The Hard Thing About Hard Things

By: Ben Horowitz

Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly

Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins

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

For large company managers, not startups

Horowitz's formula for "building a business" is to get hundreds of millions of dollars from venture capitalists, then take your the company public and get hundreds of millions more dollars. Then buy companies that have products you need. The author has lots of advice about laying off employees, firing executives, and giving bad news to investors. There's a good chapter about the importance of training your employees.

This book is not for startups. "The Lean Startup," by Eric Ries, is a better book for entrepreneurs. Horowitz's book is for executives managing large companies.

176 of 192 people found this review helpful

Exciting and insightful view of a "wartime CEO"

Any additional comments?

First of all, I have to warn you that the author, Ben Horowitz, apparently likes gangster rap, and there are quotes at the beginning of chapters and sections that are relevant, yet have foul language and try to be offensive. Ben Horowitz interestingly, uses swear words, but only for great impact.

Second, Kevin Kenerly, the narrator, has a great style. It's hard to explain, but it's like he's speaking directly to you, and only to you. Some people might be annoyed by it, but I thought it was very appropriate for this book.

Third, there was a lot of really interesting and dramatic insight into how Horowitz handled an almost impossible to believe string of disasters by seeking good advice from his mentors, from experts, and by making hard decisions. Although I don't agree with some of the ways he treated people, his methods did get results.

38 of 41 people found this review helpful

Book for Entrepreneuers

The book is a combination of an autobiography and entrepreneurial advice. The first three chapters are about the author's start in the business (as if he's a recognizable name in the tech industry). Few people probably even heard of the companies that he co-founded, Loudcloud and Opsware. Also, it was self-indulgent of the author to start each chapter with a quotation from rap music (reciting lyrics from Kanye West as if they were words of wisdom to a businessperson).

When the author finally gets to recounting the struggles of running a company and giving advice on how to avoid the mistakes he made, the book then starts to fulfill its intent of "Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers." The author described the actions he had taken and explained his thought process. He gave the "what", "how", and "why" for his actions. Many of the suggestions are specific to entrepreneurs (like hiring an executive team, how to run a startup company, and when to sell the company). There is some business management advice (like having regular 1-on-1 meetings with direct reports and giving clear, honest feedback), but you'll have to prod through a lot of the entrepreneurial content.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Strong, insightful, and a bit vulgar

Ben Horowitz has been there and done that--that being starting a tech firm and leading it through chaos and surprise and heartbreak to success. He isn't sharing leadership theory, he's sharing his life lessons.

As such, he offers specific examples and actual numbers for each of his principles. And his principles are insightful and practical. A few are powerful, like the idea of management debt: you can delay making a hard decision but you incur "debt". The problem didn't go away, you will have to pay it later--with interest. So pay now and reduce the cost. Also, don't hire a stereotypical executive, hire the one that fits the exact situation of your company. For example, there's a big difference between running a large company and building a large company. The first is more about managing lots of pressure--reacting well. The second is about creating growth through aggressive action--without anyone pressuring you to do it.

I give 4 rather than 5 stars to this strong leadership book because of the large amount of foul language. Not only is there a section where he decided as CEO to allow a tech culture norm of expletives (that was strategic at least), but he cusses every couple of pages. I guess he's being authentic but it is distracting.

13 of 14 people found this review helpful

Great book - surprised by all the vitriol

Any additional comments?

Those who focus their review on the fact that there's hip hop references or the fact that the author is so raw in his language are clearly missing the f*cking point (since the book is full of expletives). This book explained the agony and euphoria I saw on many of my own CEOs, going from tiny companies to being acquired for millions of dollars. Of course, a good counter part to this book is Lean Start Up by Eric Ries (and that book is dry, boring, methodical, lean on interest yet good since it's the strategy to being a lean, agile start up). Horowitz doesn't mince his words and speaks sincerely about the realities of tech start ups. As Mitch Joel says so eloquently in CTRL-ALT-DELETE - the business world is in a state of purgatory. I'll add that technology is the extreme game of survival of the fittest. A must read for anyone working in tech. And leave your pearls at home. Business is cutthroat, it won't say please and thank you.

18 of 21 people found this review helpful

Once you learn to deal with Horowitz narcissism, it finally gets to the meat

The voice was miserable. It might have been a low soothing voice, ideal for radio, but the person didn't keep it interesting in inflection. Like a lazy professor a couple years after being tenured.

Horowitz takes a while to get to the real information of his book. When he does get there it great. Before that it is too slow.

