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I think theres a lot to be said about just enjoying your work. It can be very contrived when people say their work is for the good of mankind.

Ben Horowitz

Generally the reason they fail in the job is, you made some mistake in the hiring process in that you didn’t match… them to the needs of your company accurately enough. That’s the #1 reason this fails. And that’s generally a good place to start.
BEN HOROWITZ

Accurate Decision Good Jobs Mistake Place Reason
The only thing that prepares you to run a company is running a company.
BEN HOROWITZ

Company Repair Running
You’re better off being The Beatles than The Monkees, as a startup.
BEN HOROWITZ

Better Startup
I don’t believe in statistics. I believe in calculus.
BEN HOROWITZ

Believe Statistics
There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained from personal experience. Following conventional wisdom and relying on shortcuts can be worse than knowing nothing at all.
BEN HOROWITZ

Knowing Knowledge Gain Nothing Shortcut
Leadership is hard to train on.
BEN HOROWITZ

Hard Leadership Train
Yeah, I became a successful entrepreneur… Eventually
BEN HOROWITZ

Become Entrepreneur Successful
It’s pretty clear that [customers] know what their budgets are now, and what they want to spend it on.
BEN HOROWITZ

Clear Customer Want
Your employees know each other better than they know you.
BEN HOROWITZ

Employee Knows Management
Groupon looked like a very high valuation, but any investment in a great company at any stage is almost always a good investment.
BEN HOROWITZ

Great Company Investment Stage
Most large mistakes in organizational design come from putting the individual ambitions of the people at the top of the organization ahead of the communication paths for the people at the bottom of the organization.
BEN HOROWITZ

Ambition Communication Mistakes
You know what the difference between a vision and a hallucination is? They call it a vision when other people can see it.
BEN HOROWITZ

Differences People Vision
When raising money, you want to look through the lens of ‘What happens when things go wrong?’
BEN HOROWITZ

Lenses Looks Want
I believe in strength over lack of weakness.
BEN HOROWITZ

Believe Strength Weakness
I emphasize to C.E.O.s, you have to have a story in the minds of the employees. It’s hard to memorize objectives, but it’s easy to remember a story.
BEN HOROWITZ

Mind Remember Stories
One of the great things about building a tech company is the amazing people that you can hire.
BEN HOROWITZ

Building Great People Things

I think theres a lot to be said about just enjoying your work. It can be very contrived when people say their work is for the good of mankind.

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I think theres a lot to be said about just enjoying your work. It can be very contrived when people say their work is for the good of mankind.

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Popular Authors

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