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Summary

With InstaRead Summaries, you can get the essence of a book in 30 minutes or less. We read every chapter and summarize it in one or two paragraphs so you can get the information contained in the book at a faster rate. This is an InstaRead Summary of The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. Below is a preview of the earlier sections of the summary: Introduction - Ben explains that every time he reads a self-help or management book, he thinks about the fact that it didn’t really address the hard things like laying people off or having good people start demanding unreasonable things. The problem with self-help books is that they try to provide a recipe for dealing with difficult, dynamic situations. Challenging situations cannot be solved with a formula. Instead of using a formula in this book, the author presents his story as he progressed from an entrepreneur to CEO to venture capitalist. He shares some of the lessons he has learned along the way. He explains that although circumstances may differ, patterns and lessons resonate with each experience. For the last several years, he has shared lessons learned on his popular blog. Many people have emailed him to ask about the stories behind the lessons. Ben shares that he has been inspired along the way by many family members, friends, and advisers who have helped him. Hip-hop/rap music has also inspired him because these artists aspire to be both great and successful. He also admires that rappers see themselves as entrepreneurs.

©2014 Instaread Summaries (P)2014 Instaread Summaries

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

good summary

succinct summary. gives points to remember and some insight into the style of the full read

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 06-03-16

Better to listen to the full version.

Better to listen to the full version. The summary is not enough and does not bring the essence. Ben's experience is the beauty of the book which does not come through the summary

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

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  • Uncle J
  • 09-06-17

Actually pretty good.

I was a little skeptical at first because I read the reviews and did not think that a summary of this book would be an effective way to grasp the "essence" of it, but I was wrong, and so were the reviews. I took a chance since it was only $4 bucks, and I needed to have an understanding of the book in order to have a conversation about it with some colleagues. Turns out that the summary and key takeaways were all I needed. This 40min listen worked well, and: of course it is much better to read or listen to the entire book!! But if you are short on time and want to save $18 bucks then this works. In addition, I particularly liked the analysis part at the end, which I think was on point.

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  • Juan
  • 10-02-17

great summary

I'd recommend it to anybody going into the software or technology the right and adequate choices

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  • Gary
  • 27-11-15

not very useful

Most of these summaries are poorly done and feel like they were outsourced to subminimum wage minimum competence people. Most are not good summaries.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful