Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content material officer, has performed a pivotal function within the firm’s evolution over the previous 9 years, main its enlargement into reside occasions, sports activities, and shaping globally profitable originals like Bridgerton and Emily in Paris. However lengthy earlier than her rise on the streaming big, she confronted a setback that she now describes as one in every of her biggest studying experiences, reported CNBC.
Earlier than becoming a member of Netflix in 2016, Bajaria was fired from her function as president of Common Tv.(Raajessh Kashyap/HT)
Earlier than becoming a member of Netflix in 2016, Bajaria was fired from her function as president of Common Tv after 5 years marked by sturdy artistic achievements, together with forging partnerships with celebrated skills like Tina Fey and Mike Schur.
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‘Big public failure’
Talking on the 2025 Changemakers Summit in Los Angeles, she known as the expertise a “big public failure,” however emphasised how a lot it taught her. “There’s amazing books and quotes and all this stuff about [how] you learn so much from failure, and failure is important, and you’re not trying hard enough if you’re not failing,” Bajaria mentioned in dialog with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin. “And all of that is true, but then when you fail, nobody wants to talk about it.”
She famous that the stress to be flawless typically stops girls from acknowledging setbacks. “We’re supposed to be perfect,” she mentioned, including that being fired is seen as “a blemish.”
The months following her dismissal have been significantly tough. Bajaria struggled with the emotional fallout and commenced questioning her value. “All those amazing shows, all these great relationships I built; I treated people so fairly. We had a lot of success — it meant nothing,” she recalled pondering.
Nonetheless, the response she obtained from colleagues and the trade shifted her perspective. “I quickly realised, as the phone rang and I got job offers and everybody reached out and people were really supportive, it all mattered,” she mentioned. “The way I treated people, what I had done, the impact I left, it all mattered.”
She took consolation in realizing she may very well be pleased with her previous work. “I knew I could always look at myself in the mirror and [think] I liked what I had done. I didn’t have any shame around what I did. I thought it was really a great, successful run,” she added.
Whereas Bajaria acknowledged that “the first three months were really rough,” she now views the expertise otherwise. “In retrospect I am so grateful that it happened,” she mentioned. “I’m not scared of getting fired. It’s very liberating, actually.”
Underneath her management, Netflix has expanded its content material choices to incorporate main reside occasions like comedy specials, award exhibits, WWE programming, and even NFL video games. The platform additionally dominated final 12 months’s awards season, incomes 107 nominations throughout 35 initiatives, the very best for any studio at each the Oscars and the Emmys.
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