The Hard Thing About Hard Things cover art

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

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The Hard Thing About Hard Things

By: Ben Horowitz
Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
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About this listen

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
Decision-Making & Problem Solving Entrepreneurship Leadership Management New Business Enterprises Business Career Inspiring Thought-Provoking Building Business

What listeners say about The Hard Thing About Hard Things

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A textbook for new CEO

Story telling with practical examples of business challenges and explained the thought process to overcome these.

I was stressed just hearing the daunting challenges but now know significantly more than when i started. Now to jump in.

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Best startup book I've ever read.

I could listen to his hard earned wisdom each and every day. Thank you so much!

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loved every minute of it. a great insight into the struggle. good to know it's not just me

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Excellent book.

Covers alot of the real ups and downs of running a business. Open and honest experiences with great advice on how to implement the strategies in your company.

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Easily a classic

Thanks heaps for writing this and sharing your learnings and thoughts with us all. This is a treasure chest.

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Insightful

Helped me understand the perspective of someone at the reigns of a growing company. I hold out hope that not all of his advice needs to be taken verbatim as much of it does not sit well with me, but still valuable nonetheless. Thanks Ben.

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A start up must

This book can be hard listening if you are in a start up but you need to hear it. If you are chasing Vc funds building a start up or further on in building a company there are lots of important frameworks to help you think about things everyone else seems to skim over.

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Business Challenges

if you have been in business or are thinking about it, you will learn something from this book. it's big scale but the principles still apply to smaller scale businesses as well.

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So glad I'm not the only one!

Being a CEO is lonely and hard. To hear someone else's honest perspective and resonate with so much of it. Lots of real and useful advice for the hardest parts of our jobs.

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Great book

loved it and definitely going to listen again. explains how good companies should work, and the roles of CEO in them

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