Ben Horowitz on Priorities Quotes

"The most important move is to focus on the one thing that will make the biggest difference."

"The leader's priority is to be the one who stays calm when everyone else is panicking."

"The CEO’s first priority is to define the 'what' and the 'why' of the organization."

"You can't prioritize everything; if you have three priorities, you have none."

"Peacetime CEO knows that as long as the company follows the core mission, its priority is to expand the market."

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

"Wartime CEOs do not have the luxury of consensus; they prioritize speed and accuracy."

"Focus on where you are going rather than on what you are trying to avoid."

"The priority is the struggle. Embrace it, because that is where the greatness comes from."

"When you are scaling, the priority shifts from doing the work to building the machine that does the work."

"The priority in communication is clarity. Ambiguity is the enemy of execution."

"The priority in hiring should be finding people who are obsessed with the problem you are solving."

"The highest priority for a leader is ensuring everyone knows exactly what the goal is."

"Prioritize the long-term health of the organization over short-term optics."

"When things go wrong, the priority is to tell the truth to your employees. They can handle the truth."

"Execution is the priority. Great ideas are easy, but doing the work is the hard thing."

"The priority should always be the mission, not the politics of the office."

"Hiring for lack of weakness is not the same as hiring for strength. Priority should be on what they can do, not what they can't."

"You must prioritize the culture because it is the collective behavior of your company."

"Management debt is like technical debt; if you don't prioritize paying it down, it will eventually bankrupt the company."

"Training is the boss's job; it's a top priority because it's the highest leverage activity you can perform."

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

"The CEO must prioritize the removal of obstacles that prevent the team from winning."

"If you don't prioritize your own time, someone else will prioritize it for you."

"If you are going to eat a shit sandwich, don't nibble. Do the hard thing first."

"Focusing on the output without focusing on the process is a recipe for failure."

"In peacetime, you prioritize the big picture; in wartime, you prioritize the next inch."

"In wartime, the company is fighting for its life, and the CEO must prioritize survival above all else."

"The most important thing for a CEO is to manage their own psychology. That is the top priority."

"A CEO's job is to prioritize the hard things that others want to avoid."

"The priority is to build a company where people want to work, even when things are going badly."

"The first rule of management is that if you don't take care of the people, the products and profits won't matter."