Thinking about what might happen if we ran completely out of money — laying off all the employees that I’d so carefully selected and hired, losing al… - Ben Horowitz

You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.

Do you know the best thing about startups?” Ben: “What?” Marc: “You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.

Marc Andreessen attempted to cheer me up with a not-so-funny-at-the-time joke: Marc: “Do you know the best thing about startups?” Ben: “What?” Marc: “You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.

you do nothing else, be like Bill and build a

The second part of the evaluation determines whether the CEO can effectively run the company. To test this, I like to ask this question: “How easy is it for any given individual contributor to get her job done?” In well-run organizations, people can focus on their work (as opposed to politics and bureaucratic procedures) and have confidence that if they get their work done, good things will happen both for the company and for them personally. By contrast, in a poorly run organization, people spend much of their time fighting organizational boundaries and broken processes.

MANAGING STRICTLY BY NUMBERS IS LIKE PAINTING BY NUMBERS