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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being a founder and CEO comes with immense responsibility and accountability for every decision made.
In this quote, Ben Horowitz emphasizes the weight of leadership, particularly for founders and CEOs, highlighting that they are ultimately responsible for all outcomes in their organization. Every choice, whether positive or negative, reflects directly on the leadership, underscoring the reality that the burden of accountability lies firmly on their shoulders.
Themes
LeadershipResponsibilityAccountabilityDecisionsFounder
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about startup challenges, this quote can be used to illustrate the weight of leadership.
More from Ben Horowitz
All quotes →As 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.
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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.
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Nobody knows how to be a CEO. It's something you have to learn. It's a very lonely job.
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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.
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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.
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