Ben Horowitz Quotes

I’ve worked as a leader for many years and I’ve always trained myself to be prepared for the worst.

I.B.M. was my college education, effectively. They were very good at teaching you management.

I need to aspire to be a great CEO and not just a great product engineer.

Too many managers manage by what the postgame press conference is going to be.

A C.E.O.'s job is leadership, problem solving, and team building. I've done that my whole career.

As leader of the effort of the Iraqi Survey Group, I spent most of my days not out in the field leading inspections. It's typically what you do at that level. I was trying to motivate, direct, find strategies.

You need to carry out very careful pre-feasibility and feasibility studies before you enter any crisis situation.

I love Obama's calm and dignity. A lot of people confuse that with being aloof, but I know people that have held that job. It's a 24-hour barrage of information.

A CEO needs to build their own team.

Had Rumsfeld said at any time 'get me a report on what's going on', he could have had it. You're right, it depends on choices that we make, which parts of the world we want to be in immediate contact with.

There are so many similarities between a startup venture and a political campaign - the rhythm, the tempo, the hours, the intensity.

The role of leadership is to transform the complex situation into small pieces and prioritize them.

Decisiveness is the one word that makes a good manager.

I have never seen myself as a promoter. I always evaluate myself as a manager.

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

I've got to let the people who are in the business run the business. I can help them think through their decisions about products, about partners, about hiring. But in the end, the decisions are theirs, and so is the responsibility.

Few people would doubt that Mark Zuckerberg would build a great product. But I, at least, would never have expected him to become so great at hiring, motivating, managing, and ultimately getting whatever it is his company needs from people.

A President in a ... crisis makes, say, 10 bets a day. Maybe I made the wrong choice three times.

As Secretary of Defense I have to be cautious and prudent.

The great problem now is that we don’t know what to do.

In our government we drive decisions either by leadership of by crises. If the leadership is not there, we rely on crises.

I have been a soldier and a commander for many years and know how to differentiate between things - not to be busy all the time with the most sensitive matters and to give everything its due attention without having the issues that cause concern to constantly be troubling or worrisome.

When I was getting my education, I fell in love with the writings of Peter Drucker. He was my hero. I had a naive belief that when I became a manager, it was going to be like Peter Drucker's books. That is, I was going to be the effective executive. I was going to talk to people about their goals. I was going to help them actualize.

As one grows their company and brand, you have to learn to be a leader, and there's no formula.

I would love to be a general manager just for the challenge.