This post is going to be Outside In’s 99th Post!! I can’t believe we have gotten this far (relatively) smoothly… and I am still enthusiastic enough to continue this effort (for a while at least). While I have mostly had a well-planned content calendar in place to roll this letter out on a weekly basis, I’ll be candid to admit that sometimes it has been really hard to beat the drudgery of yet another topical study and a crisp compilation…
Riding on that ‘hard’ sentiment itself, the idea for this post came up naturally… Here’s a compilation of my notes from Ben Horowitz classic – The Hard things about Hard Things. I think it is indeed a fitting post for Outside In’s 99th effort…
First, an Outside In POV, before we begun to read the post together: This book is mostly written and positioned for entrepreneurs starting and expanding their own ventures. However, I believe that the lessons and takeaways are just as important for regular corporate professionals building new ‘lines of businesses within existing organizations… And, thereby it becomes a compelling read for just about anybody out there trying to do something new…
Background to Ben Horowitz’s Classic Book
Most business books focus on how to do things correctly, whilst Ben acknowledges upfront there is no such thing as a perfect business and however much planning you make, screw-ups will inevitably happen. He addresses all the major screw-ups that have occurred during his time leading billion dollar corporations and how his team made decisions to turn things around or screw things up further.
He outlines the hardest decisions he had to make and the awful situations you find yourself in. They say entrepreneurship is the about crazy highs and terrible lows and this book paints the full ugly picture of what life is like in the daunting face of disaster. A true understanding of what you can face as an entrepreneur is invaluable which I believe is what makes this book a favourite
My Notes
Most business relationships become too tense to tolerate or not tense enough to be productive after a while. Either people challenge each other to the point where they don’t like each other or they become complacent about each other’s feedback and no longer benefit from the relationship
No matter who you are, you need two kinds of friends in your life. The first kind is one you can call when something good happens, and you need someone who will be excited for you. Not a fake excitement veiling envy, but a real excitement. You need someone who will actually be more excited for you than he would be if it had happened to him. The second kind of friend is somebody you can call when things go horribly wrong – when your life is on the line and you only have one phone call. Who is it going to be?
An early lesson I learned in my career was that whenever a large organization attempts to do anything, it always comes down to a single person who can delay the entire project. An engineer might get stuck waiting for a decision or a manager may think she doesn’t have authority to make a critical purchase. These small, seemingly minor hesitations can cause fatal delays
It turns out that is exactly what product strategy is all about – figuring out the right product is the innovator’s job, not the customer’s job. The customer only knows what she thinks based on her experience with the current product. The innovator can take into account everything that’s possible, but often must go against what she knows to be true. As a result, innovation requires a combination of knowledge, skill, and courage.
In my weekly staff meeting, I inserted an agenda item titled “What Are We Not Doing?” Ordinarily in a staff meeting, you spend lots of time reviewing, evaluating, and improving all of the things that you do: build products, sell products, support customers, hire employees, and the like. Sometimes, however, the things you’re not doing are the things you should actually be focused on
Early in my career as an engineer, I’d learned that all decisions were objective until the first line of code was written. After that, all decisions are emotional.
No, markets weren’t “efficient” at finding the truth; they were just very efficient at converging on a conclusion – often the wrong conclusion.
If you are going to have a dog race, then you are going to need a rabbit
Start-up 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. It matters not whether your chances are nine in ten or one in a thousand’ your task is the same.
There is no secret to being a successful CEO, but if there is one skill that stands out, it’s the ability to focus and make the best move when there are no good moves. It’s the moments where you feel most like hiding or dying that you can make the biggest difference as a CEO
The key to an emotional discussion is to take the emotion out of it. To do that, you must be very clear in your mind about what you’ve decided and what you want to do.
All the mental energy you use to elaborate your misery would be far better used trying to find the one seemingly impossible way out of your current mess. Spend zero time on what you could have done, and devote all of your time on what you might do. Because in the end, nobody cares; just run your company
As defined by Andy Grove, the right kind of ambition is ambition for the company’s success with the executive’s own success only coming as a by-product of the company’s victory. The wrong kind of ambition is ambition for the executive’s personal success regardless of the company’s outcome.
By far the most difficult skill I learned as CEO was the ability to manage my own psychology. It’s like the fight club of management: The first rule of the CEO psychological meltdown is don’t talk about psychological meltdown
When someone learns to drive a race car, one of the first lessons taught is that when you are going around a curve at 200 mph, do not focus on the wall; focus on the road. If you focus on the road, you will follow the road. Running a company is like that. There are always a thousand things that can do wrong and sink the ship. If you focus too much on them, you will drive yourself nuts and likely crash your company. Focus on where you are going rather than on what you hope to avoid
There are 2 core skills for running an organization: First, knowing what to do (Ones). Second, getting the company to do what you know (Twos). While being a great CEO requires both skills, most CEOs tend to be more comfortable with one or the other
References and Sources
1) My Notes from Ben Horowitz Book – The Hard Things about Hard Things
2) Sam Harris Book Summary: https://sam-harris.medium.com/the-hard-thing-about-hard-things-ben-horowitz-summary-and-review-8013261e1b4c
3) Rina Picollo Cartoon Strip
4) Zugzwang Quote: https://quotefancy.com/quote/1868977/Michael-Chabon-Zugzwang-It-s-when-you-have-no-good-moves-But-you-still-have-to-move
5) Fight Club Quote: https://tenor.com/search/first-rule-of-fight-club-gifs