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Founders: #41 The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

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What I learned from reading The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz. --- There's no recipe for complicated, dynamic situations [0:01] Meeting Marc Andreessen [8:30] The co-founder relationship between Marc and Ben [11:00] How they came up with the idea for Loudcloud (Opsware) / A business is just an idea that will make someone's life better. —Richard Branson [13:45] Ben finds value by asking the question: What would I do if we went bankrupt? [21:05] Sell the wrong product to find the right one [22:30] Saving a $20 million a year customer by buying a $10 million company [23:16] Do not play the odds [27:27] Discount praise. Focus on what can be fixed [28:32] Why training is so important (compounding effect) [31:20] Difference between large company executives and founders [32:00] Why it is a good idea to collect good ideas [34:00] Determination is more important than intelligence [35:30] Your culture should be unique / Using shock to create behavioral change [38:24] There is no founder school [40:30] Perseverance is more important than intelligence [41:01] Copy from great founders [46:50] ---- Founders Notes gives you the a

[00:00:00] The problem with these books is that they attempt to provide a recipe for challenges that have no recipes. There's no recipe for really complicated dynamic situations. There's no recipe for building a high-tech company. There's no recipe for leading a group of people out of trouble. And there's no recipe for making a series of hit songs. There's no recipe for playing NFL quarterback. There's no recipe for playing NFL quarterback. There's no recipe for running for president. [00:00:30] And there's no recipe for motivating teams when your business has turned to crap. That's the…

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