The Hard Thing About Hard Things

How many companies open and shut after just a short life? How many startups set out, bright eyed and bushy tailed, sure to hit their targets, only to be struck, out of the blue, by a problem completely off course from the success thay had dreamt of? This happens much more often than you might think. Anyone who dips their toes into the entrepreneurial pool for the first time can make the mistake of being naïve and imagining huge success before they even come close to it. Success, as we all know, does not come easily, and it can depend on many different factors and unpredictable dynamics.

There are some precautions that we can take to help guide us through the storms that we will inevitably hit, regardless of our corporate positions, but which affect us, all the same. This, according to Horowitz, is the Hard Thing About Hard Things: navigating those unforeseen storms.

For example, managing resources during a crisis and adapting to an emergency without ever losing control of the situation is complicated. As a commander steers his ship to safety during a storm, so must the head of a company guide their business through difficult times. Their job is to analyse the situation and make difficult decisions, and this is their real challenge. It is not so much driving the company towards success, hiring the right people or even optimising the efficiency of their processes. No, the hard part is avoiding collapse when everything goes wrong.

So a good CEO, as well as directing the company, manages the critical issues, always keeping in mind that the company is, infact, primarily built on its people.