and I think people’s skills tend to be
highly underestimated in terms of kind
of just ability to run a company guys
I’m gonna major in computer science and
one of my friends said wow that’s the
stupidest thing I’ve ever heard
like it come at me again you would not a
misquote me I can’t wait to kill you our
goal is to be the most important venture
capital firm in the world following your
passion is a very me-centered view of
the world work is what’s important
it’s that effort where you learn the
secrets I wanted to quit every day who’s
in that job I felt like throwing up when
I woke up in the morning but you only
get leverage if the person that you hire
can do it better than you can if you’re
a technology entrepreneur like you’ve
got every opportunity to make like a
gazillion dollars like all the VCS and
everybody tells me you know bending you
know what the key to a great company is
you know hire a players he’s an American
businessman investor blogger and author
he’s the co-founder of a venture capital
firm that bears his name he co-founded
the enterprise software company Opsware
that Hewlett Packard acquired from 1.6
billion dollars he’s Ben Horowitz and
here his top 10 rules for success
yeah so you know in the world of
entrepreneurship the big skills are kind
of programming skills and people skills
like those are the big two and I think
people’s skills tend to be highly
underestimated in terms of kind of just
ability to run a company and so forth
and what I mean by people’s skills is
the ability to understand other people’s
motivation and other people’s motivation
so you’re talking to and then who you’re
also not talking to and how they’re
going to think about something and where
they’re coming from and relate to that
in a way that gets you to the right
conclusion about how you build an
organization or build a company or or
you know make a deal or any of these
kinds of things is incredibly valuable
and that’s what I would say most the
kind of good entrepreneurs end up
lacking more than the technical skills
that we see now like being like a boss
level engineer like that’s extremely
valuable I’m not discounting that but
that that’s really the other big big
skill that you can learn and I was just
so excited to tell my friends I was like
man they’re gonna be just like so fired
up for me I figured it out I’m not gonna
be stressed anymore and I’m like guys
I’m gonna major in computer science and
one of my friends said wow that’s the
stupidest thing I’ve ever heard
and I’m like why he’s like you’re at
Columbia University that’s like a trade
you can learn that at DeVry they’ll
teach you how to build computers fixham
program like you should major in
something real and I was just thinking
to myself I was like I’m talking about a
limitless machine you’re like talking
about a washing machine
but I was so frustrated I couldn’t even
really explain to him why but it was at
that point at my like height of
frustration that I learned the most
valuable lesson that I learned at
Columbia which is don’t listen to your
friends
and the more the more generalized the
more generalized case of don’t listen to
your friends is think for yourself and
thinking for yourself sounds both simple
and trivial but in reality it’s
extremely difficult and it’s profound
and here’s why as human beings we want
to be liked
it’s anthropological if people didn’t
like you in caveman days they would just
eat you so you really have a natural
built-in instinct to want to be liked
and the easiest way to be liked is to
tell people what they want to hear and
you know what everybody wants to hear
what they already believe to be true and
so the last thing they want to hear is
an original idea that contradicts their
belief system so it’s very hard to even
bring that kind of stuff up but those
are the things those are the only things
things that you believe that everybody
around you doesn’t believe when you’re
right that create real value in the
world everything else people already
know there’s no value created it’s just
business as usual so it’s so important
to think for yourself how do you get
along with other VCS
so this is funny so I got along with
them very well alright so there are VCS
that are that I really really like Anil
Boozer II is one of them who I work with
all the time on various deals I just I
just got off the phone with ditch line
where I get along with very very well so
there are a lot of there are a lot of
VCS I get along with I’m a bad cultural
fit for investing you may have noticed
and and then there’s a good reason for
this so investor if you think about the
investing environment it’s this weird
coopertition thing because you compete
for deals but you work on deals together
so you’re kind of partners but your
competitors and I don’t come from that
culture they come from enterprise
software right like you know who the top
dog in enterprise software is Larry
Ellison right like ain’t no co-op
petition and Larry Ellison
right like all you have to do is mention
like anybody’s close to a competitor and
it’s like a hit will blow off like and
he’ll go like bananas like in Borneo we
saw that at deep absolutely bananas it’s
like its own baby
you stepped on my shoes let’s go and so
you know you know for me and then you
know also I listen to little wheezy and
so sometimes you know the venture
capitalist will come at me you know
being friendly hey you know what the
peace sign and you know to me the peace
sign is just the trigger and the middle
finger you know
so that’s a vain
that’s from Weezy does it does it bother
you when they talk about you