13 of 15 people found this review helpful

Sound advice, amateur writing and narration

The narrator enunciates so aggressively and with such over-animation it made me flinch. And the excessive use of rap lyrics and other extensive references to pop culture gave the book and story a very amateurish feel. The excessive use of the pronoun "she" when referring to hypothetical CEOs also presented an odd juxtaposition with the fact that every single reference to living CEOs was to male ones (Jobs, Bezos, Schmidt, Campbell, Gates...)

However, when the actual advice of the book came out (not until the last half or maybe even quarter) it was clear, concise and to the point. Definitely got me thinking. Wish the whole book had been as such.

24 of 30 people found this review helpful

Hard truths no fluff, a gut check for founding CEO

If you need to know how paranoid you needed to be before considering being the CEO of a startup, then this is a must read. Not too long, great insight into the dread, critical, life altering decisions that you must make as a forms prime leader.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Hard to listen to

The narrator is awful
There are several examples given in the book where the author gives numbered examples, "one...(long pause, explanation)......two ..."
I listened to on 2X speed and it was very dry.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Based in Reality--Not New Age Hocus Pocus:

Mr. Horowitz masterfully delivers the truth and insight of those long and sleepless nights of trying to think your way through the chaos of a startup.

This book is not the work of a man gloating of his success and using the lens of hindsight to casually relay a few helpful hints. Rather this is an in depth and insightful guide to successfully navigating the major "fork in the road" types decisions that have the potential to define your outcomes.

This is money well spent! It does matter if you are a running the world's largest startup right now or just opened a one person carwash this book will help you. It is lively and entertaining, yet full of helpful information all clearly learned by Mr. Horowitz at the height of entrepreneurial battle.

8 of 11 people found this review helpful

best management book I've ever read

great book with real world advice and anecdotes from someone who has lived through the hard stuff. Much better than the over simplicity of most management texts. a must read for all managers our business owners.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Feels like they didn't edited the book for audio

The book is at best average.
There are some good tipps, but it's more like a biography.

Also the narrator are literally reading conversation protocols, or emails. (including header, cc,...)

Maybe it's a good read as a book, but not the best buy as an audio book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Must-read

One of the best business books I've ever read. It talks about taboos, the struggle that you rarely hear or read in biographies.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Kevin made Ben's story come alive

Ben has a wealth of honest real life sharings of struggles and strategies that make sense for any senior role. I see the CEO role as any senior leader that is accountable for P&L as well as people.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Not for me! I've listened to a couple of chapters

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Better information in the review and I probably wouldn't buy this one. There's nothing essentially wrong with this book. But the business that I am planning to start doesn't match the authors information and experience and this isn't the right book for me.

Would you recommend The Hard Thing About Hard Things to your friends? Why or why not?

If there are lessons they might be later in the book. I just found the early chapters slow going and I'm not learning much. Ben Horowitz comes across hard working and funny and he manages to work for top silicon valley companies in the 90s and I've just reached the bit when he has founded an cloud company with three others but I felt that this isn't going to help me on my journey. I will not be working for top software companies but if you are going to set up a software firm than this might be the book for you.

What aspect of Kevin Kenerly’s performance might you have changed?

Maybe Kevin's voice isn't the right match for the book content. Particularly when he reads to words from the rap songs.

Did The Hard Thing About Hard Things inspire you to do anything?

Not really.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Pretty dull read, almost obnoxious self-promotion

Would you try another book written by Ben Horowitz or narrated by Kevin Kenerly?

Was interesting and definitely written differently from most of these kinda books (lots of swearing, hip-hop references, unambiguous opinions and sometimes almost obnoxious self-promotion) which gave it some character. A few interesting lessons in there particularly on the difficulties of moving from Founder - CEO but on the whole, fairly dull. I'd give it 2 stars

What was most disappointing about Ben Horowitz’s story?

It was a story more than a tool

Would you be willing to try another one of Kevin Kenerly’s performances?

Maybe

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Hard Thing About Hard Things?

Cut it at least in half

Any additional comments?

nope

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

worth a listen

A useful listen and good angle. it explains why you have to be crazy to run a company! however, bit too ego driven and the examples could be more concise. very tech specific

Outstanding

If you want to read only one management book, read this. It’s full of practical learnings from someone who has actually been there and done it. It should be a reassuring presence in the library of anyone who is running a company. And it should be prescribed reading for investors and VCs alike. My only other thought is that if Ben is trying to be cool by referencing rap lyrics as metaphors for the entrepreneurs “struggle,” then he should know that rap (and hip hop) is the new dad rock...!

Running a business, then read this.

Don't try to give this book a category, for example Buisness Management, just get ready to take notes, learn and bizarrely enjoy some rap.

Not impressed

The book was largely focused on the author's experiences at Netscape. I found few insights and lessons learned that would be applicable to my own business.