English - Businessman | June 13, 1966 -
I think there's 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.
Ben Horowitz
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In order to build a great technology company, you have to hire lots of incredibly smart people. It's a total waste to have lots of big brains but not let them work on your biggest problems.
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As a company grows, communication becomes its biggest challenge.
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If the employees fundamentally trust the C.E.O., then communications will be vastly more efficient than if they don't. Telling things as they are is a critical part of building this trust.
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Many of the people that you lay off will have closer relationships with the people who stay than you do, so treat them with an appropriate level of respect.
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A wartime C.E.O. may not delegate. They make every decision based on the next product release. They may use a lot of profanity.
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One of the things I say to people is: Imagine if we succeeded.
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I had a terrible time hiring rich people. It sounds funny, but the problem is when things go wrong they can ask, 'Why am I doing this?' You don't ever want anybody asking that question. You want them to say, 'I know why I'm doing it, I need the money, let's go' or whatever it is that draws them.
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If I'm in my position at a company, I may not have the knowledge of the C.E.O., I may not know what's possible, or I may not have the creativity, but if I can identify a problem, that's a valuable thing.
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A good engineering interview will include some set of difficult problems to solve. It might even require that the candidate write a short program. In addition, it will test the candidate's knowledge of the tools she uses in great depth.
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Hire sales people who are really smart problem solvers, but lack courage, hunger and competitiveness, and your company will go out of business.
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When screening engineers from other companies, its smart to value engineers from great companies more than those from mediocre companies.
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