Ben Horowitz on Learning Quotes

"Failure is a necessary part of the innovation process. If you're not failing, you're not pushing hard enough."

"Learning is a lifelong process."

"The most important thing I learned is that there is no such thing as a perfect CEO."

"By far the most difficult skill I learned as a C.E.O. was the ability to manage my own psychology. Organizational design, process design, metrics, hiring and firing were all relatively straightforward skills to master compared with keeping my mind in check. Ben Horowitz, "What’s The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology," at bhorowitz.com, March 31, 2011."

"To innovate, you must first understand the rules so that you can break them effectively."

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

"Creativity is about connecting the dots that others don't even see."

"Hiring for creativity means looking for people who have solved problems in ways that weren't in the manual."

"Note to self: It’s a good idea to ask, 'What am I not doing?'"

"A company is only as good as its people, and its people are only as good as their training."

"The routine of mentorship is how you scale your own knowledge across the entire organization."

"Belief is what allows you to survive the mistakes you will inevitably make."

"A plan is a hypothesis. You must be willing to test it and discard it if it doesn't work."

"The difference between a good company and a great company is how they handle failure."

"Success is not a destination; it's a journey of continuous improvement."

"The enemy of competence is confidence."

"Training is the most important habit for any manager."

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

"If you want to be a great leader, you have to be a great listener."

"Training is, quite simply, one of the highest-leverage activities a manager can perform."

"The only way to learn is to do. You can't read your way into being a leader."

"The routine of the 'post-mortem' is essential for learning from failure and ensuring it doesn't happen again."

"The habit of curiosity is the key to long-term innovation."

"The habit of listening is more important than the habit of talking."

"You can’t worry about the mistakes, because you’re going to make a lot of them. You’ve got to worry about learning from the mistakes."

"In business, you either win or you learn."

"There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained from personal experience."

"You have to have the confidence to say 'I don't know' and then find the answer."

"Your vision must be grounded in a deep understanding of the problem you are solving."

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

"Until you make the effort to get to know someone or something, you don't know anything."

"If you don't prioritize training, you are effectively saying you don't care about the quality of the work."

"The best leaders are those who are constantly learning and evolving."