• The Hard Thing About Hard Things

  • Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
  • By: Ben Horowitz
  • Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
  • Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (14,296 ratings)

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The Hard Thing About Hard Things  By  cover art

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

By: Ben Horowitz
Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
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Publisher's summary

Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, offers essential advice on building and running a startup - practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn’t cover, based on his popular ben’s blog.

While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one. Ben Horowitz analyzes the problems that confront leaders every day, sharing the insights he’s gained developing, managing, selling, buying, investing in, and supervising technology companies. A lifelong rap fanatic, he amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs, telling it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.

Filled with his trademark humor and straight talk, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures, drawing from Horowitz’s personal and often humbling experiences.

©2014 Ben Horowitz (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

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What listeners say about The Hard Thing About Hard Things

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Helps with the struggles

This book is incredible and exactly what I needed to hear. Some decisions are hard. Business is hard. Life is hard. But with a positive mindset, you can overcome.

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Liked the content but swearing wasn't necessary

Lot of insightful content. Most VC related books are feel good, this book is not.

Was it necessary to include using rapper content using the N word? Come on.

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Learning & listening

Another #book recommendation for this month. This one is amazing starting from the personal BIO of the author #benHorowitz raised in #berkeley California, starting his career at #siliconGraphics, then #netscape and #AOL previous to co-found #loudcloud . You will find there some many tip for #startup founders and a large list of the most common errors of #CEO and #entrepreneurs . One of my best reading of the last 6 weeks.

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Invaluable Insights for a CEO and Everyone Else

This book is hard hitting and honest. It shares the bare-naked drama and struggles of the author on his journey from being a tech startup CEO, through acquisitions and mergers, through a litany of near-company-death experiences, ending with his stewardship of what became a 1.25 billion dollar company. There are several touchpoints with industry greats that provided direct guidance or indirect inspiration.

The reflective take-aways he shares come as refreshingly non-formulaic advice and wisdom. Rather than the worn out, contrived "10 steps to do this or that" approach, instead, Horowitz presents compelling, well-defended patterns and principles that one must adapt to their real-world context, and which provide no guarantees.

Horowitz succeeds at taking us on a vicarious journey through what the often gut-wrenching struggles a CEO experiences. The trip left me with a much deeper appreciation for what it takes to be a good CEO, for the burdens they carry on their shoulders, and how profoundly inadequate and ill-suited I would be for such a role and the responsibilities that come with it!

Holy smokes. I just said a prayer for the CEO of my current company and his family.

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it blows my mind I need 15 words to close this scr

it blows my mind I need 15 words to close this screen all I want to have to happen is to not have this screen pop up everytime I open the app now

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Fantastic and insightful book.

A must read for managers and future CEOs and their teams. Truly insightful on the hard things.

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great read

loved it. resonate worth the thought, effort and challenges that founders go through. developed new appreciation for the hard work entrepreneur's do

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best startup book there is

as head of Sales for an SMB tech company, this is the single best book about the space out of the 50+ top rated books I've read/listened to. narrator is also my new favorite on Audible.

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Upfront About The Hard Things

Ben listens to Hip Hop and is interested in sports which explains his upfront mentality, which doubles up as making this book approachable and relatable. I like to think of this book as a guide, and reminds me of The Great CEO Within.

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Outstanding book. How to manage hard things.

Normally, a Startup environment looks like a roller coaster, and the key relies on how people adapt quickly to changes. This book describes pretty well real situations and how to manage them; shown different perspectives depending on the company's position of each. Highly recommended!

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