Horowitz was exposed to a diverse perspective from a very early age; parents indoctrinated

in the Communist philosophy, grandparents were card-carrying Communists and at Berkeley

High School football team, he was the only player to excel academically. Looking at the world
through different perspectives helped him learn how to separate facts from perceptions. This
ability proved incredibly useful when he became an entrepreneur, especially in dire
circumstances when looking at alternative narratives and radically different perspectives
kept him informed.

Horowitz founded a company called LoudCloud in 1999, based on the emerging

concept of a computing cloud

In spite of the challenges, Horowitz firmly believed in “Treating your employees

fairly and always telling them the truth.” He understood that figuring out the right
product is the innovator’s job, not the customer’s and after the first line of code is
written, decisions are no longer objective in the technology business.

Chapter 4: When Things Fall Apart

When the odds of LoudCloud’s survival were low, Ben’s friend and LoudCloud board
member, Bill Campbell advised him to prepare for bankruptcy, but he never made
such a contingency plan. He believed that CEOs should not play the odds. When you
are building a company, you must believe there is an answer, and you cannot pay
attention to the odds of finding it. You just have to find it. It matters not whether your
chances are nine in ten or one in a thousand; the task is the same.

There is no secret to being a successful CEO he states; however, the ability to focus
and make the best move when there seems to be no good moves is crucial. When
things get unbearably difficult, and the struggle begins, there are a few things you can
try.

First, do not put it all on only your shoulders. You should share every burden that you
can with the maximum number of brains.
Second, CEO’s Should Tell It Like It Is and ensure informal information and ideas are
flowing freely in your company, instead of adopting the old management standard:
“Don’t bring me a problem without bringing me a solution.” What if the employee
cannot solve an important problem?

Thirdly — and this is a tough one — you will have to lay people off at some point.
Hence, get your head right by focusing on the future of the company rather than the
past. Do not delay. If word leaks out before you execute the decision, a whole new set
of issues will arise. Be clear about why you need to lay people off. If it is because the
company failed to hit its plan, then admit that failure. Then be visible and present, to
boost the confidence of those who are still on board.

So, what’s the secret to being a “successful” CEO? Sadly, none, Ben says, other than
making the best move when there are no good moves.

Hororwitz puts forward the idea that there is a significant difference between a
Peacetime CEO vs. a Wartime CEO, which sparks great interest. Let me quote directly
from the book:

Peacetime CEO knows that proper protocol leads to winning. Wartime CEO violates
protocol in order to win.

Peacetime CEO focuses on the big picture and empowers her people to make detailed
decisions. Wartime CEO cares about a speck of dust on a gnat’s ass if it interferes with
the prime directive.

Peacetime CEO builds scalable, high-volume recruiting machines. Wartime CEO does
that, but also builds HR organizations that can execute layoffs.

Peacetime CEO spends time defining the culture. Wartime CEO lets the war define the
culture.
Peacetime CEO always has a contingency plan. Wartime CEO knows that sometimes you
gotta roll a hard six.

Peacetime CEO knows what to do with a big advantage. Wartime CEO is paranoid.

Peacetime CEO strives not to use profanity. Wartime CEO sometimes uses profanity
purposefully.

Peacetime CEO thinks of the competition as other ships in a big ocean that may never
engage. Wartime CEO thinks the competition is sneaking into her house and trying to
kidnap her children.

Peacetime CEO aims to expand the market. Wartime CEO aims to win the market.

Peacetime CEO strives to tolerate deviations from the plan when coupled with effort
and creativity. Wartime CEO is completely intolerant.

Peacetime CEO does not raise her voice. Wartime CEO rarely speaks in a normal tone.

Peacetime CEO works to minimize conflict. Wartime CEO heightens the contradictions.

Peacetime CEO strives for broad-based buy-in. Wartime CEO neither indulges consensus
building nor tolerates disagreements.

Peacetime CEO sets big, hairy, audacious goals. Wartime CEO is too busy fighting the
enemy to read management books written by consultants who have never managed a
fruit stand.

Peacetime CEO trains her employees to ensure satisfaction and career development.
Wartime CEO trains her employees so they don’t get their asses shot off in the battle.
Peacetime CEO has rules like “We’re going to exit all businesses where we’re not
number one or two.” Wartime CEO often has no businesses that are number one or two
and therefore does not have the luxury of following that rule.