because they don’t do it to your face
they do it’s people like anonymous so
yeah so that was a you’re alluding a
little bit to when I called them
crybabies
which gets actually another thing the
one thing that does bother me a little
bit about some VCS and some angels so
one of the things that’s happened a lot
since we’ve been in the industry is we
get a lot of people calling the press
anonymously there are probably more
anonymous quotes about us in the press
and any other like entity right now and
Sarah calls me up and she goes Ben I got
a tip from six different anonymous
angels saying that you’re doing this and
I’m going if they don’t like what I’m
doing why don’t they just come out and
say it
hey you know like if I don’t like
something somebody’s doing I just come
outside put my name on it
and the reason that bothers me so much
is the number one thing we look for in
an entrepreneur and the number one thing
that I encourage and I try and help
people develop his courage and the
reason that that’s important and it’s
very very important and it goes back to
Aristotle so Aristotle said courage is
the first virtue and the reason it’s the
first virtue is if you don’t have it
then you don’t have any virtue because
all these other things honesty integrity
you know whatever
don’t ever get activated if in when
they’re important if you don’t have
cards it’s easy to be honest unless it’s
gonna cost you your job or your marriage
or something you care about then it’s
hard to be honest so without courage
like you don’t have any of you don’t
have integrity you don’t have anything
you’re you’re just like the you’re a
zero character person and so when people
who are supposed to be coaching
entrepreneurs angel investors or feces
walk around giving anonymous tips to
like reporters about stuff they don’t
think is right like and those guys are
advising the people who I’m working with
like that really like you know that
that’s something that like piss me off
so like I’m not having it and like i’ma
call them on it like they come at me
again you anonymous code
I can’t wait to get a lock kill you are
tomorrow did you imagine you’d be
managing almost 5 billion so like one of
the things we knew from being
entrepreneurs and this is this is a very
very key point in entrepreneurship is
that it is just as much work and just as
traumatic to build a company that’s
trivial and nobody cares about than it
is to build like a really significant
important thing like it’s the same
amount of work so you might as well try
to do something important and so that
was always I thought with the firm we
were like we are gonna like our goal is
to be the most important venture capital
firm in the world and you know like it’s
a completely megalomaniacal and arrogant
and idiotic but that’s like if you don’t
have that attitude as an entrepreneur
like you should not be an entrepreneur
so yeah we were always gonna be the
biggest we were always gonna be the best
and that that was the goal and there was
no reason to exist if we weren’t going
to do that what I’d like to give is a
few unconventional graduation thoughts
and I’m titling them do not follow your
passion and the world is not going to
hell in a house but hell in a handbasket
and the class of 2015 is not required to
save it I told you it was gonna be
unconventional so don’t follow your
passion now you’re probably thinking
that’s a really dumb idea because
everybody who’s successful and if you
Paul a thousand people are successful
they’ll all say that they love what they
do and so the broad conclusion of the
world is that if you do what you love
then you’ll be successful but we’re
engineers and we know that that might be
true but it all smells it might be the
case that if you’re successful you love
what you do you just love being
successful and everybody loves you it’s
awesome
so which one is it
well I think the figure it out you kind
of have to go back in time you have to
back off when you were successful too
like right now when you’re graduating as
the class of 2015 and the first tricky
thing about passions are they’re hard to
prioritize which passion is it are you
more passionate about math or
engineering are you more passionate
passionate about history or literature
are you more passionate about video
games or kpop these are tough decisions
how do you even know on the other hand
what do you get at are you better at
math or writing that’s a much easier
thing to figure out the second thing
that’s tricky if you’re going forward in
time with this follow your passion idea
is that what you’re passionate about
at 21 is not necessarily what you’re
going to be passionate about at 40 now
this is true for boyfriends as well as
career choices
the third issue with following your
passion is excuse me a little trouble
with the throat is you’re not
necessarily good at your passion and has
anybody ever watched American Idol so
you know what I’m talking about
like just because you love singing
doesn’t mean you should be a
professional singer and then finally and
most importantly following your passion
is a very me-centered view of the world
and when you get go through life what
you’ll find is what you take out of the
world over time be it you know whatever
money cars stuff accolades is much less
important than what you put into the
world and so my recommendation would be
follow your contributions find the thing
that you’re great at put that into the
world contribute to others help the
world be better and that is the thing to
follow you know it’s funny sometimes I
talked to my wife about this but like
