Leadership is hard to train on.
BEN HOROWITZ
BEN HOROWITZ
More from Ben Horowitz
Here’s where we are and here’s what I didn’t recognize about us and about you when I made the decision, and now it is what it is.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz The one thing with stress is, you’ve got to keep your focus on what you can do, not what happened to you.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz There is no silver bullet. There are always options and the options have consequences.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz When I was CEO, and I’d listen to music, a lot of people listen to music and you get inspiration from it. And a lot of things in hip hop are very instructive for being in business. Particularly, hip hop is a lot about business, and so it was very useful for me in any job.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz The trouble with innovation is that truly innovative ideas often look like bad ideas at the time.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz A lot of it is on the job training, combined with excellent mentorship.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz Nothing motivates a great employee more than a mission that’s so important that it supersedes everyone’s personal ambition.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz 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 HorowitzBen 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 HorowitzBen Horowitz The important thing about mobile is, everybody has a computer in their pocket. The implications of so many people connected to the Internet all the time from the standpoint of education is incredible.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz The bigger you get, the harder this gets because the more aggressive the people working for you are.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz Every time you make the hard, correct decision you become a bit more courageous, and every time you make the easy, wrong decision you become a bit more cowardly. If you are CEO, these choices will lead to a courageous or cowardly company.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz The right answer on raises is you have to be formal. You have to be formal to save your own culture.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz What do you get when you cross a herd of sheep with a herd of lemmings? A herd of venture capitalists.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz How do you make your company a good place to work in general? That’s a really really really large and complex set of skills.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz In life, you don’t have a level of confrontation and the nonsense you run into when you’re a CEO. CEOs aren’t born.
Ben HorowitzBen Horowitz
Original quotes
From our community writers
Caught inside my mind trapped between its horrid lines losing precious time.
Carmen AmadosCarmen Amados Some women will have you look at life differently.
Eleni SophiaEleni Sophia The biggest reward often require the largest risks.
Nicole BrownNicole Brown Being with you is familiar, like playing guitar after some time; the theory is there but my fingers have forgotten the chords.
AstaAsta Late-night conservations, Breathtaking memories, and an endless sky full of unseen dazzling stars. That’s how I want to remember us.
AurthurAurthur Nothing is more terrifying than falling in love.
Helena DegnHelena Degn People who cannot see through souls will keep searching for beauty in faces and will never find it.
Shilpa GoelShilpa Goel There is someone out there waiting to love you in all the ways you deserve.
Ashley PrzywolskiAshley Przywolski
Meet the writers
More on hard
I’m very friendly or whatever, but I would hardly say that I’m that cookie-cutter. I don’t live in L.A. or New York. I live in Texas, and I go to hole-in-the-wall bars, so there’s no paparazzi there.
Kelly ClarksonKelly Clarkson Heaven… I’m in heaven, and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak.
Irving BerlinIrving Berlin Twitter is like hugging. Just because it’s hard to measure the return on investment doesn’t mean there isn’t value there.
Tony HsiehTony Hsieh It’s hard to find true love in the age of digital sex.
Frank ZFrank Z Your life is not going to be easy, and it should not be easy. It ought to be hard. It ought to be radical; it ought to be restless; it ought to lead you to places you’d rather not go.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen God has allowed hard things in your life so you can show the world that your God is great and that knowing Him brings peace and joy, even when life is hard.
Francis ChanFrancis Chan Dancers have more bones than most people and on the days when you work hard you are sure that you have somehow accumulated more bones than you started with.
Martha GrahamMartha Graham Really see me. Then I remember who I am, and that no one wants to see the parts of me I try so hard to hide. It’s a plain fact, not something I pity.
T.L. MartinT.L. Martin