Chapter 5: Take Care of the People, The Products, and the Profits — in That Order

According to Horowitz, it is crucial to create a good work environment. It’s important

that the people who spend most of their waking life at work have a good environment
to exist in while there. Being a good company doesn’t matter when things go well, but
it can be the difference between life and death when things go wrong.When things go
well, there are many reasons to stay at a company —

1. Your career grows as the company grows, attractive jobs naturally open up

2. You’ll be impressing your friends and family. Your friends and family will think you
a genius for choosing to work at the “it” company

3. Your résumé gets stronger by working at a blue-chip company in its heyday.

4. Oh, and you are getting rich.

However, when things go poorly, all those reasons evaporate and become reasons to
leave. In fact, the only thing that keeps an employee at a company when things go
horribly wrong — other than needing a job — is that she likes her job, despite the
hardships

So on that note the book advises when expanding your team, consider:

1. Hire for strength rather than lack of weakness.

2. Have clear expectations of who you are hiring with a realization that there is
something seriously wrong with every employee in your company (including you).
Nobody is perfect.

3. Involve multiple people in brainstorming but make the final decision solo.
Consensus-based decisions tend to sway the process away from strength and towards
weakness.

Especially when hiring executives, it is very important to remember that being a big
company executive is very different from being a small company executive. Big
company executives are driven by interruptions, while startup executives know that
nothing happens unless they make it happen. A big company executive has an
incredible number of incoming demands on his time, whereas in a small company
without a massive push, the company will stay at rest.

Chapter 6: Concerning the Going Concern

I think Horowitz is quite correct when he states in this chapter that most workplaces
are far from good. As organizations grow larger, important work can go unnoticed.
The hardest workers can get passed over in favor of the best office politicians, and
bureaucratic processes can choke out the creativity and true productivity.

As a company grows, Horowitz says, it is important to minimize politics within your

organization. One of the biggest issues behind politics is when people advance their
own careers or their personal agendas instead of merit or contribution.

Here are the four takeaways for minimizing politics in the company.

Firstly, hire people with the right kind of ambition; otherwise, your company would
turn into the political equivalent of the U.S Senate. The right kind is ambition for the
company’s success; with the executive’s own success coming on only as a by-product.
Secondly, maintain strict policies and processes on organizational design,
performance evaluations, promotions, and compensation

Thirdly, you should promote experienced employees by measuring results against

objectives, management skills, innovation, and their ability to work well with others.

Fourthly, ensure one-on-one meetings between employees and managers. These are
an excellent platform for employees to discuss their as yet unheard brilliant ideas,
pressing issues, and chronic frustrations.

Chapter 7: How to Lead Even When You Don’t Know Where You Are

Every CEO, Horowitz writes, of a startup should focus on what needs to be right
rather than worrying about what is wrong. One of the most difficult challenges is
keeping your mind in check. You need to be able to move aggressively and decisively
without acting insane. To calm your nerves, find someone you can talk to who
understands what you’re going through. Put your ideas, challenges, and fears on
paper for a better focus on where you are going and not what you are trying to avoid.

There is a fine Line Between Fear and Courage — People who watch you judge you on
what you do, not how you feel.

Chapter 8: First Rule of Entrepreneurship: There Are No Rules

Reiterating a theme that comes up again and again in the book as a whole this
chapter is devoted to the idea that there are no rules in business. Things may seem to
be going well, but they can change in an instant. You need accountability and
creativity to succeed in business. Accountability is the key for effort, promises and
results.

The hard things will always be hard; courage and grit are the keys to success.
Chapter 9: The End of the Beginning

Continuing his personal story Horowitz recalls that after selling Opsware, he went to
work for Hewlett-Packard, but he still knew he wanted to do something else. He
decided to set up a firm designed to help technical founders run their companies.
Technical founders are the best people to run technology companies. All long-lasting
technologies thrived when led by their innovator ; Intel, Amazon, Apple, Google and
Facebook had been run by their founders and in some cases still are to this day

With this new company Horowitz wanted to imapart to founders that things are hard
because there are no easy answers or recipes. They are hard because your emotions
are at odds with your logic. They are hard because you don’t know the answer and
you cannot ask for help without showing weakness. While his firm cannot give a
founder CEO all the skills he or she needs, it can provide mentorship based on his
experience and learnings.