hard work is like super important in
life and like now like I grew up like in
Berkeley and have any money I played for
the football for the yellowjacket so I
was just like a kid in the neighborhood
and now like I have a lot of money and
so like with my kids I’m like okay now
that I’m rich how do I teach you the
value of hard work because that’s really
the only important lesson that I’ve got
but like for all of you I think most of
you out of public university probably
know a little of the value of hard work
keep that lesson that’s the important
that work is what’s important it’s that
effort where you learn the secrets that
are super valuable and can change
people’s lives and change the world but
why did you still believe in the company
I mean I have to think that that at any
point in Silicon Valley history there’s
a lot of people that at that point
they’re just like this isn’t gonna work
markets changed this isn’t a viable
concept anymore well you know
I didn’t I I don’t know how much belief
I had but I knew that I had kind of
gotten everybody into the boat with me
so it wasn’t so much that I didn’t want
to quit I wanted to quit every day who’s
in that job I felt like throwing up when
I woke up in the morning do you know
what it’s like having a baby now yeah
exactly like I felt like I was pregnant
but you know I’d hired every employee
and they all trust me I’d raise all the
money I talked every investor into
putting their money and I had given
stock to you know like my friends and
relatives and they were all excited
about the prospects for the company when
it went public like a lot of my friends
from high school like bought the stock
because I was running the company and so
I just I felt like I could die but I
couldn’t quit and then you know one of
the horrible things about being founder
CEO is it’s the one job you really can’t
quit or if you do quit you’re Punk so
yeah you know I didn’t want to be a punk
so I I just kept you know I just kept
pedaling but it was rough I mean like
that was a running floud cloud right and
it didn’t stop there right like that was
loud loud loud cloud you know by the
time loud cloud was two-and-a-half years
old I had like sold like the loud cloud
part of the business and I had to change
it into another business so like that
the next thing that happened was right
laughs cloud was gonna go bankrupt so I
raised 160 million dollars in the IPO
but like I burned you know like we
burned through that and we couldn’t stop
the burn because the customers kept
going out of business and so like we
were headed towards bankruptcy so then I
had to you know I sold the services part
of the business and all the cash burn
tedious and then I hit the lay off you
know probably you know another third of
the employees and then I kept the
remaining 80 employees and we became a
software company a publicly traded
software company with no customers in
their revenue which was an another dream
Opsware that’s when we became Opsware
so like that was hard but it was good
you know it that kind of stuff it makes
you strong you know eventually you know
we five years later we sold to
hewlett-packard for you know one point
six billion dollars and not a bad exit
which was like still I’m still shocked
by that whole thing I still wake up in
the middle of the night going are we’re
gonna run out of money
you only get leverage and this is
something that is really tricky for
founding CEOs to get to but you only get
leverage if the person that you hire I
can do it better than you can because as
long as you feel like you’re better than
the method then there’s not you’re just
gonna keep second-guessing them and and
you’re not gonna get any leverage and a
lot of times like I’ll be talking to
CEOs and they’ll have an executive and
they’ll be like now this person’s like
really good and they’re working really
hard and I’m like well but like you’re
always like frustrated about like you
know you always feel like you have to do
that yourself and it’s like yeah cuz
they don’t understand how to do this and
that and I’m like well then like they’re
not an executive because the whole point
of an executive is to get you leverage
and so on a question like that it’s like
okay where can you find the right person
and make the hire to get you leverage
and wherever that is that’s what you
should give up first and you want
leverage in all spots because as CEO you
can be the keeper of the vision but
quality control over the top you can but
you can’t be the lead engineer forever
like that there is no like it doesn’t
matter how good an engineer like Larry
Page is great an engineer as he was is
not an engineer at Google he just isn’t
and he cannot work on production
products it’s a full-time job even for
like somebody who can do as many things
as Larry it’s he cannot do that and
nobody can like if Larry can’t do it you
can’t do it either I guarantee you and
so you’re gonna have to give them all up
and so it’s just a matter of like where
do you get the leverage all of the
general partners in the firm basically
agreed that we would give half of our
money away to to charity that we earned
at the firm basically half of everything
we get who are gonna give away and like
here’s why here’s why oh let me just say
why we did it the world the world is
complex and it’s not and it can’t be
entirely fair from what you contribute
to what you get is very very uneven and
even if you just look at Silicon Valley
you know if you look at the the kind of
brilliant people at Stanford Hospital or
you know some of the the people who
