The Hard Thing About Hard Things

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz is one of the most brutally honest and practically useful books ever written about startup leadership. Horowitz, co-founder of the legendary venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, draws on his experience building, running, and eventually selling Loudcloud/Opsware to describe the uniquely agonizing challenges of being a CEO: how to lay off employees while keeping the company’s culture intact, how to manage executives who are no longer right for a scaled company, and how to keep going when the company seems on the verge of collapse. Unlike cheerful business books, Horowitz writes about the psychological reality of leadership with searing honesty. Essential reading for founders and anyone who manages people.