Fall in love with the problem: Netflix's secret to success and your path forward. Your "perfect" plan is holding you back.

Have you ever felt stuck in life or business, unable to make progress despite having what seems like a perfect plan? This espisode is definitely for you then! The problem might not be your goal, but rather your attachment to how you think you should get there. Life isn't a clearly mapped journey but more like walking through fog - we can glimpse our destination in the distance, but the path only reveals itself as we take each step forward. This insight transformed how I approach challenges, from personal uncertainty to business strategy. Netflix co-founder Mark Randolph perfectly captures this wisdom with his advice to "fall in love with the problem, not the solution." The most successful entrepreneurs and leaders understand that rigid plans rarely survive contact with reality. Like Navy SEALs who follow the terrain when it conflicts with their map, true progress comes from adapting to what's actually happening rather than what we thought would happen. This is why companies that endure for decades constantly evolve while maintaining their core purpose. The experimental approach to life and business follows a simple 5-step framework you will learn in this episode. This scientific mindset removes the emotional attachment to particular solutions that often keeps us spinning our wheels when we should be pivoting. Whether you're building a business, improving your health, or developing relationships, treating life as a series of experiments rather than a fixed plan creates freedom to evolve and ultimately find what actually works. What experiment will you design this week to move past your current challenge? Share your thoughts, subscribe to hear our upcoming episode featuring a Google expert on experimental career design, and join our community of change-makers ready to embrace the uncertainty of the fog while steadily moving forward. Text Me Your Thoughts and IdeasSupport the showBrought to you by Angela Shurina Behavior-First Change Leadership & Culture Transformation ConsultantEXECUTIVE & OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE COACH

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. Let's get wired for change. I just came back from climbing Lanzhat in Cape Town, somewhere, you know, in the middle of nowhere, on the edge of earth, which feels surprisingly very central and just an epic place to be. So if you've never been to Cape Town, by timeout, number one place to live in when we're talking about quality of life. So I came back with extra energy. So you're gonna feel it throughout this episode. Guys, my name is Angela Sharina. I'm your host, executive coach, leadership coach, culture transformation consultant, obsessed with behavioral science, no matter what I do.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  And on this podcast today, we're gonna talk about how to get more success in life, in business, when you're trying to improve your health, or if you build better relationship, build better business and just grow in life faster, better, more productively, like feeling, really feeling that you are going somewhere in this life and you are not the same person as you were a year ago, several months ago, even yesterday. So the journey of self-exploration, development, growth, you're gonna learn how to do it better and why you might get stuck.

• 1:27Speaker 00

  And all of us get stuck so often, so frequently, and how to get unstuck faster and better and maybe not get stuck ever anymore, once you learn this system. Once you learn how to approach your life, your business, your relationships as experiments, as the map, the path that is unfolding in front of you as you go. Like imagine fog and really thick fog. And while you're walking into it, you don't really see much in front of you, behind you, anywhere. But once you start walking, you start seeing your path unfolding in front of you

• 2:09Speaker 00

  more and more and more and more, the more you walk. And life is a lot more like fog, not like a walk on a sunny day when you see so clearly what's ahead of you. Life is more like fog when We don't get a full map. We might wanna go, oh, you know, there was a glimpse of this vision or that direction and that destination, but we don't ever get to see the full map. And sometimes we get the feeling, this fooling or feeling that is mirage, not true, that we have a map, that we know how it should be unfolding, we know how the map looks, when

• 2:51Speaker 00

  in reality, we actually don't. And it's more like a mirage. So how to navigate life where you don't know much? And how the sense or our feeling or perception that we know how the life should go, how it actually makes us get stuck in life and in business and in relationship and everywhere is a stubbornness that we know. And therefore, we don't accept the things as they are, but instead we are stuck in our own minds. And I promise you, you're gonna get a step-by-step solution. And once you apply it to your life and to your business, things will start moving. Now, I don't know where they're gonna be

• 3:35Speaker 00

  moving, nobody really knows, but they will start moving in the direction where you actually wanna go. So let me explain. I went for a hike this Friday morning, is when I'm in Kim Town, I usually do. And on the way back, I got to talk to this amazing individual, his name is Sean. And we started talking about, you know, what's been, we haven't seen each other for a few months. And I told him, you know, the major thing that I took away from this trip back home to Russia is this realization about how life actually works. It works one step at a time, and we never have a full map. It's more like, oh,

• 4:16Speaker 00

  I see this treasure somewhere in that direction, I wanna go there, I know what I'm gonna, what I wanna do, what I wanna build, I, and I have sort of sense the future that I wanna create. But we never get a full map. And it's like, again, walking in the fog. And to cut the long story short, he said, well, how did you come to realize that? What, when did this switch or shift in beliefs happen? And I thought to myself, I'm like, you know, it didn't happen like change of belief or mindset of some struck of, I don't know, revelation or some God's inspiration.

