Ben Horowitz on Risk Quotes

"Every great entrepreneur is a risk-taker by definition, but the best ones are also risk-mitigators."

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

"In business, you must be willing to make the bet where, if you are wrong, you are fired."

"The struggle is where character is built."

"If you don't have the courage to fire your best friend, you aren't ready to lead."

"The hard thing is telling people the truth when the truth is bad."

"When you are in the struggle, you have to find the one thing that will work and ignore everything else."

"There is no such thing as a risk-free move in a startup."

"The biggest risk is not taking one when the alternative is certain death."

"In a crisis, you don't need consensus; you need a decision."

"If you don't build a culture that can withstand failure, you will never achieve success."

"The secret to being a successful CEO is not having a big vision; it's surviving the struggle."

"Don't ever let your company run out of cash. That is the ultimate risk."

"The hard thing isn't dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare."

"The most important thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

"Hiring for lack of weakness is a mistake; you must hire for strength."

"Optimism is a risk, but it's the only one worth taking in the face of the struggle."

"Being a CEO is like being a professional athlete; you have to train your mind for the high-pressure moments."

"You have to be willing to be misunderstood for a long time if you want to innovate."

"A company's culture is how it makes decisions when the leader isn't in the room."

"Managing the psychology of the team is the hardest part of managing risk."

"If you are going to take a risk, take the one that matters."

"If you don't like choosing between horrible and cataclysmic, don't become CEO."

"Sometimes the only way to survive is to do the thing that everyone thinks is crazy."

"Taking a risk is easy when you have nothing to lose. The hard part is taking one when you have everything."

"The only way to win is to play the game, and the game is full of risks."

"Focus on the road, not the wall."

"Greatness is not a function of circumstance; it is a function of choice."

"If you can't be honest about the risks, you can't be trusted with the rewards."

"You can't worry about the things you can't control. You have to focus on the things you can."

"Leadership is the art of getting people to do what they don't want to do to achieve what they want to achieve."

"There are no silver bullets for this, only lead bullets."

"Wartime CEOs often have to take risks that would seem insane in peacetime."