build the buildings that we live in or
the guys who teach the kids and like the
the teachers at the schools are like
incredibly smart and dedicated um but
there really is no way that they’re
gonna ever make anything like what I
make at injuries and orbits it’s just
impossible the way society is structured
like it did there’s no way it can happen
but their contribution to what I do is
significant like without them like you
know like I’ve got kids that are in
those schools I get sick I go to those
doctors like I live in that environment
and like I appreciate it I like really
appreciate the effort and the work and
the and what they do
and so for me to be in a position where
I can put money into the resources that
I share with them and like make their
life a little easier like I just feel
like it’s the right thing to do so it’s
nothing more than that and I don’t think
there’s any kind of like way I can give
money to other people like if if you’re
a technology entrepreneur like you’ve
got every opportunity to make like a
gazillion dollars like that that
opportunity is there whether like a
invest and get a percentage of your
company or not but like if you’re a
teacher you don’t have that opportunity
but man if I can get you the resources
to do your job better so that you’ve got
like a little more space in your
classroom like that could make the
difference for a kid who could do
something that’s really important and so
like that’s what I’m about and that’s
what I’m gonna do and I’m very proud
that our whole firm is doing that with
me look at the hard thing about hard
things which is just that we’re not
don’t come from yeah that’s just it’s
just a way cool title the hard thing
about hard things
well actually wrote that title myself
which I understand it’s like actually
pretty rare in the book business if they
let you keep your own title but where it
came from was you know when I was a CEO
it was easy time I slept like a baby
woke up every two hours and cried and
you know when I when I would be up and
and this is not a joke it’s actually
true you could ask my wife I’d be up at
3 o’clock in the morning just sitting
there going why are none of the
management books that I’m reading
helping me like there they are no help
at all and and I read literally every
management book and you know I realized
that you know management books are
generally written for like how here’s
how you to not screw up your company but
if you start a company that lasts like a
week and then you’ve screwed it up and
then like where’s the book for that you
know and that’s that’s what was missing
so I would think about I’d be like okay
yeah so like all the VCS and everybody
tells me you know bendin you know what
the key to a great company is you know
hire eight players and I’d be sitting
there like oh great cuz I was gonna hire
a bunch of idiots
now you’ve unlocked the secret for me
thank you
but you know like that that wasn’t like
that way I never liked that what the
hard thing is not to like hire the best
people right like the hard thing is when
your company is going like this and the
great best people don’t want to work for
you and then like who do you hire and
like how does that work and like you
know do you hire the person who’s like
okay across the border do you hire the
person that’s got something like
horribly wrong with them but like super
great about them and like how do you
think about that and like what do you do
with the horribly wrong stuff once you
get them you know that’s a hard thing
and there’s like in a bit I read this
the Jim Collins books which I hate sorry
you like him I know it doesn’t mean
you’re not smart if you like them
because a lot of people smart people
like them but the thing that he does is
he he makes you feel good about yourself
like but then when you get into it you
realize cause and effect is all like
swung around and all these things but
he’s like big what great companies have
is a big hairy audacious goal and I like
that’s great but that’s not hard like
it’s pretty easy to write a big hairy
like we’re gonna go to the moon you know
we’re gonna build the biggest company in
the world bring up software on every
desktop it’s all gonna be ours like
that’s our goal okay so now you’ve
missed your goal and like Natalie did
you miss your goal but you build up your
whole company to achieve your goal and
you have a cost structure that’s
designed to hit your goal and you missed
your goal and you’re running out of cash
and the company’s burning to the ground
and all of the company but everybody
works for you thinks you’re a moron
because you missed your goal okay that’s
hard like that’s the hard thing like
what do you do there well that’s not in
Jim’s book like you need to talk about
that it’s like nobody ever misses our
goal who’s a great company so like why
would you miss your goal like you must
I’d be great it’s like okay
so anyway that good that’s where the
hard thing about it okay thank you so
much for watching I made this video
because s bgm 247 asks me to so if
there’s a famous entrepreneur that you
are going to profile next leave it in
the comments below and I’ll see what I
can do
I’d also love to know which of the top
10 rules is gonna have the biggest
impact on your life leave it in the
comments I won’t join the discussion and
if you like this video
my personal goal on this channel is to
help reach a million subscribers so I
don’t think you think of to help share
the video spread the message I really
truly deeply appreciate it thank you
guys so much for watching continue to
believe and I’ll see you soon
