Netflix had quite a night on Saturday.

Perhaps one they'd rather forget.

After months of hyping a massively anticipated live boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, the first live event of its kind on their platform…

…the servers gave out, with buffering messages and stall-outs causing intense frustration and catty name-calling from all over the globe.

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I won't take the bait here and pile on about the importance of trial runs, contingency plans, and expectation setting…

I'll even resist invoking a “you had one job” meme…

Instead, I'll offer them some grace and focus on the lesson here that growing pains are a universal feature of offering something new.

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Think of it this way — Netflix has literally all the cash, talent, and resources they’d ever need to pull off a broadcast like this.

They knew there would be tens of millions of people watching.

I’m sure there were, in fact, many dry runs and failsafes.

And yet there was still risk, and they still faltered.

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When you’re feeling the jitters about launching that new service you’ve been workshopping…

Or building the nerve to reach out to that dream client…

Or fumbling with anxiety in those first few sales calls out on your own…

Remember there’s no such thing as 'totally ready.'

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Even the big guys slip up early on, and we all just work to get better over time.

💡

-Wes

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(Now, if Netflix botches Beyonce’s live Christmas Day performance, I may be back humming a different tune...)