• 4:59Speaker 00

  It was nothing like that. It actually was that I set an experiment and I decided to test it. What I kind of knew might be the case and I decided to test it. And on one morning when I woke up and I'm like, that probably was the worst decision in my life to come to Russia, where I didn't know what would happen. Like I had this status that is undefined. I'm not citizen here or there and there are like maybe taxes and I need to change passport. Like I woke up in almost cold sweat in Russia and I'm like, that might have been the worst decision in my life. I'd be just stuck here with no passport and just not knowing what to do with my life moving forward for a while.

• 5:43Speaker 00

  But instead of that, I'm like, you know, I believe that I can find a solution when I just dedicate myself to taking it as it comes, one step at a time and I can figure it out. And by the end of this summer, I'm going to be back to Cape Town climbing Lion's Head again. And I set the experiment and because we are walking with you here, Sean, it worked. And so now I'm a believer, not because my belief got stronger somehow, but because I set the experiment and it worked, just like it did many times ago. I just this time I consciously set this experiment out. I decided I'm going to figure it out and I decided I'm gonna take it one step at a time.

• 6:27Speaker 00

  And I decided that I'm gonna let go of the rest, what I could not control, like what's gonna happen in the tax office or in the passport office and all of that stuff. I did not have any control of how those things would go, but I knew that I believed that if I took one step at a time, there is a solution because I wouldn't have this strong desire if there wasn't. So I decided to trust the universe, do its part as well and it worked. And here I want to jump into a business realm, guys. Do you know Netflix? You probably watched it at least once. Mark Randolph, one of the co-founders of Netflix, has this saying, "Don't fall in love with the solution,

• 7:13Speaker 00

  fall in love with the problem." So when they started Netflix, they wanted to create a different experience, delivering that kind of entertainment in a more convenient way for the consumer, for us, right, for the entertained. And Blockbuster, at the time, they had this video rental stuff, and it was a hustle, and if you were late, you had to pay these fees and all that stuff. And they, and they thought to themselves, there gotta be a better way. They didn't think, you know, we're gonna create Netflix, the streaming stuff, and in the future, we're gonna dominate the whole industry. No, they just thought, you know, there is a problem, and I think it could be done better.

• 7:57Speaker 00

  And they fell in love with that problem, and they keep delivering on that better and better and better. And again, they're not focused on delivering specific solution. They are very passionate and focused on solving this problem, delivered entertainment in the most convenient, fast way possible for the consumer, for us, that is. And being an entrepreneur for a while, and among entrepreneurs, among startups, and also having in my network and coaching people who achieved success, who are sort of on the other side of entrepreneurial success. I watched it again and again and again,

• 8:42Speaker 00

  that people, entrepreneurs and business owners and leaders who succeed, they succeed because they also fall in love with the problem, with the destination, so to speak. And they let go of how it's gonna unfold. They have some sort of plan, but they're fully prepared to abandon the plan once they learn, so to speak, in reality, in real world, here and now. And the terrain changes. And the plan that they have doesn't match this terrain, then they follow the terrain or the reality, they follow the problem. Navy SEALs have this saying, "When you have a map..."

• 9:23Speaker 00

  And you land and terrain is different, basically the actual environment. You follow the terrain, not the map, because the map is a fiction. Terrain is reality. And so very often, we focus so much, not just on the destination, the goal, but also on how we focus on the solution, like it has to go exactly this, step by step. And there has to be no problems in our way. I figured it all out. I read the best books and listened to the best experts. And I asked my super duper friends in startup entrepreneurial environment. And we have all the solutions necessary, so we're just gonna execute it flowlessly.

