Consulting the Archives...
Generating fresh insights specifically for this topic.
This may take a moment.
Generating fresh insights specifically for this topic.
This may take a moment.
Ben Horowitz didn't just study Leadership—they mastered it. This archive captures the principles and frameworks they developed through direct experience. Each quote includes source context, allowing you to trace their thinking from observation to insight. Use this collection when you're serious about understanding Leadership at a deeper level, not just consuming motivational content.
"If you want people to behave a certain way, you have to create a habit for it."
"Innovation requires a different kind of leadership. In peacetime, you have to be one way; in wartime, another."
"Every time you make the hard, correct decision you become a bit more courageous and every time you make the easy, wrong decision you become a bit more cowardly."
"As a CEO, I found that 90 percent of my time was spent on things that were not going well."
"Wartime CEO violates protocol but captures the mountain. Peacetime CEO follows protocol to win the war."
"If you don't have the habit of telling the truth, you won't have the trust of your team."
"Wartime CEOs do not have time for consensus."
"If you run a company, you will experience overwhelming psychological pressure to be overly positive. Stand up to the pressure."
"The most important skill for a CEO is the ability to communicate effectively."
"Trust is the glue that holds the organization together."
"The most important thing for a leader is to be able to tell the truth, even when it’s hard."
"If you don't believe in what you are doing, you will never be able to handle the pressure of being a CEO."
"Consistency in leadership is a habit, not a trait."
"Every time I read a management or self-help book, I find myself saying, 'That’s fine, but that wasn’t the hard thing about the situation.'"
"Wartime CEOs do not have the luxury of consensus; they prioritize speed and accuracy."
"In business, you must be willing to make the bet where, if you are wrong, you are fired."
"Without trust, communication breaks. In any human interaction, the required amount of communication is inversely proportional to the level of trust."
"The way you treat people who leave is the habit that defines how people feel who stay."
"If you don't treat the people who leave well, the people who stay will never trust you."
"The best vision is one that turns a group of individuals into a team with a single purpose."
"If you can't be honest about the risks, you can't be trusted with the rewards."
"Creativity in management is about finding the right incentive to make the right behavior the easiest path."
"Wartime CEO is paranoid. Peacetime CEO knows that the company has to win and utilizes the contingent to do so."
"A good product manager is the CEO of the product."
Source: Inspired by: Blog Post: Good Product Manager/Bad Product Manager
"Hire for strength rather than lack of weakness."
"You must communicate the vision so often that you are sick of hearing yourself talk about it."
"Culture is not a set of values; it is the priority of behaviors you reward."
"In wartime, the company is facing an imminent existential threat. Such a threat can come from many sources, including competition."
Seeing how Ben Horowitz approaches Leadership helps you apply the idea with more precision.
Pick one quote to guide a decision today, then return for deeper perspective.
Search More
Jump to another topic, author, or pillar without leaving the archive.
"Use this collection whenever you need Ben Horowitz's lens on Leadership."