highly underestimated in terms of kind
of just ability to run a company guys
I’m gonna major in computer science and
one of my friends said wow that’s the
stupidest thing I’ve ever heard
like it come at me again you would not a
misquote me I can’t wait to kill you our
goal is to be the most important venture
capital firm in the world following your
passion is a very me-centered view of
the world work is what’s important
it’s that effort where you learn the
secrets I wanted to quit every day who’s
in that job I felt like throwing up when
I woke up in the morning but you only
get leverage if the person that you hire
can do it better than you can if you’re
a technology entrepreneur like you’ve
got every opportunity to make like a
gazillion dollars like all the VCS and
everybody tells me you know bending you
know what the key to a great company is
you know hire a players he’s an American
businessman investor blogger and author
he’s the co-founder of a venture capital
firm that bears his name he co-founded
the enterprise software company Opsware
that Hewlett Packard acquired from 1.6
billion dollars he’s Ben Horowitz and
here his top 10 rules for success
yeah so you know in the world of
entrepreneurship the big skills are kind
of programming skills and people skills
like those are the big two and I think
people’s skills tend to be highly
underestimated in terms of kind of just
ability to run a company and so forth
and what I mean by people’s skills is
the ability to understand other people’s
motivation and other people’s motivation
so you’re talking to and then who you’re
also not talking to and how they’re
going to think about something and where
they’re coming from and relate to that
in a way that gets you to the right
conclusion about how you build an
organization or build a company or or
you know make a deal or any of these
kinds of things is incredibly valuable
and that’s what I would say most the
kind of good entrepreneurs end up
lacking more than the technical skills
that we see now like being like a boss
level engineer like that’s extremely
valuable I’m not discounting that but
that that’s really the other big big
skill that you can learn and I was just
so excited to tell my friends I was like
man they’re gonna be just like so fired
up for me I figured it out I’m not gonna
be stressed anymore and I’m like guys
I’m gonna major in computer science and
one of my friends said wow that’s the
stupidest thing I’ve ever heard
and I’m like why he’s like you’re at
Columbia University that’s like a trade
you can learn that at DeVry they’ll
teach you how to build computers fixham
program like you should major in
something real and I was just thinking
to myself I was like I’m talking about a
limitless machine you’re like talking
about a washing machine
but I was so frustrated I couldn’t even
really explain to him why but it was at
that point at my like height of
frustration that I learned the most
valuable lesson that I learned at
Columbia which is don’t listen to your
friends
and the more the more generalized the
more generalized case of don’t listen to
your friends is think for yourself and
thinking for yourself sounds both simple
and trivial but in reality it’s
extremely difficult and it’s profound
and here’s why as human beings we want
to be liked
it’s anthropological if people didn’t
like you in caveman days they would just
eat you so you really have a natural
built-in instinct to want to be liked
and the easiest way to be liked is to
tell people what they want to hear and
you know what everybody wants to hear
what they already believe to be true and
so the last thing they want to hear is
an original idea that contradicts their
belief system so it’s very hard to even
bring that kind of stuff up but those
are the things those are the only things
things that you believe that everybody
around you doesn’t believe when you’re
right that create real value in the
world everything else people already
know there’s no value created it’s just
business as usual so it’s so important
to think for yourself how do you get
along with other VCS
so this is funny so I got along with
them very well alright so there are VCS
that are that I really really like Anil
Boozer II is one of them who I work with
all the time on various deals I just I
just got off the phone with ditch line
where I get along with very very well so
there are a lot of there are a lot of
VCS I get along with I’m a bad cultural
fit for investing you may have noticed
and and then there’s a good reason for
this so investor if you think about the
investing environment it’s this weird
coopertition thing because you compete
for deals but you work on deals together
so you’re kind of partners but your
competitors and I don’t come from that
culture they come from enterprise
software right like you know who the top
dog in enterprise software is Larry
Ellison right like ain’t no co-op
petition and Larry Ellison
right like all you have to do is mention
like anybody’s close to a competitor and
it’s like a hit will blow off like and
he’ll go like bananas like in Borneo we
saw that at deep absolutely bananas it’s
like its own baby
you stepped on my shoes let’s go and so
you know you know for me and then you
know also I listen to little wheezy and
so sometimes you know the venture
capitalist will come at me you know
being friendly hey you know what the
peace sign and you know to me the peace
sign is just the trigger and the middle
finger you know
so that’s a vain
that’s from Weezy does it does it bother
you when they talk about you