• 10:07Speaker 00

  And if you've been alive, you know, that's not how life unfolds. You always get stuff that you don't expect, challenges, the problems, also the good stuff, and everything and anything in between. And so people who actually move forward and iterate and grow and change things up and figure things out that work, the most successful people, subconsciously, sometimes consciously, like Mark Randolph, who writes about this all the time, fall in love with the problem. They know that you want to have a destination, something in mind that you wanna build, that you wanna create, but how it's gonna unfold, the solution, the path, you never

• 10:48Speaker 00

  get a full map, just like walking in the fog. And so, guys, the takeaway from today, whether you are trying to get fitter, build certain relationship, romantic or business relationship, whether you're trying to build a business to solve any problem or innovate, figure out what are you trying to do, what problem you're trying to solve, or just the vision. And actually, the more flexible your vision is as well, the easier it's going to be for you to adjust. So first step to navigate life and complex problems and business problems. And whenever you wanna, you have a complex goals that depends on many things that you don't control.

• 11:34Speaker 00

  So the first step is to define the vision, the problem, where you're going. So you need to have a destination in order to make choices and filter out what works, what doesn't. So you have a destination. Then the second step, you have an insight. You read books, you talk to smart people, you learn from your own experience, your stuff that worked for you. So you have a bunch of insights. So you choose one, ideally take one with the simplest parameters you can track. So you choose an insight and you design an experiment. Okay, this is what I'm gonna do. This is what my thesis, how it's gonna go. And this is my success criteria. This is my failure criteria. And in that amount of time, let's say in a week and two weeks,

• 12:17Speaker 00

  you know, I, I decided on my client. I decided that this offer, I think, gonna really take off with them. So for the next week, I'm gonna offer this to them and see if there is any good reaction. You see, the problem is a lot of entrepreneurs. So when we decide to, let's say, get fitter and we think, well, this diet and exercise program will work. We fall in love with the how and we keep pushing it even if it's not working. You're like, I can't be on this diet or I can't do this exercise program. Guess what? You can change it and still achieve your goal. And in fact, if you stick with things that don't work, you'll never reach a goal. So get, let's get back to the full plan.

• 13:01Speaker 00

  How you approach life on or achieving complex goals in business and fitness in relationships anywhere. But before we jump into the full map, the full solution, don't forget, guys, if you're learning something cool, interesting, something you wanna discuss with other people, you wanna put into practice, nothing better than learning and applying with others that keeps you accountable and keeps you learning more and improving. Other people are tremendous sources of knowledge.

• 13:32Speaker 00

  Sorry, have a bit of a something in my nose. But anyhow, so before we jump into our full map, don't forget to share it. So you get to learn with others, apply it better, get more ideas and have someone to keep you accountable to apply it and do better, not what you usually do. Right. So share this podcast episode with people, rate, review. That really helps us to reach more people and make the world better. So be a part of the change, be that leader who delivers insight that help people to improve and move forward.

• 14:04Speaker 00

  Then back to our full map. So the first thing you decide on your destination, or as Mark Randolph would say, fall in love with your problem. Like this is where we're trying to go. Right. Then you figure out a few insights based on your experience, based on what you learn from books, from, you know, people smarter than yourself. So you're also testing good things, not just random stuff. So it has more chance to work out. Okay, you have a bunch of insights. You decided to choose based on your environment, based on your thinking, one or two to test. Again, let's say business environment and you decide on one client, on one offer.

• 14:45Speaker 00

  And for the next week, you're gonna make as many offers as possible, like this kind of offer in many different ways to this specific audience. And for a week, you're gonna be testing that. And then at the end of the week, you're gonna look at the numbers and you're gonna define, okay, this is what I heard, this is what I thought I would hear. And let's say it's a failure and you're like, well, I didn't actually get good reply. So then you look at the numbers, you observe them as a scientist. And then you make a decision, well, based on these numbers, based on these results, on the criteria that I had and the, on the assumption that I had before, based on all of this data that I now have after testing it, does it make sense to continue?

