Top 136 Quotes & Sayings by Ben Horowitz - Page 3

Until you make the effort to get to know someone or something, you don’t know anything.

Your employees know each other better than they know you.

It's pretty clear that [customers] know what their budgets are now, and what they want to spend it on.

Generally the reason they fail in the job is, you made some mistake in the hiring process in that you didn't match... them to the needs of your company accurately enough. That's the #1 reason this fails. And that's generally a good place to start: Here's where we are and here's what I didn't recognize about us and about you when I made the decision, and now it is what it is.

Mark [Andressen] was more popular than me at the time ... He was like Beyoncé, I was Kelly Rowlings

It's quite possible for an executive to hit her goal for the quarter by ignoring the future.

Yeah, I became a successful entrepreneur... Eventually

The person they're working with, is going to be the person they'll know more. So if that person leaves, they're going to go - well, should have I left too? What did they get and how does that compare to my deal.

If you have never done the job, how do you know what to want?

I believe in strength over lack of weakness.

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.

Volatility and length, that's the value on an option. 10 years on a startup stock, that's a big valuable thing.

Wartime CEO is too busy fighting the enemy to read management books written by consultants who have never managed a fruit stand.

For example, the vast majority of security break-ins occur as a result of problems with known fixes. With an automated system, you can keep up to date.

The bigger you get, the harder this gets because the more aggressive the people working for you are.

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.