because they don’t do it to your face
they do it’s people like anonymous so
yeah so that was a you’re alluding a
little bit to when I called them
crybabies
which gets actually another thing the
one thing that does bother me a little
bit about some VCS and some angels so
one of the things that’s happened a lot
since we’ve been in the industry is we
get a lot of people calling the press
anonymously there are probably more
anonymous quotes about us in the press
and any other like entity right now and
Sarah calls me up and she goes Ben I got
a tip from six different anonymous
angels saying that you’re doing this and
I’m going if they don’t like what I’m
doing why don’t they just come out and
say it
hey you know like if I don’t like
something somebody’s doing I just come
outside put my name on it
and the reason that bothers me so much
is the number one thing we look for in
an entrepreneur and the number one thing
that I encourage and I try and help
people develop his courage and the
reason that that’s important and it’s
very very important and it goes back to
Aristotle so Aristotle said courage is
the first virtue and the reason it’s the
first virtue is if you don’t have it
then you don’t have any virtue because
all these other things honesty integrity
you know whatever
don’t ever get activated if in when
they’re important if you don’t have
cards it’s easy to be honest unless it’s
gonna cost you your job or your marriage
or something you care about then it’s
hard to be honest so without courage
like you don’t have any of you don’t
have integrity you don’t have anything
you’re you’re just like the you’re a
zero character person and so when people
who are supposed to be coaching
entrepreneurs angel investors or feces
walk around giving anonymous tips to
like reporters about stuff they don’t
think is right like and those guys are
advising the people who I’m working with
like that really like you know that
that’s something that like piss me off
so like I’m not having it and like i’ma
call them on it like they come at me
again you anonymous code
I can’t wait to get a lock kill you are
tomorrow did you imagine you’d be
managing almost 5 billion so like one of
the things we knew from being
entrepreneurs and this is this is a very
very key point in entrepreneurship is
that it is just as much work and just as
traumatic to build a company that’s
trivial and nobody cares about than it
is to build like a really significant
important thing like it’s the same
amount of work so you might as well try
to do something important and so that
was always I thought with the firm we
were like we are gonna like our goal is
to be the most important venture capital
firm in the world and you know like it’s
a completely megalomaniacal and arrogant
and idiotic but that’s like if you don’t
have that attitude as an entrepreneur
like you should not be an entrepreneur
so yeah we were always gonna be the
biggest we were always gonna be the best
and that that was the goal and there was
no reason to exist if we weren’t going
to do that what I’d like to give is a
few unconventional graduation thoughts
and I’m titling them do not follow your
passion and the world is not going to
hell in a house but hell in a handbasket
and the class of 2015 is not required to
save it I told you it was gonna be
unconventional so don’t follow your
passion now you’re probably thinking
that’s a really dumb idea because
everybody who’s successful and if you
Paul a thousand people are successful
they’ll all say that they love what they
do and so the broad conclusion of the
world is that if you do what you love
then you’ll be successful but we’re
engineers and we know that that might be
true but it all smells it might be the
case that if you’re successful you love
what you do you just love being
successful and everybody loves you it’s
awesome
so which one is it
well I think the figure it out you kind
of have to go back in time you have to
back off when you were successful too
like right now when you’re graduating as
the class of 2015 and the first tricky
thing about passions are they’re hard to
prioritize which passion is it are you
more passionate about math or
engineering are you more passionate
passionate about history or literature
are you more passionate about video
games or kpop these are tough decisions
how do you even know on the other hand
what do you get at are you better at
math or writing that’s a much easier
thing to figure out the second thing
that’s tricky if you’re going forward in
time with this follow your passion idea
is that what you’re passionate about
at 21 is not necessarily what you’re
going to be passionate about at 40 now
this is true for boyfriends as well as
career choices
the third issue with following your
passion is excuse me a little trouble
with the throat is you’re not
necessarily good at your passion and has
anybody ever watched American Idol so
you know what I’m talking about
like just because you love singing
doesn’t mean you should be a
professional singer and then finally and
most importantly following your passion
is a very me-centered view of the world
and when you get go through life what
you’ll find is what you take out of the
world over time be it you know whatever
money cars stuff accolades is much less
important than what you put into the
world and so my recommendation would be
follow your contributions find the thing
that you’re great at put that into the
world contribute to others help the
world be better and that is the thing to
follow you know it’s funny sometimes I
talked to my wife about this but like
