Ben Horowitz Quotes

Quotes about:

• As a startup CEO, I slept like a baby. I woke up every 2 hours and cried.

  Ben Horowitz

  Baby, Motivation, Hours

  53 Copy quote

• In my experience as CEO, I found that the most important decisions tested my courage far more than my intelligence.

  Ben Horowitz

  Decision, Important, Found

  "The Fine Line Between Fear and Courage" by Ben Horowitz, www.businessinsider.com. August 8, 2011.

  19 Copy quote

• You know what the difference between a vision and a hallucination is? They call it a vision when other people can see it.

  Ben Horowitz

  Differences, People, Vision

  21 Copy quote

• 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.

  Ben Horowitz

  Decision, Choices, Courageous

  "Ben Horowitz: There's a fine line between fear and courage". fortune.com. August 5, 2011.

  18 Copy quote

• You don't need every investor to believe that you can succeed. You only need one.

  Ben Horowitz

  Believe, Inspiration, Needs

  19 Copy quote

• The one thing with stress is, you've got to keep your focus on what you can do, not what happened to you.

  Ben Horowitz

  Stress, Focus, Management

  19 Copy quote

• The trouble with innovation is that truly innovative ideas often look like bad ideas at the time.

  Ben Horowitz

  Ideas, Innovation, Looks

  "The Future of the Car Is Electric" by atrick Daniel, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 17, 2015.

  4 Copy quote

• The primary thing that any technology startup must do is build a product that's at least 10 times better at doing something than the current prevailing way of doing that thing. Two or three times better will not be good enough to get people to switch to the new thing fast enough or in large enough volume to matter.

  Ben Horowitz

  Technology, Two, People

  "HOROWITZ: How To Build A Great Culture At Your Startup" by Ben Horowitz, www.businessinsider.com. December 19, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• 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 Horowitz

  Mind, Stories, Remember

  15 Copy quote

• Sometimes an organization doesn’t need a solution; it just needs clarity.

  Ben Horowitz

  Organization, Needs, Clarity

  5 Copy quote

• The only thing that prepares you to run a company is running a company.

  Ben Horowitz

  Running, Company

  4 Copy quote

• Nothing motivates a great employee more than a mission that's so important that it supersedes everyone's personal ambition.

  Ben Horowitz

  Ambition, Important, Missions

  "Every Executive In Your Company Should Have This Kind Of Ambition" by Ben Horowitz, www.businessinsider.com. August 30, 2010.

  6 Copy quote

• There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained from personal experience. Following conventional wisdom and relying on shortcuts can be worse than knowing nothing at all.

  Ben Horowitz

  Knowing Nothing, Shortcuts, Knowledge Gained

  Ben Horowitz (2014). “The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers”, p.9, Harper Collins

  10 Copy quote

• Billionaires prefer Black women. They are loyal and guard your interests. Black wives are for grown ups.

  Ben Horowitz

  Wife, Black, Loyal

  12 Copy quote

• When you're making a critical decision, you have to understand how it's going to be interpreted from all points of view. Not just your point of view, not just the person you're talking to, but the people that aren't in the room. Everybody else.

  Ben Horowitz

  Views, Talking, Critical Decisions

  11 Copy quote

• Hire sales people who are really smart problem solvers, but lack courage, hunger and competitiveness, and your company will go out of business.

  Ben Horowitz

  Smart, People, Problem

  13 Copy quote

• The key to high-quality communication is trust, and its hard to trust somebody that you dont know.

  Ben Horowitz

  Communication, Keys, Quality

  4 Copy quote

• When I was CEO, and I'd listen to music, a lot of people listen to music and you get inspiration from it. And a lot of things in hip hop are very instructive for being in business. Particularly, hip hop is a lot about business, and so it was very useful for me in any job.

  Ben Horowitz

  Jobs, Inspiration, People

  11 Copy quote

• 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. It matters not whether your chances are nine in ten or one in a thousand; your task is the same.

  Ben Horowitz

  Believe, Odds, Play

  14 Copy quote

• Note to self: It’s a good idea to ask, “What am I not doing?

  Ben Horowitz

  Self, Ideas, Notes

  8 Copy quote

• As a company grows, communication becomes its biggest challenge.

  Ben Horowitz

  Communication, Challenges, Company

  "CEOs Should Tell It Like It Is" by Ben Horowitz, www.businessinsider.com. July 2, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Ben Horowitz

  Jobs, Strategy, Turns

  "The Hard Thing About Hard Things". Book by Ben Horowitz, March 4, 2014.

  9 Copy quote

• Breakthrough ideas usually come from guys who look like they're hallucinating

  Ben Horowitz

  Ideas, Guy, Looks

  4 Copy quote

• There are no silver bullets.

  Ben Horowitz

  Growth, Bullets, Silver Bullets

  9 Copy quote

• You're better off being The Beatles than The Monkees, as a startup.

  Ben Horowitz

  Better Off

  10 Copy quote

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