The Hard Thing About Hard Things By Ben Horowitz Book Summary And Notes

Table of Contents

Ben Horowitz

One of the most esteemed and seasoned businessmen in Silicon Valley, Ben Horowitz is the cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz. Horowitz was exposed to a variety of viewpoints from a very young age. His grandparents were Communist Party members, and his parents were raised with the ideology. He was able to distinguish between reality and perception by viewing the world from various angles. When he started his own business, this talent was quite useful. Horowitz genuinely believed in “Treating your staff properly and always telling them the truth” despite the difficulties. He was aware that it is the innovator’s responsibility to choose the best product.

the hard thing about hard things book summary

Horowitz discusses his experience as a founder-CEO and the difficult decisions he has had to make in his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things. He provides guidance on handling difficult situations as a leader, a subject that business schools do not touch. While most management books emphasize doing things right, Ben provides advice on what to do if you make a mistake.

Venture capitalist after being a Communist

You don’t know anything until you try to learn about someone or something.

There are no fast cuts to learning, and the majority of learning comes from firsthand experience. It can be worse than knowing nothing at all to rely on shortcuts and conventional wisdom.

You must learn to distinguish between reality and perception. The author advises looking for alternative stories and explanations with vastly different points of view. Looking for these opposing viewpoints may help you and your employees regain their vitality. He also used this strategy after growing up in a communist family. Horowitz looked for a fundamentally new viewpoint rather than adopting this one. His path to becoming a venture capitalist began with this.

I Will Survive

The most crucial guideline for privately raising capital is to research the market. Just one investor needs to agree. So, even though thirty others have declined, do not worry.

Two feelings are connected to running a startup: joy and terror. You need to surround yourself with individuals who can support you through these two intense feelings. The author lists two categories of friends he seeks out:

When anything positive occurs, you may call them, and they’ll be happy for you.
When anything terrible happens, you can call this person.
You must then treat them well if you wish to keep these pals.

However, even if your pals break up with you, you still need to treat them nicely. According to Horowitz, if you don’t treat the individuals who leave fairly, the people who stay will never again have faith in you.

Once more, feeling

Learn by Failing

Sometimes going outside and purposefully falling on your face is the only way to survive. You do this in order to learn quickly and become aware of what is required for success. This must be ingrained in each and every employee. You will encounter delays if not. According to Horowitz, single individuals are virtually usually to blame for project delays in huge corporations. Therefore, your organization as a whole needs to execute this rapid learning strategy.

Produce what the client demands.

Customers’ perceptions of what they desire from a product are limited. Their experiences with current products have informed their current wants. So, it is the innovator’s responsibility to find the ideal product for the target market. Don’t leave it up to the customers to handle this. Your innovator’s perspective has the advantage that they can take into account every scenario. Having said that, your innovators must possess a trifecta of wisdom, aplomb, and daring. Sometimes what you should be concentrating on is what you’re not doing.

When Things fails

“An organization sometimes only requires clarity—not a solution.” Benji Horowitz

Horowitz uses his company, LoudCloud, as a personal illustration of how to respond when things go wrong. A board member of LoudCloud gave him the advice to get ready for bankruptcy when the company’s chances of survival were slim. In spite of this, he never created a backup plan. He thought CEOs shouldn’t take chances. You need to have faith that there is a solution when you’re starting a business. Therefore, you can’t focus on your chances of getting the right answer. Instead, all you need to do is locate it. Importantly, there won’t be a foolproof method for overcoming the particular difficulties you may experience.

Becoming focused and taking the best action when it looks like there are no good options is essential to being a great CEO. There are a few things you can do when things get too complicated and the struggle starts.

Do not take on the entire burden of the company’s difficulties. You should distribute your workload as evenly as possible among the most intelligent people.
CEOs ought to speak the truth. They must also guarantee that unofficial information and ideas are freely exchanged. Keep away from following the outdated management rule, “Don’t bring me a problem without providing me a solution.”
At some point, you will have to let people go. Therefore, set your priorities straight by concentrating on the company’s future rather than its past. Do not wait. A whole new set of problems will develop if word gets out before you carry out the decision. Be specific about the necessity to fire people. If the company’s inability to achieve its plan is the reason, then acknowledge that failure. Increase the trust of those who are still on board by being present and visible.

Peacetime CEOs vs. Wartime CEOs

According to Hororwitz, there is a considerable difference between a CEO during peacetime and a CEO during wartime. The two categories are contrasted below across several domains:

A CEO in peacetime understands that following the rules will result in success. A CEO in a wartime breaks rules to succeed.
A CEO in peacetime keeps an eye on the larger picture and gives employees the freedom to make specific decisions. If a piece of dust gets in the way of the main objective, a CEO during wartime will care about it.
A CEO in peacetime creates scalable, high-volume hiring systems. In addition to doing that, a CEO during a wartime creates HR departments that can carry out layoffs.
A CEO in peacetime takes their time to establish the culture. A CEO during a war allows the conflict to determine the culture.
A CEO in times of peace always has a backup plan. A CEO in a time of war is aware that sometimes you must take every risk.
A CEO in peacetime is aware of how to use a significant advantage. A CEO during a war is paranoid.
A CEO who works in peacetime tries not to swear. Sometimes a wartime CEO may intentionally use vulgar language.
A CEO in a moment of peace sees the rivals as distant ships on a vast ocean that may never clash. A CEO during a wartime views the rivalry as intruders seeking to abduct their children from their home.
A CEO in peacetime wants to grow the market. A CEO during a war wants to gain market share.
When combined with effort and ingenuity, changes from the plan are generally tolerated by a CEO in peacetime. A CEO in a time of war is totally intolerant.
A CEO at a time of peace doesn’t yell. A CEO during a war rarely uses a normal tone of voice.
A CEO in times of peace seeks to reduce conflict. The paradoxes are heightened by a CEO in a war.
A CEO in a time of peace aims for widespread support. A CEO in a time of war does not encourage consensus-building and does not put up with conflict.
A CEO in peacetime sets bold objectives. A CEO in a time of war is far too preoccupied to study management books.
A CEO in a time of peace invests in their staff’s professional growth to ensure happiness. A CEO in a time of war teaches his staff to be prepared for challenges.
Rules like “We’re going to exit all businesses where we’re not number one or two” are typical of a CEO during peacetime. A CEO in a period of war frequently does not run any profitable firms, hence they cannot afford to abide by this rule.

