Ben Horowitz on Deep Work Quotes

"Every time you make a hard decision, you are training your brain to handle the next one."

"A CEO's most important job is to define the strategy and ensure the company is focused on it."

"Spend zero time on what you could have done and all of your time on what you might do."

"If you don't treat the hard things as the most important things, you'll never get to the good things."

"Deep focus on the problem is the only way to find the non-obvious solution."

"The only thing that prepares you to run a company is running a company."

"You must be able to focus on the task at hand even when the world is falling apart around you."

"If you don't discipline your mind to focus, the market will discipline you for your lack of it."

"Don't ignore the data, but don't let the data do your thinking for you."

"If you are going to eat shit, don't nibble."

"The hard thing isn’t setting a big, hairy, audacious goal. The hard thing is laying people off when you miss the big goal."

"The best way to learn how to do something is to do it with total intensity."

"In wartime, the CEO does not tolerate deviations from the goal."

"If you want to be great, you have to do the things that other people aren't willing to do."

"Culture is not a set of beliefs; it is a set of actions."

"There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained through hard work."

"The quality of your output is a direct reflection of the quality of your attention."

"Focus on where you are going rather than on what you are afraid of."

"Take care of the people, the products, and the profits—in that order."

"You can't solve a problem you don't understand, and you can't understand it without focus."

"A good product manager is the CEO of the product. They take full responsibility and measure themselves in terms of the success of the product."

"Success requires the ability to stay focused on the long term while executing in the short term."

"Great CEOs have the ability to focus on the one thing that matters when everything is going wrong."

"The difference between a good manager and a bad manager is the quality of their thinking during the quiet hours."

"You have to be able to do the work that nobody else can do, and that requires a level of focus that most people aren't willing to give."

"The most important part of the job is the part that requires the most quiet thinking."

"Intelligence is not enough; you need the discipline to apply it to the right problems."

"The most important decisions are made when you are alone with your thoughts."

"Hard things are hard because there are no easy answers."

"Managing the cognitive load of a complex organization requires deep mental clarity."

"The Struggle is the land of broken promises and crushed dreams. It is the cold sweat."

"Wartime CEO is completely focused on the enemy and the survival of the company."

"The most difficult skill I learned as CEO was the ability to manage my own psychology."