Lecture 15: How to Manage
Link: How to Start a Startup
(You can find notes to the other lectures here.)
Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz)
When you are making a critical decision you have to understand how it will be interpreted from all points of view.
You have to be able to see the decision through the eyes of the company as a whole.
You’ve got to understand what your decision means to everybody not just the person you’re talking to.
When you give out raises when people ask for them you’re going to be giving out a lot of raises.
For raises you have to be formal to save your own culture.
Don’t do (raises) off cycle.
To be an executive you often have to be aggressive in this world.
Your employees know each other more than they know you.
When you hire people you try to hire the very best.
The reason somebody fails on the job is that you didn’t accurately enough match them with the needs of the position.
Sometimes it is necessary to take somebody’s job. It is not necessary to take their dignity.
If you’re married to somebody who is supportive it makes it a thousand times easier.
You’ve got to keep your focus on what you can do and not on what happened to you.