hard work is like super important in
life and like now like I grew up like in
Berkeley and have any money I played for
the football for the yellowjacket so I
was just like a kid in the neighborhood
and now like I have a lot of money and
so like with my kids I’m like okay now
that I’m rich how do I teach you the
value of hard work because that’s really
the only important lesson that I’ve got
but like for all of you I think most of
you out of public university probably
know a little of the value of hard work
keep that lesson that’s the important
that work is what’s important it’s that
effort where you learn the secrets that
are super valuable and can change
people’s lives and change the world but
why did you still believe in the company
I mean I have to think that that at any
point in Silicon Valley history there’s
a lot of people that at that point
they’re just like this isn’t gonna work
markets changed this isn’t a viable
concept anymore well you know
I didn’t I I don’t know how much belief
I had but I knew that I had kind of
gotten everybody into the boat with me
so it wasn’t so much that I didn’t want
to quit I wanted to quit every day who’s
in that job I felt like throwing up when
I woke up in the morning do you know
what it’s like having a baby now yeah
exactly like I felt like I was pregnant
but you know I’d hired every employee
and they all trust me I’d raise all the
money I talked every investor into
putting their money and I had given
stock to you know like my friends and
relatives and they were all excited
about the prospects for the company when
it went public like a lot of my friends
from high school like bought the stock
because I was running the company and so
I just I felt like I could die but I
couldn’t quit and then you know one of
the horrible things about being founder
CEO is it’s the one job you really can’t
quit or if you do quit you’re Punk so
yeah you know I didn’t want to be a punk
so I I just kept you know I just kept
pedaling but it was rough I mean like
that was a running floud cloud right and
it didn’t stop there right like that was
loud loud loud cloud you know by the
time loud cloud was two-and-a-half years
old I had like sold like the loud cloud
part of the business and I had to change
it into another business so like that
the next thing that happened was right
laughs cloud was gonna go bankrupt so I
raised 160 million dollars in the IPO
but like I burned you know like we
burned through that and we couldn’t stop
the burn because the customers kept
going out of business and so like we
were headed towards bankruptcy so then I
had to you know I sold the services part
of the business and all the cash burn
tedious and then I hit the lay off you
know probably you know another third of
the employees and then I kept the
remaining 80 employees and we became a
software company a publicly traded
software company with no customers in
their revenue which was an another dream
Opsware that’s when we became Opsware
so like that was hard but it was good
you know it that kind of stuff it makes
you strong you know eventually you know
we five years later we sold to
hewlett-packard for you know one point
six billion dollars and not a bad exit
which was like still I’m still shocked
by that whole thing I still wake up in
the middle of the night going are we’re
gonna run out of money
you only get leverage and this is
something that is really tricky for
founding CEOs to get to but you only get
leverage if the person that you hire I
can do it better than you can because as
long as you feel like you’re better than
the method then there’s not you’re just
gonna keep second-guessing them and and
you’re not gonna get any leverage and a
lot of times like I’ll be talking to
CEOs and they’ll have an executive and
they’ll be like now this person’s like
really good and they’re working really
hard and I’m like well but like you’re
always like frustrated about like you
know you always feel like you have to do
that yourself and it’s like yeah cuz
they don’t understand how to do this and
that and I’m like well then like they’re
not an executive because the whole point
of an executive is to get you leverage
and so on a question like that it’s like
okay where can you find the right person
and make the hire to get you leverage
and wherever that is that’s what you
should give up first and you want
leverage in all spots because as CEO you
can be the keeper of the vision but
quality control over the top you can but
you can’t be the lead engineer forever
like that there is no like it doesn’t
matter how good an engineer like Larry
Page is great an engineer as he was is
not an engineer at Google he just isn’t
and he cannot work on production
products it’s a full-time job even for
like somebody who can do as many things
as Larry it’s he cannot do that and
nobody can like if Larry can’t do it you
can’t do it either I guarantee you and
so you’re gonna have to give them all up
and so it’s just a matter of like where
do you get the leverage all of the
general partners in the firm basically
agreed that we would give half of our
money away to to charity that we earned
at the firm basically half of everything
we get who are gonna give away and like
here’s why here’s why oh let me just say
why we did it the world the world is
complex and it’s not and it can’t be
entirely fair from what you contribute
to what you get is very very uneven and
even if you just look at Silicon Valley
you know if you look at the the kind of
brilliant people at Stanford Hospital or
you know some of the the people who
build the buildings that we live in or
