A manager can't act like a role model. They need to BE a role model. Ben Horowitz More Quotes by Ben Horowitz More Quotes From Ben Horowitz As a company grows, communication becomes its biggest challenge. Ben Horowitz company communication challenges I was an executive running a pretty substantial group before becoming CEO, and I had no idea what it was like. When something goes wrong, people say, 'It's all your fault.' Your reaction is, 'It's not my fault.' But what do you mean? I was the founder, I hired everybody in the company, I was managing it. Ben Horowitz running mean ideas I think theres a lot to be said about just enjoying your work. It can be very contrived when people say their work is for the good of mankind. Ben Horowitz said people thinking Mark [Andressen] was more popular than me at the time ... He was like Beyoncé, I was Kelly Rowlings Ben Horowitz mark Here's Kanye, the great musical genius of his generation in hip hop, but, like, society really can't even deal with him because he's always saying something that people go, 'Oh, I can't believe Kanye said that. I can't believe he did that.' Ben Horowitz musical-genius believe people Business ends up being very dynamic and situational. Ben Horowitz ends Leadership is hard to train on. Ben Horowitz hard train In a company, hundreds of decisions get made, but objectives and goals are thin. Ben Horowitz decision goal made In Silicon Valley, when you're a private company, the entrepreneur can do no wrong. Ben Horowitz valleys company entrepreneur In life, everybody faces choices between doing what's popular, easy, and wrong vs. doing what's lonely, difficult, and right. These decisions intensify when you run a company, because the consequences get magnified 1,000 fold. As in life, the excuses for CEOs making the wrong choice are always plentiful. Ben Horowitz lonely decision running Groupon looked like a very high valuation, but any investment in a great company at any stage is almost always a good investment. Ben Horowitz investment great-company stage I believe in strength over lack of weakness. Ben Horowitz i-believe weakness believe If you manage a team of 10 people, its quite possible to do so with very few mistakes or bad behaviors. If you manage an organization of 1,000 people it is quite impossible. At a certain size, your company will do things that are so bad that you never imagined that youd be associated with that kind of incompetence. Ben Horowitz team organization mistake The right thing to do is to thank them for their work, let people know that they're moving on, and ... you don't really have to explain all their personal details. It's more important to leave them with their dignity... and let them go on to live another day. Remember, what you say at that meeting, that's their reputation. Ben Horowitz important people moving Often any decision, even the wrong decision, is better than no decision. Ben Horowitz wrong better wrong-decision decision People say the most important thing is building a world-class team. Ben Horowitz people-say building team people 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 Horowitz end look you decision A wartime C.E.O. may not delegate. They make every decision based on the next product release. They may use a lot of profanity. Ben Horowitz product make next decision Big companies have trouble with innovation. Innovation is about bad ideas, or ideas that look like bad ideas. That's the fundamental thing. Ben Horowitz bad look innovation ideas 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 Horowitz nobody you long people
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