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  • The Hard Thing About Hard Things

  • Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
  • By: Ben Horowitz
  • Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
  • Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,633 ratings)
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The Hard Thing About Hard Things cover art

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

By: Ben Horowitz
Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
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Summary

Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, offers essential advice on building and running a startup - practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn’t cover, based on his popular ben’s blog.

While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one. Ben Horowitz analyzes the problems that confront leaders every day, sharing the insights he’s gained developing, managing, selling, buying, investing in, and supervising technology companies. A lifelong rap fanatic, he amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs, telling it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.

Filled with his trademark humor and straight talk, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures, drawing from Horowitz’s personal and often humbling experiences.

©2014 Ben Horowitz (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about The Hard Thing About Hard Things

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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Feels like they didn't edited the book for audio

The book is at best average.
There are some good tipps, but it's more like a biography.

Also the narrator are literally reading conversation protocols, or emails. (including header, cc,...)

Maybe it's a good read as a book, but not the best buy as an audio book.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Pretty dull read, almost obnoxious self-promotion

Would you try another book written by Ben Horowitz or narrated by Kevin Kenerly?

Was interesting and definitely written differently from most of these kinda books (lots of swearing, hip-hop references, unambiguous opinions and sometimes almost obnoxious self-promotion) which gave it some character. A few interesting lessons in there particularly on the difficulties of moving from Founder - CEO but on the whole, fairly dull. I'd give it 2 stars

What was most disappointing about Ben Horowitz’s story?

It was a story more than a tool

Would you be willing to try another one of Kevin Kenerly’s performances?

Maybe

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Hard Thing About Hard Things?

Cut it at least in half

Any additional comments?

nope

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

I found this book to be low on substance. It is well padded with few practical take aways. Egotistical. I had hoped for much from this book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Opposite of inspirational

The story is meant to be inspirational, but it achieves the opposite effect. He tells how he neglected his family so many times, how he asks of people to only work work work and how often he was at the brink of bankruptcy, that the only reason I am able to read this book is his luck and survivor bias. I dropped it halfway, I can't take it anymore.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • MB
  • 06-07-18

Not impressed

The book was largely focused on the author's experiences at Netscape. I found few insights and lessons learned that would be applicable to my own business.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Self indulgent waffle

I had high hopes for the book after following AH investments closely and was disappointed with this book! Waffle and self glorifying stories about how great Ben Horowitz is.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

best management book I've ever read

great book with real world advice and anecdotes from someone who has lived through the hard stuff. Much better than the over simplicity of most management texts. a must read for all managers our business owners.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Extremely Niche

If you're not a middle class American privileged enough to go to an ivy league school and working in corporate America, this book has zero relevance to you. Even if you fit that description it still probably bears no relevance to you other than some light reading of anecdotal wars stories and subjective viewpoints on dealing with multi-million dollar sales and acquisitions of companies. It contains very little information of use to your average business or startup and should probably have the tagline "navigating a corporate snake pit when there are no easy answers"!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not for me! I've listened to a couple of chapters

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Better information in the review and I probably wouldn't buy this one. There's nothing essentially wrong with this book. But the business that I am planning to start doesn't match the authors information and experience and this isn't the right book for me.

Would you recommend The Hard Thing About Hard Things to your friends? Why or why not?

If there are lessons they might be later in the book. I just found the early chapters slow going and I'm not learning much. Ben Horowitz comes across hard working and funny and he manages to work for top silicon valley companies in the 90s and I've just reached the bit when he has founded an cloud company with three others but I felt that this isn't going to help me on my journey. I will not be working for top software companies but if you are going to set up a software firm than this might be the book for you.

What aspect of Kevin Kenerly’s performance might you have changed?

Maybe Kevin's voice isn't the right match for the book content. Particularly when he reads to words from the rap songs.

Did The Hard Thing About Hard Things inspire you to do anything?

Not really.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
  • G
  • 18-07-17

Didn't really tell me anything

I got half way through and realised that while hearing about what had happened with his company I didn't feel I was learning anything.

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1 person found this helpful