Big companies have trouble with innovation. Innovation is about bad ideas, or ideas that look like bad ideas. That's the fundamental thing.
Ben HorowitzRead
Nobody knows how to be a CEO. It's something you have to learn. It's a very lonely job.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being a CEO involves a steep learning curve and can feel isolating.
The quote emphasizes that there is no definitive guide or manual for becoming a CEO; rather, it is a role that one learns to navigate through experience. It also highlights the solitude that often accompanies leadership positions, suggesting that despite the power and responsibility, CEOs may feel isolated in their decision-making and experiences.
Themes
CeoLeadershipLearningLonelinessExperience
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing new managers, one might say, 'As Ben Horowitz pointed out, being a CEO is a learning journey filled with unique challenges.'
More from Ben Horowitz
All quotes βAs a company gets big, the information that informs decision-making gets massive. Depending upon the prism through which you view the business, your perspective will vary. If two people are in charge, this variance will cause conflict and delay.
Ben HorowitzRead
You read these management books that say, 'These are the hard things about running a company.' But those aren't really the hard things. The hard things are when you have to layoff half your company, or you have to fire your best friend. Or you have to figure out a way not to go bankrupt.
Ben HorowitzRead
Look - this is the terror of being a founder & CEO. It is all your fault. Every decision, every person you hire, every dumb thing you buy or do - ultimately, you're at the end.
Ben HorowitzRead
As long as people are clear on what they need to do and what's going on, you're very likely to succeed. When nobody is clear, then you're guaranteed to fail.
Ben HorowitzRead
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 HorowitzRead
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I would hope that American managers-indeed, managers worldwide-continue to appreciate what I have been saying almost from day one: that management is so much more than exercising rank and privilege, that it is much more than "making deals." Management affects people and their lives.
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Even if it takes changing the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got.
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Today, no leader can afford to be indifferent to the challenge of engaging employees in the work of creating the future. Engagement may have been optional in the past, but it's pretty much the whole game today.
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I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control.
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Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.
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