Handling the Tuff Stuff in Business
Building a Business when there are not Easy Answers.
from the Book “The Hard Thing about Hard Things” 2014 edited by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz
A few Hard Things: 1) your “greatest performers” develop a sense of entitlement and start demanding unreasonable things, 2) getting people to communicate within the organization that you designed 3) waking up to the fact that your great “dream” has turned into a nightmare.
Value $$$. If the price of books was determined by the amount of valuable advice they contained, Ben Horowitz’s Book “The Hard Thing about Hard Things” Building a Business when there are not Easy Answers, would be very expensive.
Wisdom. Funny, straight talking, and brutally honest, The Hard Thing is full of wisdom for anyone working in a startup, founding a startup, or running a startup. Hard Thing tells many real tales from the battlefield Horowitz’s experiences at LoudCloud, OpsWare and more recently at a VC firm he co-founded with Mark Andreeson [Netscape]. He is admirably honest about the mistakes he made, the hard things he’s had to do, and the failures and close calls that he encountered along the way.
Who? The person who will get the most out of this book is the current (or aspiring) CEO. The second half of the book gives CEOs & other Leaders advice on how to recruit, motivate, train, & even fire employees. It also gives a lot of advice on how to make decisions, including the necessity for the startup CEO to have an unshakeable belief in their ability to find the answers. Startup CEOs should not play the odds. When you are building a company, you must believe there is an answer and you cannot pay attention to your odds of finding it. You just have to find it !!!
Hiring – advice on hiring the right people. Horowitz notes that the prism through which a person views the world is very important for how well they will fit into your organization. When interviewing candidates, it’s helpful to watch for small distinctions that indicate whether they view the world through the “me” prism or the “team” prism”.
Me or We? People who view the world through the “me” prism will optimize for their own personal career. On the other hand, people who look at the world through a we, “team” prism will optimize for the success of the Organization.
Courage – to make the tough calls. Horowitz argues that the cowardice or courage that lies behind the decisions of the CEO will flow through the organization as a whole. 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.
Conclusion: The Hard Thing About Hard Things is a great blueprint for anyone involved in building a startup from the ground up. It’ll also leave you feeling full of empathy for your CEO.
Comments: Do have any Advice on how to handle the Hard Things?