Prioritize taking care of the customers, the products, and the profits.

Horowitz contends that cultivating a supportive work atmosphere is essential. Because people spend the majority of their waking hours at work, workplace surroundings are crucial. You’ll advance more quickly if you provide your staff with benefits like these. The author argues that when things are going well, being a good firm is irrelevant. However, if something goes wrong, it might mean the difference between life and death.

When everything is going smoothly, providing a healthy workplace implies your staff will benefit from:

Career advancement when the business expands. Attractive positions open up naturally.
They will dazzle their loved ones and friends.
Having experience at a blue-chip firm during its peak strengthens their resume.
They’ll get wealthy.

All those reasons, though, vanish when things don’t go well and turn into justifications for them to go. When things go wrong, an employee’s love of their job is the only thing that maintains them at the company. Despite the challenges, they nevertheless appreciate their jobs and the environment in which they operate. As a result, the book provides the following guidance for growing your team:

Rather of hiring for lack of weakness, hire for strength.
Have clear expectations for potential hires to understand that not all of your employees are up to par (including you). Nobody is flawless.
Involve many individuals in the brainstorming process, but make the final choice by yourself. Decisions reached by consensus frequently tilt the process in favour of weakness rather than strength.

Regarding the Current Concern

It is possible for significant work to go undetected as organizations expand. The best office politicians can be preferred over the hardest workers. Bureaucratic procedures can sometimes stifle genuine productivity and creativity.

It’s critical to reduce internal politics as your business expands. Politics promotes self-promotion rather than advancement based on performance or contribution. Therefore, you must follow Horowitz’s four recommendations for reducing politics in a company:

Employ those who have the proper kind of ambition. The ideal kind has success-oriented ambitions for the business. Success for the CEO should follow naturally.
Maintain stringent guidelines and procedures for organizational structure, performance reviews, career advancement, and compensation.
Promote seasoned workers by evaluating their performance in relation to goals, management aptitude, inventiveness, and interpersonal skills
Make sure that supervisors and staff have one-on-one sessions. These provide staff with a great forum for discussing concepts, pressing problems, and ongoing complaints.

How to Lead Even When You’re Not Sure of Your Position

Every startup CEO should put more of an emphasis on what has to be right than on what needs to be wrong. Keeping your mind under control is one of the most challenging undertakings. You must act forcefully and decisively without coming across as erratic. Find a confidant who is aware of your situation so you can talk to them to get your nerves under control. Write down your thoughts, obstacles, and concerns to help you concentrate on your goals.

You should refrain from telling your staff that everything is alright when the company is having trouble. According to Horowitz, employees are not naïve, and by speaking the truth in talks, you may assist your team get through these challenging situations.

The first entrepreneurial rule is that there are no rules.

This chapter addresses a recurring issue in this book: there are no rules in business. Even though things can appear to be going well, anything can happen at any time. Therefore, you must be willing to adjust your strategy and refrain from adhering to specific rules. Spend your attention instead on enhancing creativity and responsibility inside your firm. The success of a corporation depends on these two characteristics. Horowitz concludes this chapter by stating that there are no definitive solutions—only that “it depends.”

The End of the Beginning

Early in my engineering career, I had discovered that all choices were impartial up until the first line of code was produced. All decisions made after that were emotional. Benji Horowitz

Horowitz begins his own narrative by explaining how he joined Hewlett-Packard after selling Opsware. His conviction that he wanted to do something else was strengthened by this experience. He made the decision to launch a business that assists technical entrepreneurs in managing their businesses. The best leaders for technology firms are technical founders. All enduring innovations, such as Intel, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook, prospered under the leadership of their innovator.

Horowitz wanted to demonstrate to the creators of this new business that challenges are difficult because there are no simple solutions. They are challenging since your emotions and logic don’t always agree. They are challenging since you are unable to seek assistance without appearing to be a helpless person.

His company can offer mentorship based on his expertise and understanding, even though it cannot give a founder CEO all the abilities. Leaders can learn the harsh lesson about the hard things from this company.

I always find myself saying, “It’s fine, but that wasn’t truly the hard thing about the issue,” after reading a management or self-help book. Setting a large, hairy, daring aim is not difficult. Laying off employees after falling short of the main objective is difficult. It’s not hiring excellent people that’s difficult. The challenging part comes when those “wonderful people” start to feel entitled to and start making excessive demands. Not creating an organizational chart is the challenging part. Getting individuals to communicate within the organization you just built is the challenging part.

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The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz Book Summary