Ben Horowitz: $46 Billion of Hard Truths

Key Hard Truths & Lessons for Founders

Here are some of the most salient lessons Horowitz discusses in the talk:

1. Success comes from many small decisions, not one big moment
   Progress is the result of stacking difficult but correct choices over time — even when each decision feels insignificant in isolation.

2. Leaders should run toward fear, not away from it
   The real muscle a CEO needs is decisiveness under pressure. Confronting difficult choices is how growth happens; hesitating in the face of fear usually leads to stagnation. 

3. Find people who make you great — don’t try to fix underperformers
   The role of leaders is not to polish everyone, but to surround themselves with high-leverage people who elevate the whole company. 

4. “Founder mode” has limits There is a danger in staying in the "founder mode" too long — sometimes growth demands that the company evolve beyond that mode, or bring in different leadership.  

5. You must normalize failure and own your failures as a CEO
   Leaders must accept that failure is part of the journey, learn from it, and manage how those mistakes impact the team and the company trajectory. 

6. Decisions around when to step aside or bring in fresh leadership are critical
   At times, founders may need to be replaced as CEO for the company’s next phase. Recognizing when that moment arrives is hard but necessary. 

Lenny's Newsletter

System for Personal/Business Success

A system is a method for achieving some result.

Think of a recipe for making chocolate chip cookies. That's a system. A checklist for pilots is a system.

To achieve any given result, it would be better if we used a system.

The first requirement of any system is that it must be written down. A system must be defined in words and numbers in order for it to exist.

A system must also state the Goal of the system. What must the system achieve? This is the Name of the System.

The system must also have a series of steps that are intended to deliver the Goal. 

A system must have a feedback loop so that the system will continue to improve. See Kaizen.

This requirement is missing from almost all systems in existence. It is the single ingredient that creates the system to be a superpower. It is Exponential Leverage.

You either have a system or you do not. Why would you not?

What system do you use for your personal/business success?  

The answer, for 99% of all people, is that they do not have a system. 

This is why it's likely that their results, if any, will be sub-optimal.

The System for Personal/Business Success (SPBS)

The benefits of using a system are many and provable with data.

There are so many good people who work hard and are committed to doing whatever they can to achieve the success they envision. 

These people would benefit from a system to get more results in less time.  

If you're one of those people who would like an unfair advantage, a superpower, actually, to leverage the results you can get, you may ask "How can I use a system for Personal/Business Success?"

 

A System for Personal/Business Success is a good thing, by definition.

Those who use a system to achieve success will have a greater probability of success. 

A system with a higher frequency Feedback Loop will deliver greater results, faster, with greater consistency, and with less stress. A system performed daily is better than a system performed once a year. 

Some systems are better than others. At Double M, we're all about better systems.  When it comes to Personal/Business success, you don't want to be making it up as you go. With our 50+ years of experience, it's likely that we can help you get there faster, and with a lot less stress.

Start with our free and easy EZchecklist™.   

"The System is the Solution" was a long-time AT&T tagline.

"Any system is better than no system if you iterate quickly using the Feedback Loop."

Your Daily Routine

 

You’ll never change your life

until you change something you do daily.

The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

John C. Maxwell

The Pygmalion Effect in Management

 

“Some managers always treat their subordinates in a way that leads to superior performance. But most…unintentionally treat their subordinates in a way that leads to lower performance than they are capable of achieving. The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them. If manager’s expectations are high, productivity is likely to be excellent. If their expectations are low, productivity is likely to be poor. It is as though there were a law that caused subordinates’ performance to rise or fall to meet managers’ expectations.”

Read the full article here

Wikipedia on Pygmalion Effect

Who was Pygmalion?