. Once upon a time, brick-and-mortar video stores were king. Late fees were ubiquitous, video-streaming unheard was of, and widespread DVD adoption seemed about as imminent as flying cars. Indeed, these were the widely accepted laws of the land in 1997, when Marc Randolph had an idea. It was a simple thought--leveraging the internet to rent movies--and was just one of many more and far worse proposals, like personalized baseball bats and a shampoo delivery service, that Randolph would pitch to his business partner, Reed Hastings, on their commute to work each morning. But Hastings was intrigued, and the pair--with Hastings as the primary investor and Randolph as the CEO--founded a company. Now with over 150 million subscribers, Netflix's triumph feels inevitable, but the twenty first century's most disruptive start up began with few believers and calamity at every turn. From having to pitch his own mother on being an early investor, to the motel conference room that served as a first office, to server crashes on launch day, to the now-infamous meeting when Netflix brass pitched Blockbuster to acquire them, Marc Randolph's transformational journey exemplifies how anyone with grit, gut instincts, and determination can change the world--even with an idea that many think will never work. What emerges, though, isn't just the inside story of one of the world's most iconic companies. Full of counter-intuitive concepts and written in binge-worthy prose, it answers some of our most fundamental questions about taking that leap of faith in business or in life: How do you begin? How do you weather disappointment and failure? How do you deal with success? What even is success? From idea generation to team building to knowing when it's time to let go, That Will Never Work is not only the ultimate follow-your-dreams parable, but also one of the most dramatic and insightful entrepreneurial stories of our time.

Want to know what it really takes to get to the top? Seymour Schulich is one of the most astute, savvy, colourful-and controversial-businessmen in North America. Having amassed a spectacular self-made fortune worth more than a billion dollars, Schulich is better known for his generous philanthropic work: such as his endowment of the Schulich School of Business at York University and, more recently, his $25 million donation to the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario. In the summer of 2005, Mr. Schulich donated $25 million to the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Calgary-renamed The Schulich School of Engineering in honour of his donation-followed by a further $20 million donation to the Faculty of Music at McGill University (now known as The Schulich School of Music). Get Smarter is a lifetime's worth of wisdom and insight distilled into a straight-talking, no-nonsense, blunt and often very funny "roadmap" to success. It is meant primarily as a mentoring tool for 20- to 40-year-olds with entrepreneurial aspirations. Why? At age 20-reflecting upon his own experience-Schulich realized he knew very little about the way the world worked. And that's fine. He had lots of years to find out. The problem begins around age 30, he writes, when the average person begins to think he has acquired wisdom. It is only much later that one comes to understand just how little one actually knew. This book attempts to impart the lessons learned by a materially and, more important, relationship-successful older person to today's youth. In fifty short, stand-alone chapters such universal issues as - how to make a decision, manage all types of relationships, choose a career, deal with adversity, plus key business and investing issues are explored. The objective, he writes, paraphrasing Oliver Wendall Holmes, is to stretch young people's minds with new ideas, age-old truths and insights such that they never return to their original dimensions. There are lots of books and manuals out there about how to get rich. This is the only one about how to get smarter. In business...and in life. Praise for Get Smarter : "A marvelous little book..." - Diane Francis, Financial Post "It could be one of the most important business books of the year." - Canadian Business