Truth can be painful. So often subconsciously we choose to distance ourselves away from it — often, without even realizing. Learning about ourselves, being purposeful, and setting our goals, requires constant self-reflection and self-realization — this is the path of delving into our inner truth and key to self-improvement. Unlike food and utilities, you can’t buy self-improvement. You can’t bribe your brain.
Everyone wanders on this path of self-discovery. This applies to people from all walks of life, including billionaires — the movers and shakers of the world.
In a recent interview with CNN, Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix, has this to say about the value of feedback, “Getting feedback is painful. It’s like doing crunches and push-ups. But it’s when it hurts you that you get stronger.”
This is an interesting analogy between the inner workings of the brain and our physiological response to exercise. We make many excuses to avoid working out — it’s either too hard or painful (not everyone appreciates post-workout pain). In much the same way, we avoid self-reflection because the truth is often painful. We prefer to stay trapped in our illusions, a world where nothing can go wrong. It can become a narrow prism — a prison constricting and limiting our true potential.
The real world is chaotic and unpredictable. We need an open mindset to consider multiple possible interpretations and create meaning. Learning how to untangle and sort through experiences is the key to overcoming barriers. For entrepreneurs, this, ability to create meaning from experiences is crucial to ongoing growth and development.
“Fighting Feedback is Our Natural Inclination” — Reed Hastings
One of the key takeaways from Reed Hastings’ interview is that there’s always room for improvement. Hastings recalls how one of his ‘feedback sessions’ with Netflix employees almost brought him to tears, “One of our vice presidents said that I was unempathetic and that I don’t really encourage criticism.”
Despite all his success, Hastings took this confrontational event as a learning experience and prodded his team to find more flaws for him to work on. Hastings could have chosen to shut down the criticism (and the critic) with an iron fist — but he chose to welcome criticism instead.
It’s painful to hear the raw truth but it offers one of the strongest potentials for growth.
Of course, we can choose to isolate ourselves, limiting our own ability to grow and succeed. Feedback is one of the reasons why Hastings believes that work-from-home during the pandemic is a “pure negative” for Netflix. It may seem ironic when you think about it, “why does a streaming company need its employees to work from the office?”.
Because the true meaning of success is measured by intrinsic goals as opposed to using materialistic markers of growth. The lack of meaningful relationships can be a huge deterrent towards self-reflection and growth.
Hastings mentions that Netflix’s most pivotal moments of growth came as a result of forging relationships with people — as opposed to relegating itself to being just another streaming company.
He suggests actively seeking meaningful relationships with other people — because this is how we can grow as a business too. Only when we work on our flaws can we become the version of ourselves we dream about.
