The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

"Former secretary of state Colin Powell says that leadership is the ability to get someone to follow you even if only out of curiosity."

"By far the most difficult skill I learned as CEO was the ability to manage my own psychology... The first rule of the CEO psychological meltdown is don’t talk about the psychological meltdown."

"“We take care of the people, the products, and the profits— in that order.” It’s a simple saying, but it’s deep. “Taking care of the people” is the most difficult of the three by far and if you don’t do it, the other two won’t matter. Taking care of the people means that your company is a good place to work. Most workplaces are far from good. As o... See more

"Watered-down feedback can be worse than no feedback at all because it’s deceptive and confusing to the recipient. But don’t beat them up or attempt to show your superiority. Doing so will defeat your purpose because when done properly, feedback is a dialogue, not a monologue."

"As CEO, there will be many times when you feel like quitting. I have seen CEOs try to cope with the stress by drinking heavily, checking out, and even quitting. In each case, the CEO has a marvelous rationalization about why it was okay for him to punk out or quit, but none of them will ever be great CEOs. Great CEOs face the pain. They deal with ... See more

"An early lesson I learned in my career was that whenever a large organization attempts to do anything, it always comes down to a single person who can delay the entire project."

"Focus on the road, not the wall. When someone learns to drive a race car, one of the first lessons taught is that when you are going around a curve at 200 mph, do not focus on the wall; focus on the road."

"There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained from personal experience. Following conventional wisdom and relying on shortcuts can be worse than knowing nothing at all."

"Sadly, there is no secret, but if there is one skill that stands out, it’s the ability to focus and make the best move when there are no good moves."

"Given this stress, CEOs often make one of the following two mistakes: 1. They take things too personally. 2. They do not take things personally enough."