Ben Horowitz Quotes

Management teams aren't good at asking questions. In business school, we train them to be good at giving answers.

There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.

Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing.

The experience of learning how to get straight to the core of a problem proved to be of immense value later when I had a long succession of responsibilities in large, complex government departments.

He's a tremendous guy. And what's more, he's virtually a genius in the field of management.

The person who knows "how" will always have a job. The person who knows "why" will always be his boss

Being mayor takes a certain amount of creativity.

Governing is about making tough decisions, but it's also about figuring out a better way to do things.

In my experience, the most effective professionals in business and government have the ability to get things done. They're trained to work with multiple stakeholders, to understand how to identify a problem, devise solutions, to compromise and work well with others.

Throughout my career, I've been someone who's led... and solved problems we had.

Good thinkers are always in demand. A person who knows how may always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be his boss.

I have picked the very, very best deputy that I could. David Parker is a fantastic guy. He's a person who I trust absolutely. He's got a wonderful sense for policy. He will be great on organisation, and I know that I could not have a better deputy.

I have a lot of common sense. I know what needs to be done and how to approach it. I have an ability to work with people on large enterprises.

Business is about people. It's about passion. It's about bold ideas, bold small ideas or bold large ideas.

I don't really have preferred roles except those with some complexity.

I'm learning more and more to share creativity with the crew and actors. A film crew is more powerful if you listen to them, but it does make my job more tough because I have to listen.

I've been fortunate to work with some really smart people. Larry Page is an extremely smart guy, most probably one of the smartest people I've worked with.

Where visionaries can be good at persuasion, CEOs are good at wielding authority. Visionaries transcend organizations, resources, and current realities, while CEOs master them.

The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

Well, the first quality of being a good leader is you have to be able to follow. See, a good leader can't just be the leader all the time, I have to be able to follow.

The successful business executive can handle challenges and solve problems at a remarkable clip.

Men of routine or men who can do what they are told are not hard to find; but men who can think and plan and tell the routine men what to do are very rare.

Effective management always means asking the right question.

As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.