• 15:27Speaker 00

  Or is it better to test something that has a much bigger chance to succeed? Or at least, you know, something different that actually has a chance to succeed versus this thing, this solution that I fell in love with, that nobody wants. Give you an example, people want to lose weight, yes? And they often, people who want to help them will say, well, you just go on this diet. The problem with that. People don't wanna go on a diet. So even if you have the best diet, people don't want it. So they have the problem that you think about, but they don't want your solution. And that's why fall in love with a problem. Figure out how can you help those people who don't wanna diet to still achieve their goal of

• 16:10Speaker 00

  weight loss and better health, et cetera. And that's where testing and experiment, experimenting really helps. It helps you to help people in a way that they want to be helped. Instead of trying to shovel, to make them get your solution, make them buy your solution, even though they don't want it, even for free. And that's where you start struggling. You're like, there is something wrong with my marketing. Maybe not, maybe people just don't want your thing and they have the problem and they wanna solve it, but they just don't want your solution. So in your interest is to actually try to figure out the solution that people actually want, instead of trying to change people, which is super, super hard, guys. Everyone knows, changing people, changing yourself is super hard, leaving alone other people.

• 16:55Speaker 00

  So who do you think you are, like God or even for the God? I think it's quite difficult. But anyhow, you see where, what I'm talking about here. The more you fall in love with the destination, with the problem, not with how, not with solution, the more you work as a scientist in real life and in business, you have the problem, you have the destination where you wanna arrive. You design a bunch of tests and you run one test at a time and you get your insights. And through testing and rapid experimenting, that's what Lean Startup is also about, you observe and you find the solution. And then now you try that solution again. And if it works again, you now have really good chance that this solution is something that can work in real life, not just in your head.

• 17:40Speaker 00

  And then you apply it and if it works consistently, you scale it. And that's how you win. That's how you win in business. That's how anyone won in business ever. That's how you win in health and fitness. That's how you win in relationship. That's how you get unstuck and start growing consistently faster personally, professionally in all the ways. You get to decide the destination, but the map there, you never decide, you never get a full map, and it will always be different from what you think. So fall in love with the problem and test many solutions, as many as possible, until you find what actually works. Fall in love with the problem, not with the solution, from the co-founder of Netflix, Mark Randolph.

• 18:25Speaker 00

  And you can see how the most longstanding companies, you know, Meta used to be, Facebook, it used to be in college, and it used to be serving other people. They didn't know what they're gonna do as a business. And look at what they're now. They're almost like doing the completely different thing. They are mostly Instagram, at least to my knowledge, because I'm an Instagram user. So you can see the most successful companies from Google, the whoever, whatever company you see, which stood the test of time, decades and decades and decades, they shaped, shifted and changed in so many different ways. Some course stayed the same, like usually the mission, the purpose, what they're trying to do in the world.

• 19:06Speaker 00

  Even though even that very often has to be reinvented to match the time, to match the terrain. Like let's, well, we can talk about different companies. I'm not sure what you are into. But you see what I mean here. So get the goal, get the insight, set up the test, run the experiments and move forward based on data that you get from real life, not falling in love with your, with what's in your head and trying to push it on the world when like, people don't wanna die, you know, there is little you can do about that.

• 19:39Speaker 00

  And that's it, guys. Hope you found this useful and are eager to apply it into your life. So over to you, dear leader, dear listener. A few problems that you're working on in your personal professional life, even one. How can you, for the next week, design an experiment to understand what is a better way to move forward there versus trying to push your agenda on real world? Which again, really works. You need to kinda go halfway, but the universe have to go halfway as well. So what one experiment will you run in one of the challenges where you are stuck to figure out a better way? Experiment, which one you're gonna run. And again,

• 20:24Speaker 00

  Have the destination, what you're trying to achieve. Have a bunch of insights. Also, AI is here to help, to help you brainstorm. Set up the test and criteria of failure and success. Run the test for the predefined amount of time. Then sit with the data and analyze how it worked, what didn't work. And then decide whether you need to run a different test or tweak this test. And decide how you're going to proceed based on the learnings, not on your thinking. That's about it, guys. So apply it. Let me know how it worked. If I can help you in any other way, please reach out. Stay tuned for an upcoming episode on Monday with a guest from Google,

• 21:09Speaker 00

  who has done amazing work on teaching the rest of the world how to run your life and business and your career. One experiment at a time. Discovering your path versus being stuck in the past or some outdated ideas. So stay tuned for that. And till next time, stay ready to be wired for change. Thank you, guys, and talk to you very soon.