The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Ben Horowitz

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

21min

21min

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The Hard Thing About Hard Things clearly defines the difficult role of a CEO of any company. Using his own experience as the starting point, Ben Horowitz retraces the steps, providing a truly comprehensive guide, along with some useful advice, not only on how to lay down the foundations of a company, but more importantly, on how to navigate through the difficult times. In fact, the “hard thing” is not really managing a company in peacetime, when everything is running smoothly, but managing one during a war, when the pressure is on, emotions run high, and the risks are completely unpredictable. One can become a good CEO through experience and by making difficult tasks become easy, and impossible ones become possible. The only hard and fast rule is to fight with conviction.

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Analysis and key concepts

01.

Starting a company is easy, making it work and keeping it going is the hard part

02.

A good CEO needs to know how to fight, to roll up his sleeves, and get his hands dirty

03.

There are no precise rules to manage a company, just practical advice and useful guidelines

04.

You become a good CEO on the job, and learning how to fire your employees is excellent training

05.

Firing managers requires an even bigger effort

06.

Prepare to fire executives calmly, without causing disruption

07.

The right order of priorities for both CEOs and companies: people, product and profit

08.

Among the mistakes not to make: never give in to the temptation of hiring friends of friends

09.

The importance of vision and ambition for a CEO

10.

Embracing the fight is the secret to building a business, even in times of uncertainty

11.

Quotes

12.

Take-home message

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Many useful tips to:

  • Take a look at Ben Horowitz’s story and the journey that led him to professional success.
  • Guide anyone who is looking to start their own company and wants to get it right from the start.
  • Understand what a good CEO does and how they should behave in order to best build a healthy company.
  • Find inspiration in crisis situations and steer your ship back on course.

Ben Horowitz is an American entrepreneur. He was CEO of Opsware-Loudcloud, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2007, and is the co-founder of Andreessen-Horowitz, a company in Silicon Valley which has reached unexpected heights in only 4 years. After writing several articles in a blog about his experiences as CEO, Horowitz published the book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, a useful guide for all aspiring and established entrepreneurs.

Publishing house:

Harper Business

Year:

2014

Pages:

304

ISBN:

978-0547265452