the most important rule of raising money privately: Look for a market of one. You only need one investor to say yes, so it’s best to ignore the other… - Ben Horowitz

أحد دروس الإدارة الأهمِّ للمؤسِّس/المدير التنفيذيِّ هو عدم الاعتماد كلِّيًّا على الحَدْس. إنَّ أعظم تحسينٍ شخصيٍّ حدث لي بوصفي مديرًا تنفيذيًّا، كان في اليوم الذي توقَّفتُ فيه عن كوني إيجابيًّا جدًّا.

All the mental energy you use to elaborate your misery would be far better used trying to find the one seemingly impossible way out of your current mess. Spend zero time on what you could have done, and devote all of your time on what you might do.

If you have a great and loyal executive, how do you communicate all this? How do you tell her that despite the massive effort and great job she is doing today, you might fire her next year if she doesn’t keep up with the changes in the business? When I used to review executives, I would tell them, “You are doing a great job at your current job, but the plan says that we will have twice as many employees next year as we have right now. Therefore, you will have a new and very different job and I will have to reevaluate you on the basis of that job. If it makes you feel better, that rule goes for everyone on the team, including me.