Ben Horowitz's "The Hard Thing About Hard Things": Strategies for Building a Business When There Are No Easy Solutions

bert979: It’s a solid read with lots of good insight. Entertaining enough, but goes over a lot of practical points for leadership and management.

United States on Oct 09, 2023

sauravag: Written by the best in the business. I recommend this to anyone struggling in their founder ceo role or planning to become one

United States on Oct 01, 2023

Vineet: I am in awe of this book

India on Sep 14, 2023

: One of my top five business books, probably

Italy on Jul 22, 2023

Amazon Customer: #"The Hard Things About Hard Things": A Fascinating Insight into Overcoming Challenges

#Author's Explanatory Approach: The book provides a detailed account of the author's personal experiences in tackling the most challenging aspects of his work, shedding light on the hurdles he faced and conquered.

#Strategies for Success: The author shares his innovative techniques, including using lead shots to tackle issues head-on, offering valuable insights on effective problem-solving.

#CEO's Perspective: The book delves into the complexities of handling ventures and the demanding role of a CEO, providing a realistic portrayal of the difficulties involved.

#Embracing Challenges: The author intentionally chooses the hard path to accomplish tasks, highlighting the importance of embracing difficulties and pushing ourselves to achieve greatness.

#Thought-Provoking Read: Reading this book has a transformative effect, compelling us to embrace the difficult aspects of life and encouraging personal growth.

#Cautionary Note: The book urges readers to approach it with caution, as it may inadvertently push us to adopt a more challenging and rigorous approach...

India on Jul 04, 2023

Man: Quid: un livre autant pratique que judicieux, réflexion de haut niveau et terre à terre en gestion et vie d'entreprise. Le parti pris est d'aborder les questions non-abordées et les prises de décisions insolubles

France on Jun 11, 2023

Athan: This very personal book is a detailed manual on how to be the CEO of a technology company with 300 employees. It is unashamedly based on the author’s experiences and it’s “straight from the heart,” as they say.

I once owned and ran a tech startup that never got to more than 35, so I’m poorly qualified to comment on the quality of most of the advice.

• I never had to demote a loyal friend. I tried to give my loyal friend Tassos fewer shares than my co-founder Marko, but he did not accept and I backed off and I’m very pleased I backed off.
• I did not lay people off except at the very start and the very end, neither of which really counts.
• In the total absence of silver bullets I had no choice other than to fire “lead bullets” (though mine were probably more like plastic bullets)
• [...] (my company) never hired a big-company executive and had unbelievable luck with the small-company executive, Martin, we got on board
• The 360 review I instituted was a disaster, as all employees thought Orange (our investor) had requested it. I did it, and Orange never found out. Oh, and I got some very harsh reviews. Signed, and all.
• We...

United Kingdom on Apr 26, 2016

Marco Garcia: Before I start reviewing “The Hard thing about Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz, allow me to briefly explain what entrepreneurial thinking means to me. When asked to define entrepreneurial thinking, I answered by saying, “it is a mindset that embraces self-evaluation and creativity, and always tends to action.” In other words, an effective entrepreneur is always assessing himself to understand who he is, what he can (and cannot) do, and whom he knows (and counts on) so that he may creatively and rigorously devise a plan of action. Of course, there is much more to entrepreneurial thinking than my definition encompasses. Here is a couple of key criteria that I will also use to review the book: (1) effectual reasoning, and the (2) stewardship principle.

Entrepreneurial Thinking Definition
Ben Horowitz is a great entrepreneur according to my definition. Throughout his book his demonstrates (1) self-awareness and (2) creativity, and (3) how he put these into action.

Firstly, self-awareness. In the first chapter, “From Communist to Venture Capitalist” he explains who he is, where he comes from, and what he knows. He explains that “being scared doesn’t mean...

United States on Nov 26, 2014

Mercenary Trader: Given the author's love of rap - and willingness to include rap lyrics as chapter intros - my only quibble with "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" was not referencing the most motivational rap song of all time: "Till I Collapse" by Eminem featuring Nate Dogg.

As the song begins, with Eminem talking over an army drill cadence: "Cause sometimes you just feel tired, feel weak... and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up... but you got to search within you, and try to find the inner strength... and just pull that s-- out of you... and get that motivation to not give up, and not be a quitter... no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face, and collapse..."

It's the ultimate theme song (if you like rap) for Horowitz' time as CEO of Loudcloud and later Opsware, going through hell - and being forged into steel via incredible trials by fire - along the hard, bloody road to success (seeing Opsware acquired for $1.6 billion). Pulling out the incredibly important lessons from that experience is the purpose of the book.

In another section, Horowitz distinguishes between okay CEOs and great CEOs by pointing out a difference in perspective on...

United States on Mar 11, 2014