Former Netflix boss says working smarter, not harder is the secret to success — how to use this philosophy in your personal finances

Start with a sprint to get ahead

Randolph's first example of working smarter, not harder, comes from his experience participating in triathlons in his younger years. As Randolph explains, the races didn't have a tiered start. You'd compete with hundreds of people jumping into the water simultaneously, so you had to act fast.

"You quickly realize that if you want to be able to survive in this mass start, you’re going to sprint for those first 4, 5, 600 yards to get yourself far enough in the front of the pack that you have open water," he explained. "Ideally, you get yourself far enough ahead that you recognize, I can’t go at this pace for the entire triathlon. I needed to get myself some breathing room, but now I can back off."

This is great advice for business, but even more so for finances. Pushing yourself to start investing as much as possible when you're young can really pay off in the future.

Let's say you start at a sprint, working hard to save $523 per month between ages 20 and 30. If you can manage a 7% average annual return, you'll turn $62,760 in total investments over the decade into an $86,712 account balance by 30. Even if you never contribute another dime to your account, your $62,760 contribution would grow to over $900,000 by 65.

By contrast, if you waited until age 30 to start investing, you'd have to invest over $550 per month every month until age 65 to end up with the same amount. As you can see, working smarter by pushing yourself to save early pays off big time.

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Focus on the right problems

Focusing on the right problem is another critical piece of advice from Randolph.

He explains how he often found himself late for planes and constantly ran to the gate. However, when he arrived, the plane was usually late, and he had plenty of time to board, or it was gone. The running didn't make the difference because the number of times he’d make the plane when he ran but not make it when he didn't was infinitesimal.

Ultimately, the problem wasn't whether he ran or not — whether he made the plane or missed it was determined by other things. "if you’re smart about the things that you choose to focus on, you make 99% of the difference," he explained. "All that extra work doesn’t change the outcome any.“

Again, this lesson translates perfectly to personal finances. Far too many people agonize over stuff that doesn't matter much — spending an extra $2 on coffee or an additional $10 a month on lunch. But in all likelihood, it won’t determine whether you end up wealthy or not.

Instead, focus on the things that actually make a difference. Randolph could have made his plane if he'd left earlier. You could become rich if you considered the thousand-dollar issues, such as keeping your housing and transportation expenses affordable, rather than sweating the small stuff.

Don't wait until everything is perfect to make a change

Finally, Randolph's last lesson related to how his perfectionism almost prevented him from trying out new things to make Netflix a success.

He explained that when the company was getting off the ground, they'd spend weeks setting up the perfect testing process for each new idea — only to have it fail after wasting a month. This was working harder, not smarter because they lost time and got nothing done.

When they got faster and moved forward with trying out ideas before waiting until everything was perfect, they could do more tests and ultimately hit upon a winning formula. "If it was a bad idea, spending a month crafting the perfect test wasn’t going to make it a good idea. But if I had even an inkling of a good idea, no matter how bad the test was, it showed through," he said.

Regarding your finances, you can't afford to wait until everything is perfect to do the right thing. Don't spend months researching exactly which high-yield savings account to put your emergency fund in — just open an account that's good enough and start saving. Don't wait until you're an investment expert and you can invest 15% of your income — start when you can afford $10, and stick with simple investments like S&P funds to start growing wealth.

Taking quick, decisive action helps you avoid getting so bogged down in details that you never get anywhere. So, start making the right money moves early and often to set up your future financial success, and focus on the big money decisions, not the small ones. Working smarter, not harder, might be the best thing to happen to your financial life.