the guys who teach the kids and like the
the teachers at the schools are like
incredibly smart and dedicated um but
there really is no way that they’re
gonna ever make anything like what I
make at injuries and orbits it’s just
impossible the way society is structured
like it did there’s no way it can happen
but their contribution to what I do is
significant like without them like you
know like I’ve got kids that are in
those schools I get sick I go to those
doctors like I live in that environment
and like I appreciate it I like really
appreciate the effort and the work and
the and what they do
and so for me to be in a position where
I can put money into the resources that
I share with them and like make their
life a little easier like I just feel
like it’s the right thing to do so it’s
nothing more than that and I don’t think
there’s any kind of like way I can give
money to other people like if if you’re
a technology entrepreneur like you’ve
got every opportunity to make like a
gazillion dollars like that that
opportunity is there whether like a
invest and get a percentage of your
company or not but like if you’re a
teacher you don’t have that opportunity
but man if I can get you the resources
to do your job better so that you’ve got
like a little more space in your
classroom like that could make the
difference for a kid who could do
something that’s really important and so
like that’s what I’m about and that’s
what I’m gonna do and I’m very proud
that our whole firm is doing that with
me look at the hard thing about hard
things which is just that we’re not
don’t come from yeah that’s just it’s
just a way cool title the hard thing
about hard things
well actually wrote that title myself
which I understand it’s like actually
pretty rare in the book business if they
let you keep your own title but where it
came from was you know when I was a CEO
it was easy time I slept like a baby
woke up every two hours and cried and
you know when I when I would be up and
and this is not a joke it’s actually
true you could ask my wife I’d be up at
3 o’clock in the morning just sitting
there going why are none of the
management books that I’m reading
helping me like there they are no help
at all and and I read literally every
management book and you know I realized
that you know management books are
generally written for like how here’s
how you to not screw up your company but
if you start a company that lasts like a
week and then you’ve screwed it up and
then like where’s the book for that you
know and that’s that’s what was missing
so I would think about I’d be like okay
yeah so like all the VCS and everybody
tells me you know bendin you know what
the key to a great company is you know
hire eight players and I’d be sitting
there like oh great cuz I was gonna hire
a bunch of idiots
now you’ve unlocked the secret for me
thank you
but you know like that that wasn’t like
that way I never liked that what the
hard thing is not to like hire the best
people right like the hard thing is when
your company is going like this and the
great best people don’t want to work for
you and then like who do you hire and
like how does that work and like you
know do you hire the person who’s like
okay across the border do you hire the
person that’s got something like
horribly wrong with them but like super
great about them and like how do you
think about that and like what do you do
with the horribly wrong stuff once you
get them you know that’s a hard thing
and there’s like in a bit I read this
the Jim Collins books which I hate sorry
you like him I know it doesn’t mean
you’re not smart if you like them
because a lot of people smart people
like them but the thing that he does is
he he makes you feel good about yourself
like but then when you get into it you
realize cause and effect is all like
swung around and all these things but
he’s like big what great companies have
is a big hairy audacious goal and I like
that’s great but that’s not hard like
it’s pretty easy to write a big hairy
like we’re gonna go to the moon you know
we’re gonna build the biggest company in
the world bring up software on every
desktop it’s all gonna be ours like
that’s our goal okay so now you’ve
missed your goal and like Natalie did
you miss your goal but you build up your
whole company to achieve your goal and
you have a cost structure that’s
designed to hit your goal and you missed
your goal and you’re running out of cash
and the company’s burning to the ground
and all of the company but everybody
works for you thinks you’re a moron
because you missed your goal okay that’s
hard like that’s the hard thing like
what do you do there well that’s not in
Jim’s book like you need to talk about
that it’s like nobody ever misses our
goal who’s a great company so like why
would you miss your goal like you must
I’d be great it’s like okay
so anyway that good that’s where the
hard thing about it okay thank you so
much for watching I made this video
because s bgm 247 asks me to so if
there’s a famous entrepreneur that you
are going to profile next leave it in
the comments below and I’ll see what I
can do
I’d also love to know which of the top
10 rules is gonna have the biggest
impact on your life leave it in the
comments I won’t join the discussion and
if you like this video
my personal goal on this channel is to
help reach a million subscribers so I
don’t think you think of to help share
the video spread the message I really
truly deeply appreciate it thank you
guys so much for watching continue to
believe and I’ll see you soon
Please follow and like us: